Category: English

– argumentative essay
-Think of it as a “pro” or “con” position, where you must take a strong stand on one side of the issue or another. ( I personally think they should be able to purchase for safety and prevention. 
-The Research Essay should be 5-7 pages, not including the Works Cited material.
-Your essay must have a thesis.
-5-7 double-spaced pages typically means around 1500 words or more

Instructions: Write a 6-8 page essay that responds to one of the topics listed below. In order to receive a high grade, your essay must have a clear argument developed with specific textual examples. I am interested in how you interpret what you read and how you examine ideas inspired by your reading and one of these prompts. If you can clearly demonstrate this, you will get a good grade. No outside sources are required, but if you choose to use critical sources to enhance your own argument, you must cite them. If you don’t, you will fail. This paper is due via Blackboard on Thursday, May 16. No extensions.
1. Julia Hawes plays a peripheral role in Edith Wharton’s Summer. Analyze the significance of this “minor” character and how Wharton uses her to develop and complicate her depiction of Charity’s decisions toward the end of the novel?
2. Analyze the relationship between Royall’s Old Home speech and the ending of Edith Wharton’s Summer. Given the novel’s composition—Wharton’s depictions of Charity, Royall, the society in which they live, and the lives they live there—is its ending inevitable?
3. Like many American novels published since the early nineteenth century, Nella Larsen’s Passing depicts racial passing. How does Larsen use the passing theme to explore one issue besides race.
4. How does Nella Larsen use her depiction of Clare’s childhood to develop this character’s behavior and decisions? What is the significance of Clare’s and Irene’s childhood friendship to Passing’s plot and resolution?
CHOOSE ONE OF THESE

write a 1,250-word paper in MLA format. You must reference at least five trustworthy, college-friendly outside sources—e.g., not private blogs, Wikipedia, or student resource guides like SparkNotes—and include both in-text citations for these sources and a Works Cited page formatted to MLA specifications.
Historical: Investigate August Wilson’s Fences against the lens of history. Discuss how the dominant themes of the play regarding racism, discrimination, poverty, and the family structure are a reflection of the 1950s Pittsburgh that Wilson himself grew up in.

Orange cites James Baldwin’s line in the epigrapgh for Part III: Return: “People are trapped in history and history is trapped in them. Firstly, explain how the statement applies to the text then prove how “history” plays a significant role in the novel as a whole.
Required parts of essay:
1. In the introduction paragraph, we will present a clear and compelling thesis that will guide our exploration of the role of history in ‘There, There’ and its impact on generational trauma.
2. Two (2) body paragraphs proving the thesis. The first one on the positive impact on generational trauma from sharing stories. The second paragraph is on the negative impact of storytelling on generational trauma.
3. Each body paragraph needs a topic sentence to prove in paragraph
4. the whole paper must prove or support thesis statement
5. 6 quotations from the book There, There included in paper.

