Questions and Topics We Can Help You To Answer:
Paper Instructions:

Author Kate Chopin, Story The Story of an Hour!

BECOME AN EXPERT
You will create a presentation based on one of the stories from this week or a theme you noticed in the stories. You are the expert who will explain the story to the class.
The presentation can be a PowerPoint, video, animation, lengthy booklet, Prezi. . . . Assume that this class is your audience. However, if you’d like to assume a younger audience, preface the age group in a note to the instructor and class.
Minimum requirements:
1 literary topic related to this week's stories
2 sources of reference- college level (no Wikipedia or SparksNotes)- Check the college library databases. Start your search by using the story's title and author. 
Works cited page (use MLA formatting)
Some level of creativity and innovation. This is a huge percentage of your grade in this class. Now is not the time to skimp on information. Really develop your topic. 
Use MLA parenthetical citation to cite all paraphrases, summary, and quotations.  Failure to do this is considered a form of plagiarism. You will fail the assignment.

*Not meeting the minimum requirements does mean that the presentation will not pass. 

Topics:
Female archetypes (maiden, mother, crone, old maid. . . )
Cultural views as presented in the literature
Analysis of one of the stories (Do not just retell the plot- do a critical analysis)
Female identity in literature
Style or themes in the literature of one of the authors we studied. You may choose a specific author, but you MUST NOT do a biography.
Other- If you have a creative topic that is not listed but meets the requirements, email me to get it approved. I am open to suggestion.
What not to do:
Don’t just do a biography. Develop a point about the events you list in relation to the way his/her literature was shaped by certain life events/relationships. For example, if you say that Flannery O’Connor was a devout Catholic and that has impacted her writing, give examples from a story to prove this point. Don’t just give life facts.
Don’t just throw lists on a slide (like awards, timelines, events). Develop a point about the things you mention. If you give a straight bio or lists, your assignment will not pass.
Don’t forget to link to our readings. Make a point to discuss relationships between your topic and what we read.
Don’t forget to use periods after complete sentences (This always happens on slides for some reason. Punctuate all complete sentences).
Don’t forget to cite anything from a source. Just throw a parenthetical citation at the end of the slide if you must.

Questions and Topics We Can Help You To Answer:
Paper Instructions:

“The Permanent Militarization of America”
“The Business of America is War”
“Locating the American Military-Industrial Complex
Military-Industrial Complex definition
Military-Industrial Complex speech


This essay should respond to one question, but the response should be thorough, critical, and academic.  And your response should also be well-supported.



Essay Question:

Has the United States placed a dollar value on a soldier’s life?  In other words, are there people or companies in this country who benefit financially from the U.S. always being engaged in some military action?

Questions and Topics We Can Help You To Answer:
Paper Instructions:

Read Chapters 4-6, that's all this essay. Hidden America exposes some of the “hidden” worker groups in the US and reveals many reasons why these workers remain a mystery to most of the United States. Each reader comes with their own preconceived notions about these jobs, whether through personal experience or second-hand knowledge.

In a three-to-four page essay, examine your personal viewpoints on any three of the jobs chronicled in Hidden America. Discuss your views and their influences pre-reading (in other words, before having read the book, what were your thoughts regarding these jobs and/or the people who work in them) and analyze your stance post-reading (how have your views of these jobs and/or workers changed, or have your views remained the same). Your essay will be three to four pages long (page range does not include the Works Cited page).



Your essay must include evidence from the text to lead into and to support your claims. In order to do this, paraphrase, summarize and use at least three quotes from Hidden America. 

Questions and Topics We Can Help You To Answer:
Paper Instructions:



Choose one of the two prompts below as the focus of your essay:
1.    Choose one character from one of the following texts that treats another character as Other:
    The Metamorphosis (Franz Kafka)


Explain how that character treats or perceives others in the text as less human than him/her and explain what you believe motivates that character's treatment of the other character as fundamentally different. 
Questions to consider as you write:
•    Why does character A believe character B is less human than character A? 
•    How does character A demonstrate that s/he believes character B is less human? What specific actions, words, thoughts reinforce this idea?
•    What does character A seem to gain through his/her belief that s/he is more important or valuable than character B?

2.    At this point in our course, we have studied a wide range of writers who have written on a wide range of subjects. Many of these writers were persecuted for what they wrote: they were exiled, rejected by the church, and even killed (or threatened with death). This begs the question, then, why is literature so dangerous? Choose one text from the list above that you believe supports your position on this question (why is literature so dangerous?). Even if you do not believe that literature is dangerous or should be dangerous, powerful people and institutions have feared what the written word can do throughout time and across cultures around the world.

