Essay 2 Guidelines: Explaining a Concept
English 100
You must turn your final draft in to Turnitin.com. If you do not, you will receive a ZERO grade.
ESSAY PURPOSE:
- To inform readers about a concept
- To better understand the concept by explaining it with appropriate writing strategies - To demonstrate knowledge of a concept and the ability to apply it
*** This is not an opinion paper. Do not include your personal opinion or beliefs or those of others in this essay.
ESSAY TOPIC:
Choose one concept (a principle, an ideal, or a value, a theory, an idea, a condition, or a specialized or technical term) to explain, and focus your concept. Your goal in this essay is to answer the question “What is ?”
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Writing Strategies:
1. A Focused Explanation
- Narrow the concept and focus on one aspect. 2. A Clear, Logical Organization.
Your plan of development should
- State the thesis or main point early on
- Divide the information into clearly distinguishable topics and forecast them
- Guide readers by providing cues*** such as transitions and signal words or phrases
*** To understand signals and cues, read A&C Chapter 11 “Cueing the Reader”
3. Appropriate Explanatory Strategies.
You should use a variety of explanatory strategies or rhetorical modes:
- Be sure to define any key terms or characteristics in your essay
- Classify or group related material together with clear cues
- Use comparisons or contrast to help explain your concept with clear cues
- Give examples or anecdotes (personal, hypothetical, vetted) with clear cues - Refer to visuals*** as illustrations to help explain your concept clearly
- Report any established causes and effects with clear cues
- Describe any processes that are relevant with clear cues
English 100
*** If you plan to use visuals, see the three articles in Resources folder “9.0 Research Guides to Using Sources/Accessing Academic Databases” —> folder “Using Visuals in Your Essay”
4. Smooth Integration of Sources.
- Use quotes, paraphrases, or summaries with clear cues
- Integrate your sources effectively in your essay. Use direct quotes (judiciously!), paraphrases, or summaries to help explain your concept.
- Originality Report must be less than 10% excluding direct quotes and Works Cited.
- Minimum of 5 sources. One or more sources from Academic Search Complete (EBSCO) if possible. If you use other sources, use CARS or CRAAP to check your sources.
5. *** Use of Formal Academic Language *** Writing Skills WORD MINIMUM: 1,000
• Use MLA format for essay
• Use MLA format to make Works Cited and In-text citations for sources • Edit for sentence-level errors
• Proofread for mechanical errors
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How to Research and Use Sources:
This is the first of two essays where you will research and use sources to help write your essay. We will be discussing research in class. In addition, you should start reading the supplemental materials listed below NOW. You will need to carefully read them many times over the next few months as there is a lot of information to digest. You will be applying the knowledge from these supplemental readings and practicing it in Essays 2-3.
Supplemental Readings in A&C:
1. A&C - Chapter 14 “Planning a Research Project and Selecting Sources” pp. 402-411 2. A&C
- Chapter 15 “Evaluating and Using Sources” pp. 415-428
3. A&C - Chapter 16 “Citing and Documenting Sources in MLA Style” pp. 429-459 Supplemental Readings in MLAH:
1. MLAH - Part 1 “Introduction” p. 3; “Why Document Sources?” p. 5; “Plagiarism and Academic Dishonesty” p. 6; “Think: Evaluate Your Sources” p. 10; “Gathering Information about Your Sources” p. 13
2. MLAH - Part 1 “Organize: Creating Your Documentation” pp. 19-58
3. MLAH - Part 2 “Works Cited” pp. 102-115; “In-Text Citations” pp. 116-126