Write a paper on Wrongful conviction and the death penalty
1. Introduction
Attention grabber (i.e. exordium; an interesting entry into the topic)
A narrowing of the topic into a focus (attend to topic chain and sentence
transitions)
A thesis statement (i.e. a claim that is relevant, and debatable yet
provable)
2. Body of the essay (i.e. confirmatio)
I. Supporting claim
Evidence (quote or paraphrase accompanied by citation)
Evidence (quote or paraphrase accompanied by citation)
Evidence (quote or paraphrase accompanied by citation)
II. Supporting claim
Evidence (quote or paraphrase accompanied by citation)
Evidence (quote or paraphrase accompanied by citation)
Evidence (quote or paraphrase accompanied by citation)
III. Supporting claim
Evidence (quote or paraphrase accompanied by citation)
Evidence (quote or paraphrase accompanied by citation)
Evidence (quote or paraphrase accompanied by citation)
IV. Supporting claim
Evidence (quote or paraphrase accompanied by citation)
Evidence (quote or paraphrase accompanied by citation)
Evidence (quote or paraphrase accompanied by citation)
V. Redress of counterargument (i.e. refutatio)
{This, as stated in class, is a judgment call on your part. If your overall
argument is one that you judge yourself as being very novel, very
against-the-grain of inherited wisdom, or very controversial for good
reason then you should exercise the awareness to broach the topic of
those implicit counterarguments to your thesis so as to establish your
credibility and to be more persuasive of your audience. If your thesis
isn’t terribly controversial or counterintuitive, then you can scale this
down or leave it out entirely. This is your job as a critic to discern.}
VI. Conclusion
{This is a substantial paragraph that not only “concludes” the essay in
the sense of ending it, but also “draws a conclusion” in the idiomatic
meaning of the expression; it works on the premise that the essay has
indeed proven your thesis to be valid and now the task is to explain
why it is important/relevant/noteworthy/useful that your thesis is
indeed true.}
VII. Works Cited
MLA format for in-text citations, footnotes, and works cited page