As you begin writing your analysis, it may help to consider the following questions:
•    Are there ways in which your text could threaten the political, religious, or social conventions of its culture?
•    Are there specific ideas/concepts in your chosen text that could influence the way that people think? 
•    How could fiction be dangerous? Technically, fiction is not “true” because it does not communicate entirely real events. Are there ways that fiction could be equally as dangerous or more dangerous than non-fiction?
•    Does your chosen text threaten a specific audience? In other words, even if you choose a text that was not widely distributed/circulated, would people in positions of power still have access to it and feel threatened by it?


Your essay should be specific and focused. The goal of literary analysis is to teach the reader/audience something new through your thorough explanation of your observations about specific passages. I expect your analysis to move beyond what was appropriate for ENG 101 and ENG 102. That means that your response should apply the grammatical/documentation knowledge and analytical skills developed in these courses, but your analysis should focus on more nuanced ideas. Repeating what I have already included in contextual information does not demonstrate your own analytical skills. In addition, remember that summarizing the literary work is not analysis. Assume that your reader is familiar with the text. If you need to provide context for a specific line or lines, do so in no more than two sentences. 
Be sure to include specific quotes from your chosen text to support and develop your claims. Whenever you quote from a text, remember to explain how that quote supports your position. Be aware that minor details/characters are often as interesting (or more interesting) than the obvious plot points! Think carefully about the texts that we have read before choosing a specific poet/poem. 
You should include a clear thesis statement that identifies the central point that you want to make about your chosen text. The thesis statement should appear at the end of the first paragraph and should be specific and arguable. This means that your thesis should not be a fact, question, quote, or statement of moral judgment (such as “Victor is a terrible person” or “Victor does the right thing”). If you are not sure what your thesis is until you write your conclusion, that is okay! You can always revise your thesis and adjust the body paragraphs as necessary before submitting your final draft.
Your introduction should be as specific as possible. Therefore, you should not begin with “Throughout all of literature” or “Since the dawn of time” since the entire history of human life on earth is far too much ground to cover in one paragraph. Instead, skip the generalizations and tell us only what we have to know for your thesis statement to make sense. If I am writing about the impact of the Spanish Civil War on Neruda’s poetry, I am going to begin by addressing the specific aspect of the war that impacts the specific poem that I am analyzing. I don’t need to give a full explanation of the war, Neruda’s life, or the history of Spain unless all of that will be addressed in my essay. Assume that the reader has a basic understanding of the text; therefore, you only need minimal summary so that the reader knows the exact moment in the text that you are addressing.
The conclusion of your essay should not summarize your argument or restate your thesis. The conclusion should indicate the significance of your argument. In other words, why does your argument matter? How could your insight change the way that certain characters are understood? Is the villain more sympathetic than most people (even literary critics) realize? Does your argument identify a new perspective on common experiences (oppression, mental illness, childhood, death, etc.)? Do your claims identify subtle ways that characters are influenced by their culture or subtle ways that they influence others? Excellent papers teach something new, so be bold with your arguments!
I am more than happy to review your drafts before the deadline. In order to receive feedback, you must email the draft to me no later than noon on the Friday before the analysis is due. That will give me time to read your draft and send you feedback in time for you to apply my feedback and submit the final copy. 

Additional Expectations & Guidelines:
•    Plagiarism (using any text without proper documentation, lacking in-text citation, and/or lacking a Works Cited page) results in an automatic failing grade and may be reported to the college.
•    You must save your document through Microsoft Word (.doc or .docx) in order for Blackboard to accept the assignment and for you to receive full credit for the analysis. 
•    Every essay for this course must be formatted according to MLA guidelines. That means that your analysis must be doubles-spaced and typed in Times New Roman 12 pt. font with 1” margins. You will type a header at the top left corner of the first page, which will include the following information:
Your Name (First Last)
Instructor’s Name (Prof. Blass)
Course # and Section # (ex. ENG 209-W01)
Date Due (ex. 23 June 2019)
•    In the top right corner of every page, you should include your last name followed by the page number. After you insert the page number on the first page, Word will automatically add the page number to the rest of the document.
•    You will write in the third-person. That means that you will not use “I,” “we,” or “you” at any time.
•    You will write in the literary present tense. That means that any time you write about something that occurs within a literary work, you must use present tense (i.e. “The speaker claims that” instead of “The speaker claimed that”).
•    You will proofread your analysis for grammatical error, logical gaps in the development of your claims, and clarity of syntax and diction.
•    You create a title that is engaging, specific, and identifies your argument.
•    You will develop your own argument instead of simply repeating what we discussed in class.
•    You will cite all references to your primary source(s) (the literary work/s that you are analyzing) according to the 8th edition MLA guidelines, which can be found in your Bedford Handbook or at Owl at Purdue. You will list these sources in a Works Cited page. 
•    You will submit your essay on Blackboard by 11:59pm on the due date.

