Reference no: EM132839391

Assignment - Persuasion and research

Assignment:

Utilizing at least five at the eight sources you detailed in your Annotated Bibliography (Assignment #3), write a persuasive essay that offers a solution to your research problem. Persuade your audience that your stance is the correct one. Use carefully chosen language, and utilize your sources (with direct quotes and paraphrasing) very carefully.

Consider especially your audience: since your classmates and I are your primary targets in this course, consider what we know, believe, and can relate to. Speak to those realities to make the strongest possible argument you can. Make sure you are illustrating a clear stance: if you don't feel strongly one way or the other, choose a new topic. This is NOT simply an informative paper. You must be persuading us of something. In the final version of this essay, you will not use "I" or "you" or any forms of those unless they are in direct quotes.
• Length: 1500-2000 words. Format: as listed in the syllabus.
• At least 5 sources, effectively integrated and utilized, all of which must have appeared in your Annotated Bibliography.
• MLA style in-text citation and works cited page.
We will address establishing credibility of sources, MLA citations, and plagiarism in-class.

Assignment - Annotated bibliography

Your annotated bibliography will be a list of sources in MLA style, with each followed by a paragraph or two that, for our purposes, summarizes the argument of a source, assesses its reliability, and explains its value and relevance to your paper. If you fail to do one of these three things in any of your 8 entries, you will lose 1/3 the possible points for that entry.

This assignment should follow the format as listed in the syllabus but also the format as illustrated in the MLA section of your textbook.

You need to have no fewer than 8 sources for this annotated bibliography. Each must be summarized and assessed as described below.

Do your work carefully. This assignment is worth 150 points. If you get it wrong, your grade will be in serious jeopardy. Utilize the Spartan Center and my office hours. Start early.

Each bibliographic entry will be in MLA style, and will be followed by a lengthy paragraph that does these three things:
1. Summarizing the argument of a source: An annotation briefly restates the main argument of a source. An annotation of an academic source, for example, typically identifies its thesis (or research question, or hypothesis), its major methods of investigation, and its main conclusions. Keep in mind that identifying the argument of a source is a different task than describing or listing its contents. Rather than listing contents, an annotation should account for why the contents are there.

The following strategies can help you to identify the argument in your source:
• Identify the author's thesis (central claim or purpose) or research question. Both the introduction and the conclusion can help you with this task.
• Look for repetition of key terms or ideas. Follow them through the text and see what the author does with them. Note especially the key terms that occur in the thesis or research question that governs the text.
• Notice how the text is laid out and organized. What are the main divisions or sections? What is emphasized? Why? Accounting for why will help you to move beyond listing contents and toward giving an account of the argument.
• Notice whether and how a theory is used to interpret evidence or data. Identify the method used to investigate the problem/s addressed in the text.
• Pay attention to the opening sentence(s) of each paragraph, where authors often state concisely their main point in the paragraph.
• Look for paragraphs that summarize the argument. A section may sometimes begin or conclude with such a paragraph.
2. Assessing the value and relevance of a source: Your annotation should now go on to briefly assess the value of the source to an investigation of your research question or problem.
• Are you interested in the way the source frames its research question or in the way it goes about answering it (its method)? Does it make new connections or open up new ways of seeing a problem? (e.g. bringing the Sparrow decision concerning aboriginal fishing rights to bear on the scope of women's rights)
• Are you interested in the way the source uses a theoretical framework or a key concept? (e.g. analysis of existing, extinguished, and other kinds of rights)
• Does the source gather and analyze a particular body of evidence that you want to use? (e.g. the historical development of a body of legislation)
• How do the source's conclusions bear on your own investigation?

Attachment:- Persuasion and Research Paper.rar