Compose an essay defining the problem you have chosen. What is the nature of the problem or conflict? How
can we be sure the problem or conflict exists? Why is it significant enough to warrant exploration and debate?
Your essay should do the following:
Establish a clear claim that the problem or conflict you are describing in fact exists and that it is
significant enough to warrant public attention and discussion.
Support your claim about the existence and significance of the problem through factual evidence, such
as examples, statistics, or testimony, drawn from credible sources that you then cite.
Define key concepts needed to understand your issue.
Use a minimum of six sources, including a minimum of three academic / scholarly sources (such as
articles from peer-reviewed journals or books from university presses) in your paper. Non-scholarly
sources should have a clearly established claim to authority or credibility and should be properly
contextualized.
Sources should be briefly introduced with author and genre when they are first used.
Each body paragraph should include at least one direct quotation from a source; however, note that
only using one quote or paraphrase in a source probably won’t provide sufficient support. You will likely
use some combination of quotes, paraphrases, and summaries in each body paragraph.
Use one or two images (graphs, charts, or other visual elements), properly cited, to support your
argument. Less than one-half of a page in the paper total should be taken up by images.
Your purpose here is to inform and convince your imagined audience of the existence and importance of
your chosen problem or conflict and that your stance on it is worthy of consideration.
Avoid going into detail about the history or causes of the problem / conflict, presenting thorough
counterarguments to your stance, or proposing solutions to the problem. You should save thorough
causal analyses, counterarguments, or policy proposals for the second, third, and fourth research
papers, respectively.
The essay should include:
A central claim, expressed in a thesis statement, establishing the nature or the significance of the issue
A focused, cohesive, logical structure that includes unified, well-developed paragraphs
Sufficient factual evidence drawn from reliable sources to support your claim
Proper integration and citation of credible sources using MLA 8th edition or APA formatting
Clear, engaging prose that adopts a tone appropriate to academic writing and to your target audience
Prose reasonably free of errors in grammar, punctuation, and usage
The paper should be 6 full pages of text in length (including one-half page of images), plus separate pages for
your works cited or reference entries.
Rough Draft Due: class start, Tuesday, Feb 27 Final Draft Due: 11:59pm, Tuesday, March 5.
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