Due Monday, December 13th, by 11:59 pm to my email
+ Please send me your two RefAnnBibs by email by Monday, November 29th so I can approve your sources or redirect you to new ones

For this final assignment, please reopen your document with Assignment 2 and my feedback on it. Once you’ve gone through the feedback, please copy your existing detailed plan and paste it into a new template (downloadable below). Save it as a Word document and rename it according to the following example: ENG2100_Last name_First name_Assignment 3:

(I will also send it by email in case you can’t open it.)

Word count

~ 2000 words (10% more or less)

Description

Your final paper is a research-based argument. It is the final version of your Assignment 2, the rhetorical analysis. After you have read my feedback on your detailed plan, you will do further research by finding two external sources to broaden your argument on the text you have already analyzed. These external sources will help you enter the debate about the topic of your text by offering different perspectives. By selecting quotes from these sources and inserting them into your existing plan, you will be able to support your own argument in contrast with and/or in support of that of other writers.

Write out your final paper from the basis of Assignment 2

1. Read the feedback you got on your detailed plan (Assignment 2). Fix any issues before you proceed further.
2. Find your two external sources. If you chose a newspaper article, you can find related texts that deal with the same topic, or academic sources on the same topic. If you chose a literary piece (poem, fiction, song lyrics, essay, non-fiction), you can find literary criticism (academic debates about that piece). In any case, search the title of your text or relevant keywords in the library website, on JSTOR, or on ProjectMuse (using your Baruch login). If you don’t find any sources that deal with the same text, you may still find some that have a related topic, as long as you think that source will help your argument.
3. Read your external sources and select relevant quotes or parts you’ll want to refer to. You can quote indirectly by paraphrasing what the author says, but you’ll need to give the author name and page number in your essay all the same.
4. Allocate your selected quotes to your exisitng plan. If your thinking has changed at this point, you may have to delete some points that no longer fit in, and perhaps add some new ones.
5. Choose an academic citation style according to your intended discipline of major (e.g. Chicago, APA, MLA, Harvard, etc. chosen from Purdue OWL or Cite This for Me). You can manually enter your references, or you can use a citation software with a Microsoft Word plugin, like Zotero (see my tutorial here).
6. Divide up your word count (from 2000). A good structure for the word count given is 4-5 parts: an introduction, part one, part two, part three (or two bigger points instead), and a conclusion. Roughly reserve a certain number of words for each part of your essay. These don’t have to be equal — usually, the second or third part are lenghtier than the first, as your argument naturally progresses from surface to more in-depth points. This step will make you less likely to go off-topic, and the whole task will also seem a lot more approachable.
7. Write out your essay from your updated detailed plan. Use full sentences. Keep paragraphs relatively short, making a new one each time you switch onto a new point. Replace your part titles by transition sentences. Update your conclusion, and then your introduction, to make sure it announces what you actually ended up doing in your essay. Remember to take breaks!
8. Proofread. But first, get away from your essay for a while, otherwise you will be too familiar with it and you’ll miss typos and mistakes. Proofread once for content (logic, quotes, etc.). Proofread another time for spelling and grammar, using the check tool in Word. You may also want to use the read-aloud feature. Proofread one last time to checl your references and quotes, both direct and indirect. Make sure they are all acknowledged according to the citation style you chose.
9. Format your bibliography according to the citation style chosen. For any style, the entries should be classed in alphabetical order considering the author(s)’ last name(s). You should have three entries: you primary text chosen for assignment 2, and your two external sources.
10. Answer the writer’s letter questions listed at the end of the downloadable template above.

Checklist

You will receive individual feedback on your final paper. Here is an indicative, gradeless rubric for you to use as a checklist:

Thesis/Argument	Is the main “point” of my essay clear throughout? What insights does it offer, or what argument does it make, about my chosen topic? Considering the existing literature on this topic, what do I bring to the table? What are my “findings”?
Support of Thesis	Do I provide details that walk my reader through my argument, step by step?Do I provide rhetorically persuasive reasons and specific evidence to support my thesis in the framework of what has already been argued in the field (remember that your paper is part of a larger academic discussion)?
Quality & Integration of Sources	Do I summarize, paraphrase, and quote directly in in a logical way from the sources I’ve used for my research? Did I correctly reference my sources in the text? Do I have a correctly formatted Bibliography at the end of my essay?
Counter-arguments	Do I address the arguments and beliefs of those who may disagree with my position (in a respectful way)?
Organization	Do I organize my paragraphs in such a way that my readers can clearly follow my main argument? Do I announce my structure in the introduction, and do I write transition sentences when I move on to another point? Can my readers easily follow how I develop and support that argument in each paragraph? Does each paragraph contribute to my thesis, and if not, did I delete unnecessary ones? Do my paragraphs smoothly transition into each other using transition words to signal my reader where my argument is going? Do I group information that goes together? Do I use a new paragraph when I “switch gears” to a new subject? (No whole pages without paragraph splits).
Style, Grammar & Editing	Have I used the Word spelling and grammar check tool? Have I proofread myself at least twice to avoid typos and mistakes that would distract my reader from my story? Is my document well presented? Is the layout easy to the eye (Font 12 Arial, Calibri, or Times New Roman, justified alignment, 1st line indent, etc.) Does my writing contains few if any “to be” verbs (these are only descriptive, not analytic)? Am I concise, formal, and compelling, emulating the tone of the academic sources I have been using?
Overall Respect of Instructions	Did I respect all instructions on this page? Am I submitting a Word document, using the template provided, and saved as instructed? Did I respect the word count by 10% under or over 2000 words? Did I answer the “Writer’s Letter” questions at the end of the template? Am I on time for the due date? If not, did I request an extension at least 48 hours prior to the due date?

At the end of your essay, I will give you individual feedback and your final course grade (letters from A to D), determined not by this assignment alone, but by all your work in the semester (weekly work, assignments 1 and 2). I will take into account the grade your proposed for yourself in the self-assessment form and compare it to the records of your work I kept all semester (checkmarks for word done). Generally, students self-assess fairly, and I give them the same grade they proposed, sometimes with an added + or -. There are times where I think students underassess themselves, in which case I give them a better grade. It is rare that I give a student a much worse grade than they proposed.