This comprises an argumentative essay of 900-1100 words (excluding references). In this essay, you need to make an argument that is related to the topics discussed in this course. Rather than providing a descriptive overview, you should make a point and back that up with adequate arguments, evidence and sources. The clearest way to do that is to actually include a sentence in your introductory paragraph that reads: “I argue that …”, or “this essay contends that … ”, though it is not absolutely necessary to be phrase it in that way.
Of course you need to have adequate references (minimum 6, but there could be many more), which need to be correctly and consistently referenced. We recommend you use the same reference style (ie a version of APA) that most of us practice in this course, and which we use during the lit review as well. There are no special requirements regarding format of your text (word/pdf, font size, spacing etc), so long as your essay is easy to read and follows basic rules of academic writing and referencing.
The key to a good essay is:
that it is clear what you are arguing (2 points)
that your argument is relevant to the subject broadly defined (and ideally intellectually stimulating) and well-situated in the literature (2 points),
that this argument is convincing on the basis of the material that you provide (3 points), and
that the general quality of your essay is good: no typos, clear concepts, good structure, useful sub-headings, academic style, referencing (3 points).
There are a total of 10 points for this assignment (following the breakdown above).
