The writing topic? “Be the Change” (borrowing from Gandhi’s mantra, “Be the change you want to see in the world”). Identify a change needed in the local world around you and comment on the ways in which individuals, groups, or the local government can help to make a difference.
Look around you here in Iowa for ideas. Look at your community. Your workplace. Your life. The NIACC campus. Your home.
Look with a wider lens to what is bubbling to the surface right now in our world which connects to your local topic –the New York Times Room for DebateLinks to an external site. and NIACC’s academic databases are two great places to start poking around and looking for ideas.
You’ll need at least four supporting sources that you find from your own research, emerging at the end with an essay in which you convey a specific message to readers with an intended purpose and effect. At least two of your total sources must be peer-reviewed sources from the NIACC Library online databases in order to demonstrate that you can select scholarly sources for inclusion in an essay.
Though quotes and paraphrasing are necessary, remember that too many quotes, like too many spices, hide the flavor of your own words. You are welcome to reference other sources such as literary works, movies, song lyrics, poems, etc., in your essay IF they play an important purpose in supporting the development of your thesis. You may incorporate and reference a visual IF it contributes to and enhances the message.
Structure: The paper must have a thesis and supporting points, and of course, an intro and conclusion. As a scholarly argument, it should also contain any opposing views. Our readings will provide more learning & structure on ways to do that.
This paper is an opportunity to demonstrate your own intentional writing choices along with the stylistic skills that you continue to learn throughout our class.
Requirement highlights:
Paper length must be 4-5 pages.
You must use a minimum of four outside sources; two must be from the NIACC Library. *The strongest essays generally use more than the minimum number of sources.
You must document and correctly reference all your sources with MLA format
Due Dates:
Tuesday, July 19 Final paper due
The work you do on this essay meets every single one of our course learning objectives:
Compose (organize & develop) an expository essay.
Demonstrate proper paragraph development.
Employ proper grammar and mechanics.
Apply vocabulary necessary for the discussion of composition.