Samples: Research-Based Argument Essay (2150/2150T)

II. Research-Based Argument Essay
  • ~ 3500 words; 9-10 double spaced pages
  • 30% of course grade
  • This assignment connects to the following course learning goals:
    • Critical thinking and reading (engaging with credible sources to help shape your own views)
    • Drawing conclusions based on compelling and credible evidence
    • Developing a position (thesis) and tailoring prose to fit a particular rhetorical situation and audience (in this case an academic research paper written for an academic audience)
    • Supporting a position with compelling and credible evidence
    • Organizing writing in logical and coherent ways, and 
    • Revising and editing so that ideas evolve over a period of time rather than right before the deadline.

Kate Eickmeyer: Researched Argument Essay–Debunking Truth Claims in Film and Television
This assignment asks students to debunk a film or TV show of their choice that claims to be based on a true story. This works well as a follow-up to the Rotten Tomatoes assignment since it maintains focus on films but shifts from critical analysis of the object itself to investigating truth claims.

Charles Rowe: Exploratory Narrative Essay
This is the second formal assignment of three-assignment sequence in English 2150 (but I see no reason why this assignment wouldn’t also work for 2100). The main objective is topic generation/refinement for their research essay. I pitch this assignment as a trial run for the research essay. This version of this assignment has worked the best of any version I’ve used in the past three years.