Purpose: This assignment provides an opportunity to practice writing a researched essay with limited sources.
Youve written the rough draft for this assignment in Week 2.
Essay Context
This essay offers the opportunity to use casebook sources from your textbook to support your thoughts or as text that you could disagree with. This assignment differs from a longer research paper that you will write later in the course in that you will not have to choose and research your own topic, nor will you have to generate your own Resources page with sources youve had to find in the library. While you may not like the topic, you can focus your intellectual energies on learning or reviewing the finer points of documentation in preparation for writing a paper that you will care about, as you will have chosen the topic.
Assignment
Much is being said and written about how Americans struggle to get along with other Americans who they differ from. Youve read selections from four authors in They Say / I Say. First, consider your thoughts on their points about how we respond to those who differ from us. To what degree do you find their opinions useful?
Using the 3 essays you chose in Week 1, Assignment 2, you wrote a rough draft of the Casebook Essay that analyzes (or responds to) the views expressed in the essays. (This was Assignment 2 in Week 2.)
Next, you will need to (1) create a context for how U.S. citizens think about other U.S. citizens who differ from them politically, racially, geographically, or religiously, (2) summarize the key principle that will form the basis for your response to (agreement or disagreement) the author(s) views, (3) analyze or evaluate the point(s) made, and (4) clearly state the significance of your point of view on the topic.
Parameters
The Casebook Essay should be 4-5 pages (2000-2500 words), formatted using APA style. Do not use outside sources (without the professors permission), only use the sources selected in Week 1.
Readings
Resource readings–chapters 1-6 (from parts 1 and 2 in the textbook for templates you may want to use)
Readings for the Casebook Essay (choose 3 of these 4)
Sean Blanda, The Other Side Is Not Dumb
Danah Boyd, Why America Is Self-Segregating
J. D. Vance, Hillbilly Elegy
Criteria for Evaluation
In addition to meeting length requirement, assignment requirements, and editing expectations, the essay should demonstrate
Appropriate incorporation and in-text citing of quoted text.
Appropriate percentage of quoted text for the essay length (10% or less)
Adequate paraphrasing of original text.
Appropriate incorporation and in-text citing of paraphrased text.
Inclusion of authors opinion/response.
Appropriate end-of-essay resource page.
Last Completed Projects
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