Reference no: EM131802241
Assignment: Informative Research Essay
Purpose:
1. Explain information clearly and concisely
2. Use research-based evidence and reasoning to validate your thesis
3. Use MLA parenthetical citations in your research paper
4. Create bibliographic entries for a Works Cited list
Task
Using personal experience, field research (interviews) and library/Internet research, write a four to five-page informative magazine article using a surprising-reversal strategy. Your task is to build your reader's curiosity by posing an interesting question, summarizing a common or expected answer to the question, and then providing new, surprising information that counters or ‘reverses' the common view. You imagine readers who hold a mistaken or overly narrow view of your topic; your purpose is to give them a new, surprising view.
Topic Selection: Select a topic other than the ones that you chose for essays 1 and 2. You may consider topics such as a popular or unpopular activity, consumer item, or phenomenon such as a food, a diet plan, an exercise, a sport, or a fad.
Research Requirements:
a. Use at least four research articles (at least 2-3 articles from library databases) in your essay.
b. Identify and interview individuals who are credible/reliable sources for your article.
c. Provide in-text citations in the form of parenthetical and attributive-tag citations when you use research support within the essay (see chapter 27).
d. Create a Works Cited list for all the research sources (online and print) used in the essay (see chapter 23, A&B textbook).
Selecting Research (published: online or print) Sources:
a. First, view the following YouTube video on how to identify credible websites- "Evaluating Web Pages Tutorial".
Use the information from chapters 22 and 23 in the A&B textbook and the YouTube video to identify credible Internet websites that will help you develop your essay.
b. Library Databases: Use the Brookhaven College Library Databases to conduct research and identify scholarly/academic sources for your essay. (Preferred)
Draft Development
In this unit, along with draft development, you will practice and improve on the writing skills identified in Chapter 17, namely 17.5, 17.6, 17.7, and 17.8.
Apply the following writing skills as you compose the rough draft:
o Introduction: Underline the research question at the end of the introduction.
o Body Paragraphs (skill 17.5): For each body paragraph, underline the topic sentence of that paragraph that highlights a specific point that you plan to discuss in that paragraph.
o Content Development: Apply the MEAL paragraph format strategy in conjunction with skill 17.8, pgs. 462-66)
o Transition Words (skill 17.6): Select any one of your body paragraphs and highlight all the transition words used to move smoothly from one sentence to the next.
o Old/New Contract (skill 17.7): Using a different body paragraph (do not use the one you used to highlight transitions), identify the use of the old/new contract in each sentence of that paragraph:
- Bracket] the old information in the sentence.
- Italicize the new information in the sentence.
Framework for an Informative Essay
Here's a possible framework for an informative essay using the surprising-reversal strategy
• Introduction
o Engages readers' interest in the writer's question
o Provides background and context
• Body section 1 (brief)
o Explains the common or popular answer to the writer's question
• Body section 2 (major : develop multiple paragraphs)
o Provides a delayed thesis - the writer's surprising answer to the question
o Supports the thesis with information from personal experience AND research
o Displays numeric data in graphs or tables referenced in the text
• Conclusion
o Suggests the significance of the writer's new perspective on the question
Format for all Written Assignments
1. Typed (Times New Roman, 12 point font)
2. Double-spaced
3. MLA Heading (in the upper left hand corner): your full name, instructor's full name, course and section number, and date [dd/month/yyyy].
4. Main title for the assignment should be centered [no bold or underline].
5. Page header (upper right hand corner): last name [space] page number.