Writing Homework Help

In this assignment, you will finally begin drafting your Research Essay. Your goal is to:

• craft a 1-paragraph introduction that culminates in the thesis statement you have developed to this point. From the prompt:
• Craft a clear, comprehensive, 1-sentence thesis statement that identifies your topic, states your argument, and states 2-3 specific supporting points that you will prove in the body paragraphs of the essay. Your thesis statement should be the last sentence of your intro paragraph.
• craft the first body paragraph of your essay. This paragraph should open with a topic sentence, just as every paragraph of the body of your essay should open with a topic sentence. The purpose of a topic sentence is to establish a main/controlling idea for the paragraph. That idea should support/prove your thesis statement. 

See this resource on topic sentences: https://owl.purdue.edu/engagement/ged_preparation/part_1_lessons_1_4/index.html

Integrate 1 of your sources in either of these paragraphs – preferably by placing a quotation from a source. Remember that quotations should be placed in your essay to supplement and support your ideas rather than substitute for them. Set every quotation in your writing up with a signal phrase. See this resource: https://owl.purdue.edu/owl/research_and_citation/using_research/quoting_paraphrasing_and_summarizing/signal_and_lead_in_phrases.html

This is a good time to practice integrating research into a formal college essay, so that will be a central focus of the week’s readings and quizzes. In preparation for this assignment, read the following short chapters in The Norton Field Guide. All of these chapters will help you purposefully decide how best to integrate a source, as well as how to do so with the proper formating and style. 

• “Quoting, Paraphrasing, and Summarizing” on pages 536-538
• “Acknowledging Sources, Avoiding Plagiarism” on pages 539-543
• “Documentation” on pages 544-547

Remember to avoid 1st person “I” and 2nd person “you/your.” Don’t refer to your essay in the essay itself (“This essay will show that…”).

Remember, now that you have your thesis statement, you have full control over how to structure and build your essay to support that thesis. The introduction is a good time to think strategically about how you want to introduce your reader to the topic. What specific issues might you want them to be thinking about? How specifically do you want to frame the topic and your argument for your readers?