Throughout the assignment sequence in this course, we’ve been following a trajectory

Throughout the assignment sequence in this course, we’ve been following a trajectory—a story arc, if you will. We began with story of self—a reflective piece regarding your life and your experience with matters of social justice, perhaps on a particular issue you care about. Then, we worked to inform this story a bit more through research that you documented in an annotated bibliography. Most recently, you’ve been working on the third component of this story arc—a story of us—where you have drawn from insights gained through service learning as fieldwork research, and have explored the central concept that any story of another is a story of self. Now (or soon) you should be ready for the next major plot point (the climax, if you will). In this piece you Self Us Now
Action, working together to achieve a common purpose, learning to experience hope—that’s the story of now.
— Marshall Ganzwill tell a story of the new community you’re forming together with others, and a story of the action you are asking others to join you in taking—a story of now.

Your Essential Task

Create a call to action on the social issue you’ve been studying all semester long through an in-depth, multisource, research paper on the issue and the specific actions one can take to make a difference. You’ve been going through a process of reflection, field study, and library research to prepare you for this work, but there is more work for you to do. Draw from what you’ve gained so far, but don’t leave it at that. Dig deeper for this piece.

Important Requirements to Keep in Mind

You will have to use no fewer than five sources. Some of these may be those you’ve included in your final version of your annotated bibliography, but they don’t have to be. You might want to go beyond these sources. This research paper should work to clearly provide the following information to your readers in a compelling and interesting way: 1) an overview of the specific social issue, i.e. the specific challenge at hand, 2) compelling and convincing reasons as to why the reader should care about this issue and the specific challenge before us, 3) a clear path/call to advocacy and action on the issue. Do not be vague with the last point. The whole purpose of this work is get your reader to act. They need to know what you want them to do, why it’s important, and how this specific action will make a difference. Note that when I list these three points, I don’t mean write me three paragraphs and call it day. Develop your discussion thoroughly over many paragraphs, supported with strong, compelling research and evidence. This work should come to no less than 2500 words.

Organizing Strategies & Use of Section Headings

This is a longer research paper. It’s expected that you amply develop your ideas, organize them around a single controlling idea, and provide compelling (researched) evidence to meet the purpose of this “call to action” paper as described above. Because this is a longer piece of researched writing, it makes sense to divide it up into sections, each under a descriptive, persuasive heading. Using headings in this way will make this longer paper both more usable for a reader, and it will help you organize and develop your thinking and research more clearly. You can decide what headings to use and where to place them, but generally speaking, a reader should be able to quickly find the three areas of content listed above regarding the issue overview, the reason to care, and the action one should take.

A Sort of Useful Sample

If you are looking for a well-written example of an MLA research paper, I’ve included one below for your reference. Keep in mind that this example is NOT a response to our specific assignment, so it does not necessarily satisfy all the requirements as I’ve outlined them here. What it does offer, though, is a nice look at how an MLA research paper should be formatted, how it should use and document sources, and how research writing can effectively call people to action. I do think, though, that this piece could go much further (as you should) to be specific regarding the call to action. Your reader should know exactly what you want him or her to do, how to do it, and why this will make a difference. Nevertheless, it’s worth looking at this sample for what it does provide.
Download (PDF, Unknown)

How will this piece be assessed?

First of all remember that this assignment will not be fully assessed until you include it as a part of your final portfolio project; however, as an initial draft that will be reviewed by members of the class, completing it on time is essential to stay on track toward at least a B in this course. Refer to the grading contract on the syllabus for more information about the importance of meeting all deadlines, and for general information on what makes for exemplary writing in this course.

The basic expectations that I have for average and acceptable work for this assignment are as follows. The work should:

• be a well developed research essay with a strong controlling idea and thoughtful support throughout
• adequately accomplish the three-part purpose as outlined above in a logical, cohesive, and unified manner
• make effective use headings to divide the major sections of the work
• use no fewer than five sources credible, authoritative, and relevant sources
• properly cite and document all sources using MLA
• have an effective title—one that is interesting, representative of the work is about, and creative;
• have an interesting opener and a resonating close
• be no less than 2500 words (but it can be more)
• be proofread to ensure it is free from careless mechanical errors

Due Date

This work must be posted to the course “Commonplace” by the scheduled due date. If you are having technical challenges with this, it is your responsibility to seek assistance from the instructor as soon as possible. Be sure also to keep your own electronic copy of your draft, so that you can easily return to it for revision at a later time. Consult the course schedule for a complete list of due dates. Use the button below to add your assignment to the course Commonplace.