Essay Three: The Research Paper As Argument Literature Essay

ESSAY THREE: THE RESEARCH PAPER AS ARGUMENT (Legalization of Drugs)
Topic & Approach
Congratulations! You’ve already finished your analytical essay comparing an independent news source and a corporate news source, as well as a short research essay about a topic from John Perkins' book. Now that you're ready to tackle a longer and more complex research essay, please try not to feel anxious. It's a natural extension of the skills that you have been building as the term unfolds.
Be sure to consult the course calendar for details about assignment deadlines. The topic for your research paper is fairly open. You can pretty much choose to write about whatever you like, so long as the topic is not merely informational in nature. It must have at least two sides to the argument. Be this at it may, some topics will work better than others, given the college’s requirement that stipulates students create a research paper with a rhetorical thesis (one that puts forward an argument). As such, informational approaches will be harder to write than issue-based papers. Bear in mind that in Week Seven, I include a complete Essay Three assignment with a topic and sources. Using this topic is optional, however. For those who don't know what to write about, it is there as an option.
As you compose your paper, keep in mind that its introduction, body and conclusion should support a rhetorical thesisin the introduction (point of view). This won’t be hard because most of you have already done that, at least to some extent on Essays One and Two. If you didn’t, then you weren’t following the directions.
Repeat: No informational essays. You must argue for a point of view in the THIRD PERSON ONLY.
College Mandated Content Requirement: You will need to incorporate all of the concepts in Discussions Seven and Eight into this essay. The discussions are designed to give you a head start on this requirement, while awarding you up to 20 points (10 points for each discussion). How cool is that? Well, okay, call it "hand holding" if you must, but it will really help guide you through the college mandated requirements for WR 122. In addition, Discussion Nine is designed to pull together all of the rough information that you write about in D7 and D8 when you answer the questions (yes, you are actually answering questions in D7 and D8 as opposed to crafting an essay-caliber narrative). Discussion Nine will be your chance to fit all of the information you learn while completing D7 and D8 into an essay caliber narrative (which, incidentally, can be pretty much dropped into Essay Three).
Multimodal Supplement: The college also mandates that you use the book Writer/Designer in the composition of Essay Three. Readings in the book explain how this can be done. I don't expect you to read the whole book. You won't be quizzed on the book. This said, you can certainly ask me questions about multimodal concepts. All "multimodal" means is essentially "forms of expression other than merely writing." I know this seems weird to have in a writing class. Frankly, I think it's weird too. But the college mandates that we do it. Here's all you need to do. Include something in addition to your written work in your Essay Three submission. You can either submit it in the assignments area with your essay, or you can use the Discussion that is called "Multimodal Supplements to Essay Three. I'm going to leave the discussion conference for others to see. The following list offers possibilities for you to submit along with the text of your third essay. You only need to do ONE of these, or you can think up your own ideas based upon what you find in Writer/Designer. Here's a list of possibilities. Please remember that you only need to do ONE of the following things, or something else that you come up with from skimming through Writer/Designer:
1. Youtube video talking about the topic of your essay. Please don't talk about your travails and adventures writing the essay as a student in a class. Rather, talk about the subject. Offer an entertaining presentation about the topic. If you can, include props in your video other than yourself sitting in front of a camera talking. Look at other videos on Youtube with film footage and visuals. This is especially effective WHILE your continue to narrative/speak in the video.
2. Draw a picture and submit it in the discussion conference called Multimodal Supplements to Essay Three.
3. Use Adobe or some other form of graphics to design/alter a picture that is used as a supplement to Essay Three. Post this in the dicussions area.
4. Have someone photograph you doing something that is related to your topic. Maybe your topic is about cleaning up trash. Have a friend photograph you picking up trash. Okay, you get the idea. You could post your photograph in the discussions area.
5. Record yourself singing a song. You could either film it as a video and put it on Youtube, or just record the audio with your phone and then post the audio in the conference area. The vocals should be about the topic of your report. If you play an instrument, by all means play along while you sing. Maybe you only play an instrument and don't sing. That's great: post a video with your song on Youtube along with a video with words and images that go along with your music.
I hope these suggestions help. I don't expect a really elaborate multimodal supplement to Essay Three. Rather, I am teaching the subject and you are doing the assignment because it's mandated by the college. Eventually, all colleges will require this type of thing. By then, I will probably be retired. It will be such a shame that I won't be able to fully engage in this amazing aspect of academic expression. It's yet another example of how the USA and the world is moving in a more enlightened direction academically. Happy, happy, joy, joy.
All essays should use at least 8 sources. In addition, please include at least 4 direct quotations from sources, and at least 4 paraphrases. (Obviously, if you use 4 direct quotations then you must have at least 6 paraphrases, and vice versa. The combination is up to you.) No single direct quotation should be more than four lines in length.
