For the previous Film Analysis Discussions Post, Argument Analysis, and Timed Essay assignments, you explored ideas about race in America. Now you will write a new 5-7 page, research-based essay that is focuses on the WRITING PROMPT below in this handout. You will use articles you’ve read for this class, the film documentary 13th, and various research of your own that you will collect in support of your own position on the prompt. Use the principles of argument and fully explore the issues using sources, and reflect your deep, critical thinking on the issue (do not leave your ideas unsupported by a source).
WRITING PROMPT:
Build your thesis statement from this prompt and place it in the last sentence of the Introductory (first) paragraph. Do not stray off the prompt, and make it stronger by including specific details that are garnered from your research.
Using the documentary film 13th, the web research from class materials, and various sources you collect on your own (see instructions below), take a position on the following argument:
The nation has put equity plans in schools for many underserved students. Focusing on African-American students, give at least three or more reasons why we should OR should not support these plans to better serve that community. Support your reasons with viable evidence. (As you can imagine, there is overwhelming support for this action. Thus, be extra mindful to find viable evidence to support the argument that we should not do so). Please note, in your research, you may come across a variety of terms, such as “people of color.” Do NOT say “colored” people, which is an unacceptable term. Also, avoid saying “blacks” and “whites.” Add the noun “citizens/Americans” out of respect for humans: black citizens/Americans or white citizens/Americans.
In addition to taking a position on this issue, you will also need to include a discussion of one or more counterarguments—which is the other side to the argument—and include a refutation of those counterarguments. Be certain to follow the principles of argument, taking a clear position in the thesis.
WRITING INSTRUCTIONS:
In your essay, you must:
Adhere to the Rules for Writing Academic Essays (see handout). They are factoring into the final grades on your essays. Use proper grammar, punctuation, and MLA format and an academic-level discourse in your discussion.
Write an argumentative thesis/claim that reflects your overall position on the issue built from the writing prompt that you will connect all of your body paragraphs back to for the entire essay. This thesis must appear as the last sentence of the introductory paragraph that will open your essay, and it must reflect your position on the ways in which the impact of slavery is still seen today. You must include the title of the film in italics in your thesis statement and be sure that your body paragraph discuss all the elements promised in the thesis.
Write 5-7 pages of text on the topic, NOT including the Works Cited page at the end of the essay (try NOT to exceed the page limit, but definitely do not write less than 5 full pages).
Consider what the key counterargument(s) you should discuss, reflect on them, and then refute them well to further support your own position.
Effectively use the five principles of argument as you write: You should consider how your reader will accept you as the writer and how credible your information is (ethos), how your emotional appeals work to prove your argument and if the emotional response of the reader is what you intended (pathos), that your evidence and reasoning are logical and credible (logos and evidence), that you take a strong, clear position on an issue, that you have considered at least one key counterargument and refuted that counterargument well, and that you have ordered all of your information and ideas well.
Use a total of at least six sources, which includes the film and at least one of the articles from the research materials provided in this class, and collect at least two sources that you find yourself from Ebschohost/Academic Search Complete (ASC) under Crafton Hills College’s library page (Links to an external site.) to serve as evidence to support your position. You will also collect two more sources from the Internet. Use credible web sites only. Check for credibility in Unit 1 of the class. Use each source at least TWO times each (quotes or paraphrases with a citation). You may use the sources MORE than two times each if you need to. And you may directly quote the sources with quotation marks around the passage OR you may paraphrase: In both cases, you need an in-text citation (parenthetical reference) with the source. In addition, you must have a Works Cited page to accompany your essay with all sources properly formatted according to current MLA rules. Be sure not to use more quotes than your own words. Too many quotes from your sources will cost you points. If you discover you are using too many quotes, change those quotes to accurate paraphrases.
Here is a checklist to help you keep track of your six sources:
13th _________
An research article from our class resources (see Unit 8 Module) _________
Ebscohost/ASC article_________
Ebscohost/ASC article_________
Web site source_________
Web site source_________
Use specific quotes and paraphrases from your sources and the film 13th as sources of evidence for this assignment. Be sure to provide evidence for many of your ideas that aim to prove your claim/position/thesis. NOTE: Do not adopt the language of the past. For example, some terms are unacceptable to use today such as “colored” and “Negro.” In addition, some of the characters use a particular vernacular that you also want to avoid using in your own words, such as “white folks.” If you are quoting the character’s exact words, it is fine to use their language. But otherwise, do not use it in your own words.
The quality and appropriateness of the articles for your discussion will factor into your grade. See our Reference Librarians (Links to an external site.) (not the circulation desk) for more help with research. Or you may check your sources with me for credibility. I have included several Web sources in the folder for this assignment in Blackboard that you may use in addition to the two sources you found yourself.
FIVE PRINCIPLES OF STRONG ARGUMENT
1) Take a strong position. There should be a clear indication of position, not necessarily in a thesis statement in the first paragraph but still a strong, clear indication of where the writer stands on the issue.
2) Establish strong evidence to support your position (this can be done using personal or professional experience, outside print/electronic sources, expert testimony, observation, etc. It is important to know what is appropriate for a given topic and how credible your own experience is if it is used).
3) Address and refute the counterargument (there are readers who will disagree with you and may have good reasons to. You must familiarize yourself with the other side and find logical, credible ways to refute their argument).
4) Consider how the ethos (your credibility), pathos (emotional appeal), and logos (logical appeal) translate meaning to the reader/listener. (using emotion to persuade can be very effective on readers but overdoing it may lose them. readers also respond to logic–through facts–and also must trust the source that is writing–therefore, the writer must be sure his or her facts are right and use of emotion and tone of voice are appropriate).
