M2. Project: In-Text Citations & Thesis Statements
Welcome to this Module’s Project!
For this course, there are two types of writing assignments: essays and projects. This assignment is a project. A project is an item of smaller coursework that is designed to help students master a skill that is needed to write an essay. Think of projects as assignments that help master a skill that you will use when you write an essay for this class and all of your other courses in your college career.
Each project is our opportunity to master skills that are needed to master academic writing and essay drafting. Be sure that you are mindful that you have mastered the concept that this week’s project considers. The skill covered in this project will be part of your grade on essays from here on.
Part 1: In-text Citations in MLA Style
In this module, we learned about the value of formatting our work in MLA or APA Style. The course lectures argued that the proper use of the formatting styles can lead to a great first impression and better grades. This is an important writing skill and it needs some practice.
As a reference, you can also use:
Purdue Online Writing Lab: In-Text Citations (Links to an external site.)
Purdue Online Writing Lab: Works Cited Page (Links to an external site.)
What do I do?
For this project, you are going to making some additions and edits to the diagnostic essay you wrote for Module 1. Please recall that the diagnostic essay from Module 1 gave you three topics to choose from to write about and read the article below associated with your topic.
For this assignment, three journal articles have been provided below. Please find the article that considers the same prompt that you wrote about in your diagnostic essay and read it. While reading the article find one quote by the author that you can insert somewhere in your diagnostic essay. Insert that quote with a proper MLA Style in-text citation and create a Works Cited page for the article. Be sure your Works Cited page is properly formatted and on a new page at the end of your diagnostic essay.
Prompt Choice #1:
The COVID 19 pandemic of 2020 and beyond provoked a debate about how nations should manage responses to highly contagious diseases. Experts in various fields have argued that nations and states need to enact strict laws that close businesses like bars, gyms, and restaurants to stop the spread of the virus. Opponents of the above argue that the economic devastation of business closures is more detrimental to the nation than allowing the virus to spread.
Reading: Waresm Joanna, and Krehbiel, Sara. “Herd Immunity Won’t Solve Our COVID-19 Problem (Links to an external site.).” The Conversation, July 16, 2020. JSTOR Daily, Originally, https://daily.jstor.org/herd-immunity-wont-solve-covid-19-problem/
Prompt Choice #2:
Large numbers of high school graduates have identified careers as content creators on social media platforms such as YOUTUBE and Tik Tok as their preferred profession. The role of content creators in the national economy is a relatively new one and there is little data about the long-term future of content creation as a career. Is content creation a good career choice?
Reading: Gershon, Livia. “How YouTube Is Shaping the Future of Work (Links to an external site.).”JSTOR Daily, May 1, 2019. https://daily.jstor.org/how-youtube-is-shaping-the-future-of-work/
Prompt Choice #3:
A fundamental problem in environmental science is the movement of carbon from the ground to the atmosphere and how this adversely affects our planet. Since the industrial revolution, humans have utilized fuels like gas, coal, oil, and wood to create energy to live. Burning these fuels moves the carbon from the fuel and releases it into the atmosphere. As more carbon moves from the ground to the atmosphere the carbon balance changes in a harmful way. In your opinion, what is the best way to restore the carbon balance?
Reading: Nargi, Lela. “Can Cows Help Mitigate Climate Change? Yes, They Can! (Links to an external site.)” JSTOR Daily, December 19, 2018. Retrieved https://daily.jstor.org/can-cows-help-mitigate-climate-change-yes-they-can/
While reading the article associated with your essay, find one quote by the author that you can insert somewhere in your diagnostic essay. Insert that quote with a proper MLA Style in-text citation and create a Works Cited page for the article.
Be sure your Works Cited is properly formatted and on a new page at the end of your diagnostic essay when you submit your work.
Please remember that you will not be revising the diagnostic in its entirety but rather you will be applying what you have learned about formatting and in-text citations to practice citing in MLA format without needing to write a new paper just yet.
Part 2: Thesis Statements
This module’s lecture noted that an academic paper relies on a few extremely important sentences that act as the core of the essay’s structure. The most important among these is the thesis statement. An academic essay’s thesis statement is a sentence that acts to inform the reader of the paper’s central argument. A good thesis statement summarizes the essay’s purpose and apprises to the reader what will be explored throughout the work.
Without a doubt, this is the most important part of the paper and requires particular care from the writer. Often the essay’s value rests on the thesis statement.
What do I do?
For this project, you are going to take what we learned about thesis statements and revise your diagnostic essay from Module 1 by adding a great thesis statement. The thesis for each should be an example of an argument you expect to be able to make but you do not need to do research to draft these three sentences. We can accept the idea that your argument will find support at a later time.
Please review this brief video before you begin working on your thesis statement for this project:
[OWLPurdue, “Purdue OWL: Thesis Statements,” September 20, 2017. https://youtu.be/LKXkemYldmw]
In this video, the presenters provide the very good point that the thesis you write early in the process will go through a few drafts as you continue learning more about the topics. It is important to remember that since the thesis is the most important sentence in the essay, it is valuable for the writer to revisit it often and make changes that reflect the growth of the essay.
For this assignment, however, write the best argumentative thesis statements you can. The part of the project aims to help you practice writing strong thesis statements as a foundation of the process of academic writing.
Please remember that you will not be revising the diagnostic in its entirety but rather you will be applying what you have learned about thesis statements to writing an argumentative thesis statement without needing to write a new paper just yet. After this module, we will be moving on to the next essay and will not be making any additional edits to the Diagnostic essay.
Submit Part 1 and 2 on a single document.
Rubric
ENGL 151 Module 2 Project Rubric
ENGL 151 Module 2 Project Rubric
Criteria
Ratings
Pts
This criterion is linked to a Learning OutcomeUses the articles provided to add in-text citations to their writing in proper MLA format.
40 pts
Exemplary- Uses one quote that supports an idea and is integrated into the essay using MLA in-text citation and is noted accurately on the Works Cited Page.
30 pts
Proficient- Uses one quote that somewhat supports an idea and is integrated into the essay using MLA in-text citation but has minor errors and is noted accurately on the Works Cited Page but with some errors.
15 pts
Basic- Uses one quote but it fails to support an idea and is not properly integrated into the essay using MLA in-text citation and is displayed inaccurately on the Works Cited Page.
0 pts
No-Submission- The assignment is either nonexistent or lacks the components outlined in the prompt.
40 pts
This criterion is linked to a Learning OutcomeDemonstrates understanding or mastery of writing a thesis statement.
40 pts
Exemplary- Revised thesis statement that summarizes the essays purpose and central argument.
30 pts
Proficient- Revised thesis statement that mostly summarizes the essays purpose or central argument but needs more revision.
15 pts
Basic- Revised thesis statement does not fully summarize the essays purpose or is missing a central argument.
0 pts
No-Submission- The assignment is either nonexistent or lacks the components outlined in the prompt.
40 pts
This criterion is linked to a Learning OutcomeComfortable command of applying subject knowledge to the assignment.
20 pts
Exemplary- Comfortable application of knowledge to the assignment and shows few – if any –errors.
15 pts
Proficient- Uses precise application of knowledge to assignment, though there are some errors.
5 pts
Basic- Uses standard diction and appropriate application of knowledge to the assignment .
0 pts
No-Submission- The assignment is either nonexistent or lacks the components outlined in the prompt.
20 pts
Total Points: 100
The post M2. Project: In-Text Citations & Thesis Statements Welcome to this Module’s Project! appeared first on PapersSpot.
