Essay Prompt:
When our environments shape our outcomes entirely, we demonstrate little agency; on the other hand, when we shape our environments that can affect our outcomes, we demonstrate agency. Agency is a persons will to act.
In an 3 paged first draft, written in MLA-format, with an Annotated Bibliography Links to an external site., consider lessons drawn from the texts you have read this semester and peer/scholarly articles you will research for this paper, to include your analysis of two people, one person or story of your choosing from And Still We Rise and the other being your interviewee (instructions above this prompt), to develop a clear and persuasive argument to the following question:
To what extent are students just products of their environments, and what should be done to help students utilize their agency to close the academic achievement gap? You must also cite at least 2 (or more) peer/scholarly reviewed articles for this first draft. Please remember that the Final Draft will require more peer/review scholarly sources.
For this draft, please submit the beginning of the essay (Introduction, Background Details, Thesis) and Support with Topic and Including Sentences, Analysis, and Evidence. You will need to include at least 2 peer/scholarly sources for this paper, including some information from your TWO people (the case study in the text & the person you interviewed).
Please be sure to upload your Recording or Written notes, only if you did not complete the recording, along with your questions, again if you did not use an audio recording, to Canvas, along with this 3-paged draft.
Some Pre-writing Strategies:
Formulate a tentative thesis statement to the question Are we just products of our environments? The thesis should be formal and should not look like No, we are not just products of our environments. Be specific as to why or why not. Why this matters? How does it connect to a larger issue?
Gather your notes on your chosen two subjects from And Still We Rise AND the successful person you interviewed. Then review their journeys. Were you correct in your hypothesis? Did they find success, or did they become part of the statistics? Why or why not?
Completing peer/scholarly reviewed research takes time and experience with how to navigate the databases. Support from the Librarian is vital for this paper.
Assessment:
Papers will be assessed according to : (1) Essay structure: concision, clarity, organization, and flow of the prose/argument; (2) the subtlety, depth, thoroughness, and sophistication of the argument; (3) the specificity of the examples/research chosen to support and illustrate the argument; (4) Demonstration of analysis and synthesis (5) Rhetorical Strategies applied for the interview component of paper (6) Citing sources and the Annotated Bibliography (7) Narrowing down a focus and asking a Research question
Last Completed Projects
| topic title | academic level | Writer | delivered |
|---|