Research Paper Draft Instructions
You are required to submit this assignment once and it must meet the assignment prompt to be graded. You may make two attempts if you choose. This will allow you to receive qualitative feedback that can help you improve your submission.
If you submit two attempts, your highest grade of the two attempts will be used to calculate your overall grade (so a second attempt can only help you).
After you submit your assignment once, a 2nd Attempt Turnitin assignment link (Optional) will become available. Use this 2nd Attempt link to submit your second attempt.
When resubmitting your assignment, avoid focusing solely on the grader’s draft feedback; use the feedback as a supplement to the course lessons and your own revision ideas. Always expect to revise beyond what the grader specifically notes.
You have two attempts on the “Research Draft” assignment and two attempts on the “Research Final” assignment. The “Research Draft” submission should still be a complete paper.
This writing assignment involves writing the first draft of your Research Paper and Works Cited Page. Once you draft your essay and revise, you may submit it for feedback. The feedback will help make improvements for your Final Draft.
During Topics 10 and 11 of the course, you will need to revise and edit the final draft of your research paper. You will learn more about the revision and editing process in Topic 10.
Note: You will not submit the final draft of your research paper until Topic 12.
For this assignment, you will need to submit:
The first draft of your research paper, complete with properly-formatted parenthetical citations from at least four credible sources within the text.
The Works Cited page, which should be located at the end of your essay. The Works Cited page should be clearly labeled and follow MLA formatting requirements.
You will need a good, comprehensive thesis statement that states your claim (what will you prove? Keep in mind that the purpose of this assignment is to support a claim, which means you must do more than merely inform the reader. You must take a stance on your topic and make/support claims that go beyond mere facts) and at least three supporting details (how will you prove your point?).
You might use this as a guideline in crafting your thesis:
(Reason 1), (reason 2), and (reason 3) prove that (add your claim).
Example:
(1. Children who play violent video games exert more aggression than their counterparts who are not exposed to these games) because (2. children often imitate their experiences as a natural learning process) and (3. the violence they see in video games desensitizes them to violence in the real world); however, (your claim: increasing the ages allowed to play certain violent games may prove to decrease childhood aggression).
Format Requirements:
Remember to apply the concepts you’re learning in the course, including elements of grammar, punctuation, thesis development, and other skills.
Header: Include a header in the upper left-hand corner of your writing assignment with the following information:
Your first and last name
Course Title (Composition I)
Assignment name (Research Paper)
Current Date
Page Layout:
At least four credible sources used and documented in MLA style
Last name and page number in upper-right corner of each page as a header
Double-spacing throughout
Title, centered after heading (Title should be more creative than “n.”)
Standard font (Times New Roman or Calibri)
1” margins on all sides
Save the file as .docx or .doc format
Length: This assignment should be a minimum of 800 words. However, you should aim for a minimum of 1,250 words. All length guidelines are excluding the Works Cited page.
