Major Assignment 2: Argument Essay

Assignment Description

This assignment asks you to produce a research-based argumentative paper by building on the research you conducted for your analysis assignment. By now, you have proposed and received approval to study an issue you care about, you read informative sources, summarized, analyzed, and synthesized them, and you completed two peer reviews to generate feedback on your work. For this assignment, you must use your research in the previous assignment and build on it. In this research paper, you will produce a thesis statement on the issue you studied and you will support it with reliable research-based evidence. You will use evidence from your existing research to support this thesis.

Here’s a sample of a student who wrote an excellent argument about bilingualism: Sample Argument Assignment.

Assignment Goals

• • Learn to write an academic research paper
  • Learn to employ credible research to persuade an audience to achieve a specific purpose
  • Learn to bring together the results of a months-long writing process to fruition in the form of a comprehensive argument
  • Develop new knowledge of a topic for oneself and others, informed by personal experience, primary research, and existing knowledge.

Requirements: Please make sure you are following these guidelines.

1. 1. Length: 1800-2000 words (7-8 pages), this does not include a title page or your list of references
   2. Formatting: double-spaced, size 12 times new roman or arial font
   3. Use at least 7 sources in the essay, including all of the ones that you used in your previous assignment. Use APA to cite sources and for your reference list

Assignment Tasks & Deadlines: All due dates are also on the Course Schedule.

• • Draft 1: As a first draft of this assignment, produce a detailed outline with all the sources you will use in the research paper. (Due: 4/16)
  • Draft 2: Expand your outline into a full essay. (Due: 4/23)
  • Final Draft: Full essay w/revisions. (Due: 5/14)

Grading (5 points each; 50 points total)

1. 1. You submit all drafts on time, in the correct folder, and with the correct title. You format your drafts correctly and meet the minimum page requirements.
   2. Your essay includes at least 7 credible sources. All of your sources are clearly relevant for your research essay. All citations follow APA style guidelines. You have included a list of your references at the end of you essay.
   3. Is your essay organized in a clear and logical manner? Does each section contain the appropriate elements (for example: does your intro have a hook, synthesis, and thesis?)
   4. Do the thoughts, actions, details, and recommendations expressed in the piece build off one another and avoid disagreement within the text itself? That is, is the piece consistent in what it is stating? 
   5. Are the thoughts, actions, details, and recommendations expressed written with appropriate consideration of quality and quantity? That is, are more important topics of discussion given more space and emphasis? 
   6. Do the thoughts, actions, details, and recommendations expressed in the piece feel unified and “smooth”? That is, are transitions effectively used when changing between topics within the writing
   7. You complete the peer review tasks for your group members’ work on time and according to the task guidelines.
   8. Without explicitly stating it in your writing, is it clear what audience this piece is intended for? Does the work address this audience appropriately? Does the work provide irrelevant information to the reader? 
   9. Without explicitly stating it in your writing, is the purpose of this piece clear? Does the piece achieve its purpose? 
   10. Does the language chosen by the writer accurately represent the thoughts and actions in the text? Is the language too extreme or not extreme enough? Do the words chosen by the writer offer a diversity of phrasing? Does the writer repeat themselves too often?

Resources
APA Formatting Guide: Purdue OWL
APA Quick Guide

If you have any questions after reading this assignment page, please leave a comment below so that all of your classmates can also gain further clarification.

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