Your entire essay must be no less than 2,500 words in length. This includes the header, the title, and the Works Cited at the end. Please put your precise word count in the header. If you don't, there will be a fairly stiff penalty this time around since it is the third essay for the course and by now you should know the routine. Please do not exceed a maximum word count of 2,800 words. As always, it's worth remembering that longer essays do not necessarily receive higher grades. Quality is always emphasized over quantity. I only mention this because some students feel like they are entitled to a higher grade if they write the maximum number of words allowed rather than really polishing what they have written, which might only be 2,502. An essay that has around the minimum number of words is every bit as eligible for an A+ as an essay that has around the maximum number of words.
In addition, you will need to critique and address at least two logical fallacies in your essay. Chapter Nine in the Fourth Edition of From Critical Thinking to Argument explains the concepts of fallacies in detail. Kirk will present a lecture on fallacies that will explain this requirement. In addition, one of your freewrites will also involve analyzing a fallacy.
INSTRUCTOR VIDEO (MANDATORY VIEWING)

Technical Specifications
12 point font
Avoid run-ons, fragments, comma splices, and dangling modifiers LIKE THE PLAGUE
Title should be centered two spaces under header; body left justified with one of the following: block formatted paragraphs with one extra blank line between them, or, paragraphs indented 5 spaces with no extra lines between them
Header in the upper left that includes the following:
Your name (The name that appears in the class grade book.)
Date
Precise word count
Essay Three
To determine a precise word count, high light your text (aside from the header), then use the “tools” pull-down menu and go to “word count.”
Posting Assignments
Please remember that I do not check to see that your essay has posted correctly if asked in an email. It is your responsibility to see that your essay has posted correctly. This same principle applies to any assignment. Always check to see that your work has posted. In your posts, include a text box copy as well as a backup attachment. Students emailing me to check for them to see if their first essay has posted in the assignment area will be politely asked to check this fact for themselves. Checking to see if an assignment has posted is very easy to do. If you are having technical difficulties with your computer in relation to Blackboard (our online system) please contact tech support at Chemeketa. Thank you!
Penalty for Incorrect Submission: All essay submissions must include a box copy and an attached file. Attached files should be formatted in MS Word. Do not use zip files; I won't open them due to virus concerns. If I am unable to grade your essay due to the fact that you have submitted it incorrectly, I will use my discretion to decide on a penalty. Some students do use the sneaky tactic of submitting a faulty attachment, along with no box copy, in order to buy more time to write the essay. THIS TIME AROUND, SINCE YOU HAVE HAD TWO OTHER CHANCES TO LEARN THE IMPORTANCE OF SUBMITTING A BOX COPY ALONG WITH AN ATTACHMENT (FOR ESSAYS ONE AND TWO), YOU MAY NOT PASS THE CLASS IF YOU SUBMIT ESSAY THREE INCORRECTLY. BE SURE TO SUBMIT A BOX COPY AND AN ATTACHMENT (THAT IS NOT A ZIP FILE). I MAY NOT HAVE THE TIME TO EMAIL YOU AND REQUEST A COPY OF ESSAY THREE IF YOU DO NOT SUBMIT A BOX COPY AND AN ATTACHMENT. IF THIS HAPPENS, YOU WILL FAIL THE CLASS! WHY? BECAUSE I SOMETIMES NEED TO GRADE ESSAYS RIGHT UP UNTIL THE SUNDAY BEFORE GRADES ARE DUE. THAT DOES NOT LEAVE ENOUGH TIME TO CONTACT YOU AND GET A PROPER SUBMISSION. DON'T RISK IT! SUBMIT YOUR ESSAY CORRECTLY!!!!!
Penalty for Late Submission: If you have extenuating circumstances (such as a grave illness), you must send me an email at least three (3) days before the due date. This only applies to the posting of Essay Two for the instructor to grade, not the peer review, which is due one week earlier. You cannot submit your peer review of any essay late. If you miss it, you have the option to make up as many points as possible by doing the extra credit assignment.
Here is the penalty chart for late submissions of Essay Three:
This time, you have up to three days grace period to post your work with no penalty to your grade. However, if you miss the main deadline, you will receive no written feedback from the instructor.
NO WORK WILL BE ACCEPTED AFTER THE THREE DAY GRACE PERIOD. IF YOU MISS THIS FINAL EXTENSION DEADLINE, AND YOU DID NOT LET ME KNOW AHEAD OF TIME AND RECEIVE A WAIVER (DUE TO GRAVE CIRCUMSTANCES THAT CAN BE PROVED WITH DOCUMENTATION AND/OR HARD EVIDENCE, THEN YOU WILL NOT PASS THE CLASS. ESSAY THREE WILL NOT BE ACCEPTED MORE THAN THREE DAYS PAST THE MAIN DEADLINE.
Legalization of Drugs is the Topic