Relevant Dates:
Identify an Issue -- Review your rhetorical analysis essay and determine whether or not you want to pursue that topic. If not, return to the essays in Conversations and choose a topic that catches your eye. Many of the essays in Conversations provide excellent starting points for reviewing the varying positions of a subject. For instance, under Unit Four, called "Family Matters," you'll find a sub-section called "Is Single Parenthood a Problem?" If you read the first two essays by Barbara Dafoe Whitehead and Ellen Willis, you'll understand some of the differing positions in our national conversation on family values.
Identify an Audience -- Deciding to whom you will direct your argument helps to focus exactly how you'll write your paper to be most persuasive. In the box on page 254 of your Student Guide, the editors discuss the differences between addressing your argument to more general or more specific audiences. For instance, Michelle Kay Lemarie finds that the use of underweight models inCosmopolitan tends to foster negative body image for the magazine's readers. Lemarie chooses the editors of Cosmopolitan as her audience and writes her essay in the form of a letter to persuade the editors to stop using underweight models. If you are unsure of your audience, consider adopting the letter format, which often allows you to more readily identify your audience clearly and specifically.
Proposal - your proposal should be a two- to three-page typed narrative which answers the following:
An annotated bibliography helps you organize and analyze research before you write your first draft. Your bibliography should contain six items from a variety of sources. At least two of your items should come from scholarly journals. You may include interviews only if you have completed the interviews and are able to summarize them. For each item, write a full paragraph summarizing the source in your own words. Your paragraph, or annotation, should indicate the usefulness of the source. Writers with similar topics will be able to exchange bibliographies to aid each other in their research and writing.
Please follow the format in your Student Guide (222-223). The first line of each bibliography entry begins at the left margin and contains a correct citation of the source (refer to A Pocket Style Manual, 108-116). Every line after the first one is indented five spaces, and your paragraph annotation may be single-spaced. Use a double space between items. Remember that your annotated bibliography is worth 5% of your grade. If you do not follow the format correctly or do not give sufficient annotation, you will not receive full credit. Late bibliographies will not be accepted.
Essay Drafts
A successful persuasive essay offers a clear and strong position on an issue that has meaning for you. The audience is clearly defined and the format and tone are appropriate. You have an effective thesis. Your research is thorough, you incorporate quotes clearly and correctly, and you attend to the complexity of the issue and differing viewpoints.
Your persuasive essay has the same physical guidelines as your rhetorical analysis essay (4-6 typewritten pages, double-spaced, one-inch margins, 12-point font size) and the same cover sheet requirements. (If you've forgotten the cover sheet requirements, please review them under the Essay #1 description.) You will also need a "Works Cited" page, which will contain all the sources from which you've quoted. To evaluate your essay, I will use the same rubric from your first essay.
You must also include an appendix, which consists of xerox copies of the pages of sources you've quoted. Please highlight the section you've quoted. Please remember this appendix! I will not grade any essay missing the appendix.
Essay #2 Portfolio
Once again, be sure to hand in your work in a pocket folder with your name on the front (work without folder will not be accepted). Please include the following:
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