8 pages ), double spaced W r i t i n g

In this final major assignment of the semester, you’ll write a full-fledged research paper on the topic you’ve been reading and thinking about over these last weeks. This will be your chance to fully enter into and engage with the ongoing discourse around your topic and to advance your own view, based on your reading and your insights, of how people might best think about, respond to and address the issues surrounding your topic. The idea of this essay is to get your best thinking and the best thinking you’ve discovered in your research on the page, and to show how you are claiming your place in the ongoing debate surrounding your subject.

In this essay you’ll be explaining the problem or trouble surrounding the issue you’re addressing, convincing us why it all matters, then giving your view about how the issues would best be addressed based on the reading you’ve done and your own assessment. This is an act of synthesis, not just mixing together the ingredients you’ve gathered, but creating something new that reflects the multiple elements that have gone into its construction. Again, you’re not just explaining, and you’re not just giving information about the topic. You need say to us (your readers) “Here’s the best way to look at this problem, this is what likely are the causes and effects, here is what the smartest people have said about it, here is the best course (not necessarily perfect but the best) for dealing with this human problem.”

Importantly, you’ll be citing at least four academically credible, scholarly sources, out of at least eight sources total. Those other sources could include videos, podcasts, and blogs, but as part of making your argument in the essay, you’ll need to convince the reader about the credibility of your sources.

Also importantly, your thesis should advance ideas that are specific and that are as profound and significant as the problem you’re addressing. The essay should in general avoid vague phrasing, and paragraphs should develop a single point, giving reasons and citing evidence.

Other elements your essay likely should include: quotes, counterarguments (explaining potential objections to your arguments and showing why your views are better), and a conclusion that doesn’t just restate your original thesis.

Length: 2,000 words (8 pages), double spaced, 12 point, standard font