The final project for this course draws on all the skills you’ve worked on this semester, including observation, word precision, awareness of facts and inferences, understanding of opinion and assumptions, as well as skills we are working on now, such as: viewpoint and logical fallacies.
I would like you to analyze two opinion articles on a topic of your choice that take on different aspects of the issue (either proposing different solutions, focusing on different causes, or some other contrast). You will then analyze each article piece by piece and come to a final conclusion about the strengths and weaknesses of each argument. You do not have to pick a “winning” article; one may be stronger than the other, but it is just as likely that both will have weak points and positive aspects. You will need to describe those strengths and weaknesses you find. It’s perfectly fine and even helpful to choose articles that have weaknesses in them. Very strong articles are okay, too, but may be harder to analyze.
Here is a sample project that previously earned an “A”: Jenel’s Analysis for ENG 2 Sample
Here is the rubric that will be used to grade these analyses: Final Analysis Project ENG 2 rubric.pdf
Make sure the articles are: Arguments, not news reports
Relatively recent (published in the last 5 years). Long enough to be a complete argument, but not too long for you to analyze in depth (roughly between 6-15 pars). Shorter is actually often better for this project! Then there will be more problems and missing items for you to discuss in your analysis. It is often easier to analyze weaker articles!
They should be on the same topic, but the opinions MUST contrast with each other in some way
Keep in mind, unlike with your regular research, you don’t have to find the two strongest articles out there. In fact, it can be interesting to analyze a weak or incomplete article and point out the holes you find. I would like you to format this into 4 sections for your analysis, as outlined below. That means it won’t look like a traditional essay. Here’s how it should look instead: Final Analysis Project for English 2
Your Name: Part 1: Analysis of Article 1
A. THE ARTICLE: Provide a PDF or working link to the article
B. Viewpoint: Describe the viewpoint of the author, publisher, and/or organization. What political, economic, or social point of view is this argument starting from? Whose viewpoints are included and whose might be left out that are relevant to this topic? Does the author or publisher have any likely blind-spots on this issue? (Note: this is not the place to put the conclusion or message of the article, that should go in part C).
C. Overall message: State the argument’s overall message (AKA conclusion) using your own words or short quotes. (Note: this should be the article’s overall opinion, the message they are trying to persuade readers to believe or at least take seriously. It isn’t just whatever they end the article with). D. Reasons: List all the reasons given in the argument to support the conclusion (do this in your words or with short quotes. Bullet points are fine).
E. Author’s expertise: Describe the author’s qualifications and how they may or may not apply to this topic. What might be missing from his/her knowledge or background? How qualified do you find him/her to weigh in on this topic knowledgeably?
F. Evidence: Describe the author’s use of evidence in this argument. Identify what is used and evaluate to what extent it effectively supports the reasons provided for the conclusion of the essay. Things to consider: What types of evidence does the author provide (facts, statistics, personal experience, quotes and insights from experts, examples)? Is there a variety of types of evidence? How much evidence is provided? Are the sources of the evidence clear? Are they credible, recent, relevant? Is any of the information contradictory or false?
G. Wording: Are any central words in the argument ambiguous, misleading, or manipulative? Are key terms defined? (Provide and discuss specific examples to show keywords are or are not accurate and appropriate. Note: this isn’t asking how hard or easy this is to read. Instead, it is asking how accurately the writer describes their ideas. Are they vague? Are they specific? Where?). H. Fallacies: Does the argument contain any fallacies? If so, identify each fallacy and discuss each one with specific examples. If not, discuss how some of the reasoning is logical or avoids possible fallacies. I. Assumptions: What must the author believe in order for their argument to make sense? Does the author bring up those assumptions in any way? Do those assumption seem reasonable or questionable? J. Missing information: Is any essential or relevant information missing? (Checklist for you to use: missing definitions for key terms? missing reasons or conclusions? missing facts or citations for sources? missing perspectives, such as opposing views?) Part 2: Analysis of Article 2
A. THE ARTICLE: Provide a PDF or working link to the article
B. Viewpoint: Describe the viewpoint of the author, publisher, and/or organization. What political, economic, or social point of view is this argument starting from? Whose viewpoints are included and whose might be left out that are relevant to this topic? Does the author or publisher have any likely blind-spots on this issue? (Note: this is not the place to put the conclusion or message of the article, that should go in part C).
C. Overall message: State the argument’s overall message (AKA conclusion) using your own words or short quotes. (Note: this should be the article’s overall opinion, the message they are trying to persuade readers to believe or at least take seriously. It isn’t just whatever they end the article with). D. Reasons: List all the reasons given in the argument to support the conclusion (do this in your words or with short quotes. Bullet points are fine).
E. Author’s expertise: Describe the author’s qualifications and how they may or may not apply to this topic. What might be missing from his/her knowledge or background? How qualified do you find him/her to weigh in on this topic knowledgeably?
F. Evidence: Describe the author’s use of evidence in this argument. Identify what is used and evaluate to what extent it effectively supports the reasons provided for the conclusion of the essay. Things to consider: What types of evidence does the author provide (facts, statistics, personal experience, quotes and insights from experts, examples)? Is there a variety of types of evidence? How much evidence is provided? Are the sources of the evidence clear? Are they credible, recent, relevant? Is any of the information contradictory or false?
G. Wording: Are any central words in the argument ambiguous, misleading, or manipulative? Are key terms defined? (Provide and discuss specific examples to show keywords are or are not accurate and appropriate. Note: this isn’t asking how hard or easy this is to read. Instead, it is asking how accurately the writer describes their ideas. Are they vague? Are they specific? Where?). H. Fallacies: Does the argument contain any fallacies? If so, identify each fallacy and discuss each one with specific examples. If not, discuss how some of the reasoning is logical or avoids possible fallacies. I. Assumptions: What must the author believe in order for their argument to make sense? Does the author bring up those assumptions in any way? Do those assumption seem reasonable or questionable? J. Missing information: Is any essential or relevant information missing? (Checklist for you to use: missing definitions for key terms? missing reasons or conclusions? missing facts or citations for sources? missing perspectives, such as opposing views?) Part 3: Assessment of Arguments
Write an evaluation of the two arguments. How “strong” is each one? Be sure to define what a “strong” argument is in your assessment. What are their strengths and weaknesses? Is one stronger than the other, and if so, in what ways?
In this section, I would like you to try to judge the quality of the argument, not whether you find it personally persuasive. Let your analysis show that you are well-informed on this issue. This may require some research outside of reading just the two articles you are analyzing. This analysis should be at least 300 words and make use of specific details from the articles. Part 4: Reflection
What is your personal stance on this issue? After considering both of them, do you think they are right in part, or wholly, or wrong in part, wrong wholly? Are they overlooking or missing something important? Is there a way these two articles actually could work together or complement one another’s ideas, or are they too opposed? Finally , please reflect on the experience of trying to remain neutral while analyzing these two contrasting articles about it. To what extent do you think you were successful? What will “stick” with you from completing this project overall? Aim for 300 words. the two articles are right here 1 https://www.usatoday.com/story/opinion/columnist/2024/03/30/alabama-dei-bill-republican-ignore-american-history/73098502007/
2 https://www.usatoday.com/story/opinion/columnist/2024/04/08/dei-ban-texas-colleges-workplace-focus-merit/73221580007/

Activity Description:
Create a Public Service Announcement (PSA) script aimed at promoting the importance and value of Ethnic Studies to a general audience. Your PSA should be concise, engaging, and informative, using only the content provided in the unit to support your message.
Alongside the script, submit a written justification that explains the choices you made in your PSA and how they are supported by the unit content.
Purpose of a PSA:
A Public Service Announcement (PSA) is a message designed to raise awareness about an issue and influence public attitudes and behavior towards a more informed and proactive stance. PSAs are typically short, powerful, and meant to reach a wide audience with clear and impactful messages. They are valuable educational tools because they distill complex information into accessible and actionable insights that can prompt societal change.
Evidence Requirements for the PSA Script:
Key Definitions: Incorporate a clear and succinct definition of Ethnic Studies and its purpose as presented in the Unit.
Interdisciplinary Nature: Highlight the interdisciplinary approach of Ethnic Studies and its relevance in understanding societal issues as presented in the Unit.
Geohistorical Impact: Mention the significance of geohistorical macroscales in shaping our understanding of historical and current societal dynamics as presented in the Unit.
Call to Action: End with a compelling call to action that encourages further engagement with Ethnic Studies.
Written Justification Instructions (click or tap to reveal)
UnGrading Criteria (click or tap to reveal)
Checklist to Meet Criteria (click or tap to reveal)
UnGrading Reminder:
This assignment utilizes the UnGrading framework to focus on substantive feedback and learning improvement. You will receive comments on how well your PSA script communicates the essence of Ethnic Studies and how effectively your justification supports the script choices. After reviewing the feedback, you will have the opportunity to revise both your script and justification, applying insights from the feedback to refine your message and enhance the educational impact of your PSA. This process is designed to help you develop both your understanding of Ethnic Studies and your ability to communicate its value to others.