Questions and Topics We Can Help You To Answer:
Paper Instructions:

For your essay, you can use two of the three articles (“The Permanent Militarization of America,” “The Business of America is War,” or “Locating the American Military-Industrial Complex”), but you need to find one other newspaper or magazine article for support in your essay (total of three sources).



Guidelines:

Make certain you put your name on your essay
Essay length should be 400-450 words; please do not exceed 450 words (word count should not include works cited)
Begin with a strong, argumentative thesis; make sure your topic sentences are argumentative as well
Be formal and academic; do not use words like I, Me, Our, Us, We, or similar words

Questions and Topics We Can Help You To Answer:
Paper Instructions:

Write three pages analyzing the influence that the city has on the obsession of the protagonists in Georg Rodenbach’s Bruges-la-Morte and Alfred Hitchcock’s Vertigo.  How do Bruges and San Francisco become “main characters” who “guide the action” in the respective works?  Write two pages on Bruges in which you quote the novel sufficiently to make your case, and write one page on the film drawing on particular scenes.  Develop a thesis about the nature of a city, and focus on the aspects of the urban setting that propel the plot and affect the characters.

Questions and Topics We Can Help You To Answer:
Paper Instructions:

Discussion Requirements:
Your initial discussion post must be 2 substantive paragraphs answering the topic, with citations for your sources underneath - if you use information that is not your own - which is most of the time. A substantive paragraph is at least 6-8 sentences. 
Your remaining two posts/REPLIES TO CLASSMATES should be in response to a classmate’s post in which you further the conversation by adding a personal anecdote, asking a question, or adding more facts from the readings to your classmate's post. Response posts to classmates must be substantive in nature, meaning at least three sentences and not simply, "I agree." One and two sentence replies to classmates garner 1/2 credit. "I agree" garners NO credit.

Discussion Topic:
The number and proportion of older people in the United States and many other countries are larger than ever, and elderly people are the fastest growing segment of the U.S. population. Feldman (2014) charged that older people as a group are subjected to prejudice, stereotyping, and discrimination - a phenomenon referred to as ageism (p. 539). 

Given this, recall (or interview) a person in late adulthood and ask, "What is it like to grow old in the United States of America today?" From a personal, familial, or general knowledge standpoint, recall if you have witnessed (or been a party to) a person in late adulthood being a victim of ageism.

Describe the event. 

Did anyone attempt to assist the older adult?

Did the older adult need assistance at all?

What was the end result? What should have been the end result from your perspective?

Please share with us the person's age, gender (if you choose to disclose), occupation, education level (if known), and any other characteristics you deem interesting. You are not required to specifically identify the individual. 

Reply to classmate 1:
What is it like to grow old in the United States of America today? This is the question I asked my mother, who as of this year is 72 years old. Things she mentioned were her faith, freedom to enjoy and participate in an active lifestyle, friendships and building upon and sometimes, sadly, losing certain relationships through people passing on.  From my mother’s point of view, she grew up a very poor farm girl, the daughter of a milk carrier and stay at home mother, in McNairy County, Tennessee. Getting older my mother has experienced what most older adults like her have experienced, from their immediate children leaving home and graduating college and pursuing careers to grandchildren being born, to the empty nest syndrome and everything in between. My mother has a tremendous gratitude for America and feels blessed to be able to grow old in this country which has provided her and her family opportunities which could only be afforded in America. As my mom will sometimes say, “Life changes every second, you just have to pick how you will change with it”. My mother stated that she doesn't feel she's ever been a victim of ageism.

Reply to classmate 2:
Q: "What is it like to grow old in the United States of America today?" 

Subject: Female, 80, divorced, 2 middle aged children, retired receptionist, suffering from recent botched back surgery, lives alone in senior living community

A: Growing old in the United States of America can be and is frightening, especially when you are alone. I’m always wondering if politicians will try to take away Medicaid and Medicare.

I think what if my social security won’t cover housing. I don’t have any other retirement money.

Looking back, I regret not getting an education pass high school. But school was always difficult for me, learning that is. So being qualified for jobs, when I was still working, were limited to traditional careers like secretaries or something.

I’m afraid my children will have other interest and I’ll be alone.

I’m afraid someone will come through my patio doors (she lives on the 4th floor of an apartment building).

I’m afraid of catching COVID 19, so many older people are dying.

From a personal, familial, or general knowledge standpoint, recall if you have witnessed (or been a party to) a person in late adulthood being a victim of ageism.

