The Research Essay--The Professor Draft

          This spring semester you will write, a Research Essay, the Professor Draft assigned here and due at the end of Week 12, and the final draft (Semester Draft) will be due at the end of the semester. Both the Professor Draft and final draft need to be four to six digital pages long, double spaced, MLA FORMAT.

Hey! Make sure you do this first:

          Choose a topic, a general area of interest, for the essay.

          Then from within that topic, choose an issue.

          An issue is an argument going on in society, and it has more than one side. An issue can always be expressed as a question, usually starting with the word should.

Example of a topic:

Gun Control

Example of an issue coming from that topic:

Should the sale of assault weapons to the public be banned in this country?

          Use your issue to help you focus the essay you want to write. In an Exploratory essay, define your issue in the Introduction. In an Argumentative essay, use the issue to help you write your thesis. (See the page in this module: "The Difference Between a Topic and an Issue.")

          You may write either an Argumentative Essay (Persuasion) or Exploratory Essay. You don't need to decide which kind of essay you want to do the first week. Concentrate on finding a topic you want to focus on. Both Argumentative and Exploratory essays have been explained in the module for Week 7.

          You need to draw upon at least four different sources for your essay, sources outside your personal experience. (You may have as many sources as you like.) At least three of those four sources must be written sources (in other words, written down—articles on websites (including newspaper, or journal websites or in e-books) or in printed material from books, brochures, magazines or newspapers. Other sources might include videos, audio-books or other recordings, and interviews you conducted yourself of people outside your personal experience.

          You need to cite your four sources both within the essay itself and on a Works Cited page at the end of the essay (and that Works Cited page is not a part of the 4 to 6 page count for the essay).

          You are welcome, even encouraged, to use personal experience to delve your exploration more into depth or to argue your claim. Personal experience is not included, though, in the four required sources you need for this essay.

          The choice of topic belongs to you. The choice of an issue arising from that topic also belongs to you.

          The Professor Draft is due at the end of Week 12, April 9th, at 11:59 PM. You can turn in the Professor Draft after that, but you will not receive all the incentive points, and that is 500 points.  Of course, the consultation is most important, as the final draft, the "Semester Draft" which you will turn in at the end of our semester on Friday, May 14th at 11:59 PM, is worth your major amount of points for the entire semester--2,000 points.

          Still, those 500 points for the Professor Draft is nothing to sneeze at--that's half a grade point's worth.

TA