1.
Length: 1,800
to 2,400 words (about six to eight pages in MLA style)
2.
Title and Introduction: Begin with an engaging title and “hook” to
interest your audience and provide an overview of your paper’s topic. Address your
audience directly in your introduction and finish your
introduction with a thesis statement that
identifies the problem’s significance and proposes your solutions.
3.
Problem Section: Provide
multiple body paragraphs explaining the problem and synthesizing your research
using topic sentences, textual evidence from research sources,
and explanation/analysis of your evidence. The
following questions can help you determine which topics to cover in your
problem section’s body paragraphs:
1.
What
is the problem? Who does it affect and how does it affect them? How widespread
is it?
2.
What
are the causes the problem? What is the problem’s history?
3.
What
are the larger or long-term effects of the problem?
4.
Solution Section: After your problem section, transition into multiple body
paragraphs arguing for at least two solutions that
can help address the problem using topic sentences, textual
evidence from research, and explanation/analysis of
your evidence. Address at least one prominent counterargument for
each proposed solution. The following questions can help
you determine what to focus on in your solution section:
1.
What
solutions are being pursued already? By whom? How effective are they?
2.
What
alternative solutions do you think should be pursued? Who should pursue them?
How realistic are they?
3.
What
opposing or skeptical perspectives to the solutions exist? How would you
address those counterarguments?
5.
Conclusion: Wrap
up your argument and connect to the “bigger picture” significance and
relevance of the social problem to your audience by include a call to action:
How can your audience pursue or support the solutions?
6.
MLA Works cited:
Include a works cited page citing all sources from which you borrowed
information, use in-text citations to clearly show which text are referencing,
and format your paper according to MLA conventions.