I have witnessed a person in late adulthood being victimized with ageism. One time happened to an elderly lady with groceries walking home in a neighborhood I once lived. Some boys from the hood decided to harass and rob her along the way.

Some friends and I were not going to allow it. We strategically surrounded the incident before merging in on the group of misbehaving boys. The older lady was clearly in distress and out numbered by the group. My friends and I intervened defusing the situation before any harm came to the lady.

Questions and Topics We Can Help You To Answer:
Paper Instructions:
Writing Instructions: The Cause-Effect Essay
The purpose of this essay is to identify and to analyze the effects of something. What are the effects of the prevailing confidence gap in the United States? What are the effects of gender inequity in leadership in specific institutions? What are the effects of unequal access to top-level positions for women (glass ceiling)? What are the effects of women’s attrition (paucity) from the race toward becoming executives? What is the “modest” or “backlash” effect? First, you will explore and consider this issue through the perspectives of the authors Katherine Seelye and Stephanie Thomson and by watching related videos. This exploration will also include your and your classmates’ textual analysis, spirited discussion, and partial research in addition to the authors’ perspectives and factual information.
Characteristics of the Cause-Effect Essay
A successful essay
· provides an engaging introduction that offers the reader some background information on
the specific problem, issue, or event.
· demonstrates an understanding of the significance or relevance of the problem, issue, or
event.
· briefly explores possible causes and probable effect of the problem, issue, or event.
· thoroughly examines the consequences of the problem, issue, or event.
· presents a specific thesis statement that offers a sophisticated and nuanced understanding
of the problem and its effects.
· supports the thesis through well-developed paragraphs that includes specific details and
evidence and are organized strategically.
· proposes and argues the best solution for the problem.
· presents an objective stance by the use of third-person voice.
· correctly integrates quotations and conforms to MLA documentation and format guidelines.
Essay Requirements
· 500 to 750 words (roughly 2 to 3 pages, double-spaced)
· Minimum of two secondary sources, incorporating textual evidence from the articles.
· MLA format for presentation (typed, double-spaced, 12-pt. Times New Roman font, 1”
margins) and source documentation (in-text citations and Works Cited page).
Secondary Sources
Seelye, Katharine Q. “School Vote Stirs Debate on Girls as Leaders.” New York Times, 12 Apr. 2013, p. A12 (L). Academic OneFile.
Thomson, Stephanie. “A Lack of Confidence Isn’t What’s Holding Back Working Women.” The Atlantic, Atlantic Media Company, 20 Sep. 2018.
The Writing Process
You will write this essay in five stages: You will 1) do some reading and prewriting (freewriting, organizing ideas) to explore your initial feelings and views regarding a potential topic; 2) craft a working thesis regarding this issue (derived from your free writing and class discussion); 3) develop your body paragraphs (based on the controlling idea in your thesis); 4) write introductory and concluding paragraphs to complete the essay; and 5) seek feedback from yourself and others to engage in reflective and meaningful revision and complete the writing process.
Process Component Due Dates
Unit 2, Lesson 1, reading notes and annotations Unit 2, Lesson 1, free writing and graphic organizer
        
STUDENT NAME _______________________ INSTRUCTOR/COURSE _______________ DATE _________
Unit 2, Lesson 2, the rough draft, including thesis statement, body paragraphs, introduction and conclusion
Unit 2, Lesson 3, revising and editing - Smarthinking Unit 2, Lesson 3, revising and editing – Peer Review Unit 2, Lesson 3, revising and editing – Conference Unit 2, Lesson 3, the REVISED final draft
Important Reminders:
· Do not write in second person (e.g., you or your).
· Include an original title for your essay
· Type your essay in font Times New Roman, Size 12
· Double Space the entire essay
· Prepare a Works Cited section on the last page of the essay.
Submission Requirements:
· Please do not email your final papers!
· Please remember to attach all rough drafts with your submissions.
· Please remember to save an electronic version of the paper to your TCC drive.
One Possible Method of Organization
Introduction *******
· Create a lead-in “hook” to engage your readers’ interest (e.g., a striking quotation gleaned
from your research, an anecdote or scenario, a related current event).
· Provide a brief overview of the primary text for your reader.
· Identify the problem or issue
· Present a focus question to stimulate your readers’ thinking.
· Clearly state your thesis statement
Body ******
· Provide a clear topic sentence for each paragraph.
· Discuss the causes or effects of this problem.
· Support all viewpoints with sufficient details and specific examples.
· Develop each idea in a separate paragraph.
· Include transitions between your discussions of each component.
· Try to achieve a direct and decisive tone.
Conclusion *******
· Restate your thesis and main support in slightly different terms.
· Articulate a "call to action," now that the readers understand this problem.
· Consider referring to a related issue, if appropriate.
Questions to consider throughout your paper:
□ What is the assignment?
□ What’s my purpose in this essay?
□ Do I accomplish my goal?
□ How effective is my thesis?
□ Do I provide enough supporting details?
□ How effective is my wording and sentence structure?
□ How effective is my structure and organization?
□ How effective are my transitions throughout the paper?
□ How effective is my overall paper?
□ Am I summarizing too much and not offering enough
analysis of the topic?
□ Do I fulfill the requirements of the assignment?
              Seeking Assistance:
If you have any questions while drafting your essay, please do one of the following:
· Schedule a conference to meet with your instructor.
· Review the cause and effect essay explanation in our textbook on page 233.
· Schedule a conference in the Learning Commons.
· Submit your writing to Smarthinking.