5) Order the ideas in your argument well (start with the strongest/weakest point first depending on the topic. Newspaper articles often give the most compelling facts first to hook the readers, whereas a person trying to defend an issue such as same-sex marriage may end with the most compelling reason so that the argument builds on itself).
QUOTING FROM SOURCES
When you quote, you need to make a statement in your own words (using a signal phrase such as “According to…” or “Smith states…” with a comma or a full sentence with a colon); then offer the quote. You must do this each and every time you use a source. Be sure you don’t overquote in your essay. Use paraphrases too. Below are some examples:
Example of introductory (signal) phrase used with quote: According to Hemingway biographer James Anderson, “The female characters in Hemingway’s works often take a submissive and oppressed role in his writing” (25). [notice the author’s last name is left out of the citation because you used it in a signal phrase]
Example of your words blended with quote: Hemingway is seen as misogynistic because “female characters in Hemingway’s works often take a submissive and oppressed role in his writing” (Anderson 25).
Example of full sentence quoted after your words: Throughout the years, many fans of Hemingway see him as misogynistic: “The female characters in Hemingway’s works often take a submissive and oppressed role in his writing” (Anderson 25). [avoid dropped quotations—see Chapter 11]
Example of a paraphrase with no quote: Many critics have seen Hemingway’s portrayal of females in his work to be weaker than the male characters (Anderson 25).
NOTE: No matter how you relay the information taken from a source, you always must have the in-text citation in parentheses after it or in a signal phrase with page number in parentheses after it (if you use a signal phrase with an Internet source, no page number is used in parentheses).
For more information on MLA format, go the the OWL at Purdue web site. See link in the module. Below is a summary of how to use MLA format for this essay.
BUILDING A WORKS CITED ENTRY FOR WEB SITES
Pretend you are using research from the following link:
http://www.cnn.com/2013/11/06/us/immigration-statistics-fast-facts/index.html
Here is a sample of how the Web site Works Cited entry looks:
“Immigration Statistics: Fast Facts.” CNN, Time Warner, 2016,
http://www.cnn.com/2013/11/06/us/immigration-statistics-fast-facts/index.html, 14 Mar. 2019.
Here are the SIX STEPS you use to build this Works Cited entry for the Web:
Step 1) enter the author’s last name, a comma, and the first name, then a period at the end. If there is a middle initial, put author’s last name, a comma, the first name, the middle initial, and then a period. If there is no author (which is often the case with a Web site), skip this step and alphabetize the entry on the Works Cited by the title of the page (step 2). NOTE: the CNN example above did not have a specific author name.
Step 2) Enter the title of the page in quotation marks. This is not the title of the whole Web site, just the title of the page you are looking at. It is usually bolded near the top of the page. If there is no title on the page (but there usually is a title), skip this step and alphabetize the entry by the title of the site (step 3). End this part with a period inside the final quotation marks.
Step 3) Enter the title of the Web site and use italics (Never italicize and put a title in quotation marks at the same time. Quotation marks are for the title of the article, italics is for the entire work. ) The title of the Web site is usually found at the very top of every page and is commonly also the URL’s title. For example, www.historychannel.com is not the title of the site, it is the URL. But the title of the site is The History Channel.com (rarely skip this step). End this part with a comma.
Step 4) Enter the name of the publisher of the site and then the copyright date. End with a comma.
Step 5) Enter the DOI or the URL. Example: www.historychannel.com/MartinLutherKingJr.html. End with a comma.
Step 6) Finally, enter the date that you accessed the site. Start with day, month abbreviated, then the year. End with a period.
BUILDING A WORKS CITED PAGE FOR ARTICLES
Magazine
Author(s). “Title of Article.” Title of Periodical, Day Month Year, pages.
Example:
Poniewozik, James. “TV Makes a Too-Close Call.” Time, 20 Nov. 2000, pp. 70-71.
Buchman, Dana. “A Special Education.” Good Housekeeping, Mar. 2006, pp. 143-48.
Newspaper
Cite a newspaper article as you would a magazine article, but note the different pagination in a newspaper. If there is more than one edition available for that date (as in an early and late edition of a newspaper), identify the edition after the article title.
Examples:
Brubaker, Bill. “New Health Center Targets County’s Uninsured Patients.” Washington Post, 24 May
2007, p. LZ01.
Krugman, Andrew. “Fear of Eating.” New York Times, 21 May 2007, late ed., p. A1.
Scholarly Journal
A scholarly journal can be thought of as a container, as are collections of short stories or poems, a television series, or even a website. A container can be thought of as anything that is a part of a larger body of works. In this case, cite the author and title of article as you normally would. Then, put the title of the journal in italics. Include the volume number (“vol.”) and issue number (“no.”) when possible, separated by commas. Finally, add the year and page numbers.
Author(s). “Title of Article.” Title of Journal, Volume, Issue, Year, pages.
Examples:
Bagchi, Alaknanda. “Conflicting Nationalisms: The Voice of the Subaltern in Mahasweta Devi’s Bashai
Tudu.” Tulsa Studies in Women’s Literature,vol. 15, no. 1, 1996, pp. 41-50.
Duvall, John N. “The (Super)Marketplace of Images: Television as Unmediated Mediation in
DeLillo’s White Noise.” Arizona Quarterly, vol. 50, no. 3, 1994, pp. 127-53.
Outcome: After completing this assignment, you should be able to write an essay defending a position in argument, use the five principles of argument well, use evidence from scholarly sources to defend your position, and incorporate a book and/or film into the discussion, synthesizing your ideas with your various sources’ ideas.
