Required Format: MLA-style, 12-point, Times New Roman font, 1” margins all around
Required Length: 4–7 pages (double-spaced)
Purpose: To take a position on an important issue
that affects a particular community of which you are a member and to use
research effectively to argue convincingly for that position.
Target Audience: Academic audience. Your target
readers for this argument will vary depending on the topic you choose,
but you should be able to identify to what conversation(s) your argument
is contributing.
What to Include
Your argument should include the following elements:
Title: Include an interesting title that grabs readers’ attention and provides some information about your topic
Introduction Paragraph
Grab the readers’ attention with a “hook.”
Introduce your topic and issue.
Provide background information about the topic.
Emphasize the topic’s importance and explain why it is debatable.
State a clear, direct thesis at the end of the introduction.
Body Paragraphs
Provide background information, descriptions, and definitions when necessary.
Support your thesis statement with at least three supporting claims and details that illustrate your supporting claims.
Make sure each body paragraph contains a topic sentence, supporting sentences, and a conclusion sentence.
Quote and/or paraphrase at least FIVE credible and relevant sources, TWO of which must be scholarly.
Integrate all quotes following MLA guidelines for in-text citation.
Engage in conversation with your sources by relating them to each other AND to your own experiences or personal observations.
Each body paragraph should cite evidence from at least two sources
and your own experience or observations. At least one quote should
support your supporting claim and one quote should support your
counterargument for that supporting claim. One of the major challenges
of this assignment is to create a unified paragraph, which means that
everything you discuss must be related, so don’t force together totally
different quotes from sources.
Analyze all source material in a way that connects it to the thesis.
Acknowledge and respond to possible counterarguments to your thesis and supporting claims.
For each supporting claim, make sure to assert a counterclaim that
directly challenges the supporting claim. In addition, provide and
analyze evidence for the counterclaim and refute the counterclaim.
It may also be necessary to address additional counterarguments against your thesis.
Conclusion Paragraph
Reiterate your thesis and emphasize its importance.
“Look to the future” by commenting on the future significance of your argument.
Don’t introduce new information to support the thesis.
Works Cited Page
Cite all sources included in your essay following MLA guidelines.