Below are the instructions for the research essay assignment due at the end of week 7. They are provided here in advance in order to assist you in developing a topic idea for this assignment as part of this week’s Week 5 Skill-Building Activity. 
___________________________________
Purpose
The research paper assignment for this course is due at the end of week 7. The skills required in the successful completion of this assignment are the concluding step in the GMC ENG 101/ENG 102 sequence, effectively displaying your skills as a writer, researcher, and critical thinker. 
Research Paper Instructions
Your research paper should be an argumentative essay that makes a specific claim about some aspect(s) of 2-3 of the literary works assigned in class. The claim should incorporate some specific school of literary theory discussed in class. Support this claim and argument in a coherent, developed, and organized essay of at least 1200-1500 words minimum (not counting the works cited page) and must also successfully use at least 3 critical secondary sources accessed through the relevant GMC Library databases.
The bulleted list below provides general options for paper topics. The entirety of the class reading assignments can be found in the Course Syllabus, under “Course Schedule.” The list below provides general options for paper topics:
A topic focusing on at least 2 texts (but no more than 3) by different authors. All of the chosen texts must come from class-assigned literature unless given prior approval by the instructor. 
A topic focusing on at least 2 texts (but no more than 3) by the same author. All of the chosen texts must come from class-assigned literature unless given prior approval by the instructor.
Tips and Reminders
Re-read the texts on which you want to base your paper. 
Once you have decided on a topic (which will be begun in Week 5), begin doing preliminary research (you will need to do a lot of research for this assignment anyway). Read what other literary critics have said. This will help you to further narrow down your topic, and even to find some of the sources you will end up using in the paper. Remember that you are a literary critic too—this means you should feel free to question and disagree with the interpretations you read. 
Make sure your thesis is one that is arguable and requires research to effectively answer or prove. Don’t be afraid to take a leap and put forward a new, creative, and/or unique interpretation, provided you can support that claim with reasonable textual evidence and research. For more information, make sure to review the online learning resources assigned throughout the quarter.    
Your paper must incorporate information from outside sources found in the literature databases at GMC Library or relevant resources linked in class. Remember that you have three methods for incorporating outside information into any paper: you can quote (use the source’s exact words), paraphrase (put the source’s words into your own), or summarize (boil down information from a source to a 1-2 sentence summary in your own words). Also remember that each of these methods needs to be cited using correct MLA formatting and documentation; Review grade feedback on past response papers for help with this!  Again, research outside of class is restricted to relevant scholarly articles located at GMC Library.
Avoid unnecessary plot summary and/or biographical information. Assume that your reader has already read the work you are discussing– readers don’t need your help understanding what happens in a story; they need your help understanding why these things happened and what they might mean. 
Organize your argument to maximize its effectiveness. Your introduction should include a thesis. Each paragraph of your paper should include a topic sentence that references your thesis. Each sentence in each paragraph should directly support that paragraph’s topic sentence. 
Finally, don’t forget the little things. Spelling, grammar, and punctuation should be perfect. Edit and revise your work. Manage your time efficiently to allow yourself the opportunity to read and reread your final paper multiple times. 
As always, contact your instructor whenever you have questions!
This assignment will be graded using the Research Paper Rubric located in the Grading Rubrics folder in class.

READING: https://twp.duke.edu/sites/twp.duke.edu/files/file-attachments/argument-essay.original%281%29.pdf
INSTRUCTIONS: https://docs.google.com/document/u/1/d/1fDnyvbPh-1Bd63BBsmP135p-qB–pYUHET1owVBY5zY/mobilebasic

3 paragraphs Historical Fiction Creative Writing Vietnam.  Highlight embedded Research. Provide a key at the bottom for 
Point of View
Protagonist
Setting
Conflict

Essay Topic
Choose one of the following quotes from Act VI: “The Case of the Missing Asian” and write a four-page essay that describes how the novel explores (presents, develops, supports) the idea:
OLDER BROTHER: “We’ve been here two hundred years. The first Chinese came in 1815. Germans and Dutch and Irish and Italians who came at the turn of the twentieth century. They’re Americans…. Why doesn’t this face register as American?” (Yu 228).
OLDER BROTHER: “But the experience of Asians in America isn’t just a scaled-back or dialed-down version of the Black experience. Instead of co-opting someone else’s experience or consciousness, he must define his own” (Yu 235).
OLDER BROTHER: “[B]eing Chinese is and always has been, from the very beginning, a construction, a performance of features, gestures, culture, and exoticism. An invention, a reinvention, a stylization” (Yu 238-39).
YOU: “By putting ourselves below everyone, we’re building in a self-defense mechanism. Protecting against real engagement. By imagining that no one wants us, that all others are so different from us, we’re privileging our own point of view” (246).
Suggestions
Take into consideration these various themes: exclusion of the ethnic minority, stereotyping of the individual, role-playing as a means of fitting in, assimilation into the mainstream, internalization of the external experience, self-realization and fulfillment.
Develop a thesis of your own making. Make your thesis a claim: an assertion about the novel, what it says, and how it supports what it says. Avoid statements of intent: “In this essay, we will show that…”
Use sufficient textual details in the form of quotation, paraphrase, and brief summary. Be sure to cite all specific textual references. Do not generalize your discussion of the novel; be particular.
Offer critical analysis and close reading of all textual details: tell us what we are supposed to see in the text that isn’t obvious.
If you choose to include outside sources, keep your focus on the novel. Your chief concern should be what the novel says.