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Please choose one of the three quotes below, and write a 2 – 3 page essay (500-750 words), double-spaced, explaining the quote and how it applies to your life.  Make sure you provide specific details and examples.  You should also include an original title on your essay (that is properly capitalized) that relates directly to your paper.
Until you realize how easy it is for your mind to be manipulated, you remain the puppet of someone else’s game. ~ Evita Ochel
What separates the winners from the losers is how a person reacts to each new twist of fate. ~ President Donald Trump
Today’s college student is lazy and uninformed. ~ Hilary Clinton

Write a 1750-2500 word research essay on a particular topic of your choice in Kindred. Sample topics that relate to the novel are slavery, racism, American history, slave narratives, speculative fiction, feminism, sexual violence, trauma, disabilities, and interracial relationships. (You may chose a different topic as long as it relates to Kindred and you can find secondary sources related to it.)
Based on your research of secondary sources, write a specific and arguable thesis statement that presents your central argument about the novel.
Develop and support your thesis by discussing quotations from the novel and from at least five secondary sources. (The five sources can include the five sources from your Annotated Bibliography, but this is not mandatory.) The sources should preferably be articles from academic (i.e., scholarly) journals or full-length academic texts (or chapters/articles in full-length texts). However, articles from newspapers and magazines are also acceptable. I highly recommend searching for all sources through the PCC Library catalogLinks to an external site. or databases.
I specifically recommend the JSTOR databaseLinks to an external site., which focuses on academic texts.
ProquestLinks to an external site. is another useful database if you’re looking in particular for newspaper and magazine articles related to Butler’s novel and your chosen topic.
Google ScholarLinks to an external site. can also be a good resource since it can help you to locate both 1) open-access academic texts that may not be in our library and 2) articles via the PCC Library—the following video explains how to set up Google Scholar to do this:
For help with any of these tools, you may ask a PCC librarian for research assistance 24/7.
Include a Works Cited page with bibliographic citations for your primary and secondary sources listed in alphabetical order. (Annotations do not need to be included on the Works Cited page.)
Title
Come up with your own creative and specific title for the essay. Use the titles of secondary texts as examples, such as the title, “Violence and/or Nonviolence in the Success of the Civil Rights Movement: The Malcolm X–Martin Luther King, Jr. Nexus” by August H. Nimtz. Note that Byerman uses a catchy title (“Violence and/or Nonviolence in the Success of the Civil Rights Movement”) and a more specific subtitle (“The Malcolm X–Martin Luther King, Jr. Nexus”).
According to MLA format, your own title should be in a normal 12-point font with no underline, italics, bold, or quotation marks (except for titles of works within your title, such as Kindred, which would be italicized).
Thesis
The thesis statement (which can be longer than one sentence) should . . .
Be arguable: a claim with which someone could agree or disagree
Be specific: state both your claim (what you believe) and your reasons (why you believe it)
Supporting your Thesis
The strength of your paper will depend on how well you support your thesis and topic statements. The essay should include analysis of multiple quotations from the primary text and from at least five secondary texts. Furthermore, each body paragraph (not including the introduction or conclusion) should include at least one quoted passage from the primary or a secondary text. In order to ensure that this textual evidence is well integrated into your essay, you should introduce (with a signal phrase), closely analyze, and correctly cite the quotation. It should be clear how exactly the textual evidence supports your thesis and topic statements.
Organization
Your thesis and topic statements should make arguable claims about specific aspects of the texts. Your essay should also include logical and smooth transitions between paragraphs, and the conclusion should not simply repeat your thesis or topic statements. Instead, in the conclusion, briefly examine the wider significance of the texts themselves and/or your critique of them.
MLA
Remember that you must correctly cite any print or web source that you quote or paraphrase. Submitting the words or ideas of someone else without proper citation is considered plagiarism.
To cite a non-poetry quotation in the body of your paper, include the author’s last name (if not obvious from the context) and page number(s) (if any) in parentheses at the end of the quotation. For specific rules for quoting and citing sources, see the PCC library’s “MLA Style Quick Guide,” MLA Handbook PlusLinks to an external site., and/or Purdue OWL’s online MLA Formatting and Style GuideLinks to an external site..
To quote and cite poetry according to MLA guidelines, see “How to cite a poem in MLA”Links to an external site. and “How to Quote and Cite a Poem in an Essay Using MLA Format.”Links to an external site.
You may also consult detailed instructions on how to format your paper according to MLA guidelines when using . . .
Microsoft Word Links to an external site.or
Google DocsLinks to an external site.
View/download this file Download file(click on the arrow to download) to see the basic structure of a paper formatted according to MLA guidelines.
For this essay, a Works Cited page is required.
For help formatting a Works Cited page using Word: