English 151-034 – Research Essay – 20% of final grade of 1 4

Length: 1000-1500 words

Format: Typed using Times New Roman 12 point font, DOUBLE-SPACED. Cite sources using your chosen citation style from previous assignments and format the document according to your chosen citation style’s general formatting requirements (we will go over this in detail in class)

Printed Copy Due: Thursday, Nov. 28, 2019

Late assignments will be docked 10% per day late, including weekends.

No one will be allowed to make up this assignment without a credible explanation for the absence and acceptable documentation to support that explanation.

Please feel free to ask me any questions or to air any concerns that you have.

OBJECTIVE:

• Writing an Argumentative Research Essay will bring together the threads of the Intended Learning

Outcomes of English 151. In the process of writing your essay you will form critical responses to ideas, read and analyze texts relevant to your topic, demonstrate your literacy skills, all while writing in an

academic style and developing an awareness of yourself as a writer.

• The purpose of this essay is to provide you with an opportunity to use the skills you have acquired in

English 151, and to reinforce your understanding of how academic writing skills including critical, creative

thinking; reliable, rigorous, and ethical research; logical analysis; and clear, grammatical writing can contribute to your overall success in university.

• For this assignment, you have the opportunity to go beyond our course material and choose your own topic

based on readings we have critically analyzed and discussed in class. The essay is an opportunity to stretch and highlight your talents as a writer.

REQUIREMENTS:

1. This essay must establish an argument that will be developed throughout the course of the essay. Your argument

(what you will prove in your essay) must be easily identifiable, and you must establish the purpose of your work in the first or second paragraph. Therefore:

2. Your introductory paragraph must plainly state the topic you will be discussing throughout the essay and include a well-developed, clearly identifiable thesis statement telling your reader the strong, arguable position that you will

taking in relation to that topic.

3. Your essay should be well organized. Your audience should be able to easily follow your arguments as you move from one point to the next. As we have discussed in class, topic sentences serve a dual purpose—they should clearly

state what you will be discussing in the paragraph, while also relating back to your thesis statement.

• Your paragraphs should be unified (develop one idea per paragraph), and coherent (use transitions to link ideas between paragraphs).

English 151-034 – Research Essay – 20% of final grade of 2 4

• Your essay should have actual quotes to support your assertions. You must cite your quotes, along with any work that you paraphrase. Please remember, however, that quotes should be used selectively to support, illustrate, or explain your points – not simply to fill out your word count.

• Your conclusion should successfully and clearly summarize your argument.

4. You must use a minimum of three (3) reliable research sources. You can find these reliable sources through the Camosun College library database or through Google Scholar. These reliable sources can be peer-reviewed,

scholarly sources, such as books from academic publishers or academic journal articles. You may use other, less scholarly, but still factual and responsibly chosen sources, such as trustworthy, respectable, fact-checked and edited magazines and newspapers. Do not use blogs, web pages, Wikipedia, or other unreliable and unedited sources.