English
1301 Essay 5
Due
Date: See the Assignments page
on Professor Clark’s web site or
the Assignment Due Dates and Test Deadlines in ASSIGNMENTS folder on ACConline
for all due dates.
Reading
Assignment for Essay 5:
Note: If no page numbers are given, you must read
the entire chapter. If page numbers are
given, only the specified pages are required reading.
Read
the following in Purpose, Pattern, and Process (PPP):
Review Chapter 4: Referential Writing, pages 77-94,
paying particular attention to the sample student research paper.
Read the following in The
1. Chapter
17: Integrating Sources into Your
Writing (380-392)
1. Chapter 20:
Documenting Sources: MLA Style
(415-464)
This
chapter is for reference only. Do not read it word-for-word; just look over it
to find what you need to know about documentation.
If
you are going to be using any quotations in your essay, use this chapter as a
guide to using them correctly.
Information about how to provide documentation is also available online.
Check
out the research resources on the ACC Library Services web site. The links given here are most likely the
most useful information in this assignment.
Check out all these links, even if it means spending less time on the
information given in your textbooks.
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The index page
of the ACC Library Services Web Site
will lead you to many helpful sources of information for your research
paper. It is the index page to ACC
library services, and it has many links to other pages that explain how to find
information on your topic both online and in libraries. When they think of library research, the
first thing many people think of is finding and reading books. Books are wonderful; I own and cherish several
hundred of them. But forget about using
any book you have not already read as a source for this paper. Be realistic: you do not have time to read books
right now; you must find more concise sources of information. The best sources of information for your
research will probably be periodicals (magazines, professional journals, and
newspapers) and online sources. The ACC Library Services Web Site can
help you find good online sources quickly
IMPORTANT
NOTE: In order to use some of the
special online resources for distance learning students, as well as to check
out books or other materials from the ACC libraries, you must have an ACC
student ID card. If you do not
already have an ACC ID card, you must get one immediately. You will not be able to take the
"C" Test for this course, which must be taken in an
Writing
Assignment for Essay 5:
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Purpose: Referential
with informative focus
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Patterns: Any
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Length: Approximately
900 words
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Title: Your
essay does not have to have a title page, but in must have a title. Do not put quotation marks around your
own title.
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Heading: Your
paper must have a heading that includes your name, the course name, and
the essay number. The heading must
appear in the top, left corner, as in the following example:
Ann Rice
English 1301
Essay 5
Date submitted
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Directions: Your mission
in Essay 5 is to write a research paper on a topic of your choice. This topic may be academic, but it does not
have to be; topics related to recreational and personal interests are welcome,
so long as they deal with concrete information.
Guidelines for Choosing and Documenting
Sources
1. Your paper must have at least six
sources of information; you may use more than six sources if you so
choose. At least two of these must be
online sources, and at least two must be print sources (books, magazines,
journals, or periodicals.)
2. You may not use an encyclopedia
article as one of your sources.
There are two reasons for this.
First, the information found in encyclopedias is of such a general
nature as to not be terribly useful in a college-level research paper. Second, since encyclopedias are very
expensive to publish and to purchase, it is not feasible for them to be revised
and updated often enough for the information they contain to be current.
a.
It is of the utmost importance that you use
current, up-to-date sources for your research paper. Unless you are writing on a topic of dealing
with a historical event, such as World War II, do not use references that are
more than a few years old as sources.
b. Your essay must have a bibliography or works cited
page, and it must be in correct form.
If your bibliography is not done correctly, your paper will be returned
for revision, which will slow down your progress in the course and could cause
you to run out of time to do the extra papers required for the grades of
"A" and "B." Please
do one thing differently from the examples of bibliographies in your textbooks,
though. Do not underline
titles of books; put them in italics instead. Underlining was done before the advent of
home computers, when students had no means to produce italics on their
typewriters. The title of your own paper
should not be underlined or put in quotation marks or italics.
Organization and Content
1. Your research paper must have an introduction of one
two paragraphs that provides an overview of your topic. The introduction will directly state your
paper's research question. This is the fundamental question your
research paper is written to answer.
Your
introduction must also have a thesis
statement written in all capital letters. Your thesis
statement will be the main idea you are developing in your essay. It should immediately follow your research
question and provide a one-sentence preview or your answer to the
question. Your research question and thesis
statement can come anywhere in your introductory paragraph. Most writers, however, put them either at the
beginning or the end of the paragraph.
Here are two examples effective opening paragraphs in student
essays. The research question and thesis
statement are highlighted in yellow.
Introductory
paragraph from "The Remaining Frontier of Texas"
by Eric Naumann
Open country with a greatly unchanged landscape is one of
the most beautiful
things in
popping up everywhere?
BIG
CIVILIZATION IS FAR AWAY AND THERE ARE MANY ATTRACTIONS
AND
ADVANTAGES IN THE AREA.
cities and towns are scarcely
populated and untouched. It is located
in the bend
of
skyscrapers. There are no city lights or buildings to
obstruct the view of
the night sky and the
shooting stars that can commonly be seen in the clear
dark sky.
Introductory
paragraph from "SARS: Not the Nightmare You Thought"
by Cailyn Ryan
Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome, otherwise
known as SARS, has
plagued the world the
last few months with cases popping up all over the
world. Many people
have felt the need to walk around infected cities with
face masks to help
prevent the spread of the virus. But are these measures
of safety the type of
precautions the people of the world need to take? All
different types of
preventative acts are being taken, and in different places
there are probably
different ways that people are being told to take care of
themselves. One could
easily see the types of safety precautions as confusion
being fueled by mass
hysteria. SARS has caused
a great amount of hysteria
in the past months, but what exactly is SARS and how can
people protect
themselves from the virus? BECAUSE OF THE HYSTERIA AROUND
SARS,
MANY PEOPLE ARE BECOMING OVER EMOTIONAL WITHOUT
KNOWING ALL THE FACTS BEHIND THE
2. Your paper must have a concluding paragraph
that makes sums up what you have said and makes it clear that you have answered
the research question you posed in your introduction. Here are the concluding paragraphs from the
same two student essays:
Concluding paragraph
from "The Remaining Frontier of Texas" by Eric Naumann
like it was hundreds
and thousands of years ago. The sites
are like
none other, and there
is a peaceful serenity to the park. So
head on
out to
the great landscape
that is everywhere.
Concluding paragraph
from "SARS: Not the Nightmare You Thought"
by Cailyn Ryan
SARS has had a great impact on the
world. However, as a world, we
have also come
together to fight SARS. Doctors have stopped their
competition against
each other and have worked together at rapid
speeds to try and get
this virus under wraps. Even though no vaccine
has surfaced yet, the
number of cases has dropped. Because of this,
so has the hysteria.
Now, with so much educational information out
there, people can
breathe easier and not respond to the hysteria.
People can protect
themselves with the simple task of washing their
hands and reporting
any SARS symptoms to their doctor.
Please note: I couldn't get the formatting to turn out
right on these quoted paragraphs. Please
disregard any peculiarities of the indentations.
If you have any further
questions or need any help with your research paper, please feel free to email
or telephone me. If you do email with something
you'd like to discuss about Essay 5, please include a phone number where you
can be reached in your message, just in case you ask a question that I think I
can answer more effectively on the phone.