Questions and Topics We Can Help You To Answer:
Paper Instructions:

Narrative Writing
Narrative writing is key to various tasks that you will engage in during your criminal justice career. You will often be asked to record the events of an incident or to explain your investigative steps for a protocol report. It is essential to know how much detail your readers will need, but in some cases it may be difficult to know how much is too much. You may also read reports with limited details and need to understand the bigger picture, knowing how to use that information effectively.

Practitioner reports and academic reports require different levels of detail and different uses of narrative. The audiences and purposes shift at every level of the criminal justice system, and every position you may hold in your career has a different focus, audience, and purpose. Learning to control the narrative, then, is key so that you can manage your writing at any level of career and for any purpose or audience.

Internet Resources
In preparation for next week's discussion, Draft of Narrative Writing Task, complete the following: 

https://www3.bostonglobe.com/2014/03/22/jared-remy-timeline/RnIJqOgNMk6tryVl1YjATN/story.html?arc404=true

Examine the difficult case presented in the Boston Globe's "Timeline: Jared Remy's Troubled Past."
Peruse the timeline to familiarize yourself with the case.
Using the report narrative from the events of July 24, 2004 as a model, choose another item from the timeline that includes a police encounter (either a traffic incident or an alleged violent or threatening incident—each has been color coded respectively in the timeline) that has not been fully documented with a police report. You will write the narrative for the police encounter based on the notes that are presented in the timeline. Note: You may need to choose carefully to feel comfortable writing up a complete narrative. You can write more than one narrative for this exercise. And you can choose what to include from the notes that are presented to you, but you cannot make up information that is not presented to you. (If you conduct research on the case to fill in gaps in the information to make a more complete report, you must cite in the text where that information comes from; otherwise, it will be assumed that the information comes from this Boston Globe article, which serves as a simulation for our in-class activity and will need to be cited only at the end of your text.) Review the requirements for drafting the narrative writing task in the assignment instructions for the Unit 5 assignment, Final Draft of Narrative Writing Task.

Questions and Topics We Can Help You To Answer:
Paper Instructions:


In a Rogerian argument, you must establish common ground with a resistant audience. Your letter can tackle a topic of your choice, but it must based in an article you strongly disagree with. You may use any article in the textbook or find one online 
Your argument must be based on facts and sound reasoning. To strengthen your case, find at least two articles from credible sources online (that means no Wikipedia). 

Preparatory tasks:
1.    Find an article about a topic you are interested in.  The author of the article should be supporting an argument with which you do not agree.  
2.    Use the outline in the Barron Classical and Rogerian argument handout to organize your essay.

Your essay must meet the following requirements:
1.    It has a minimum of 1,500 words excluding the title and the Works Cited.
2.    The word count should not exceed 1,800 words.
3.    It follows the organization plan on the handout
4.    It uses correct MLA format (spacing, margins, header, in-text citations, works cited
14 Basic Features Common Ground.ppsx 
195_Knowing_Which_Sources_to_Acknowledge.doc 
Barron Classical and Rogerian.doc 
ChooseandUseQuotations.pdf 
Fact-and-Opinion.pdf 
fallaciesbrownbookhandout.docx 
MLA TEMPLATE.docx 

Questions and Topics We Can Help You To Answer:
Paper Instructions:

Getting Started With ePortfolio
Beginning a professional electronic portfolio is the first step toward preparing for the job market in the twenty-first century. This quarter, you will learn to write well for criminal justice, but you will also create a professional ePortfolio to showcase the writing artifacts that you will create in this course. You will add artifacts to your ePortfolio throughout this course. You should also add artifacts that you have from previous criminal justice courses or from previous criminal justice career work that you feel are compelling and relevant to your degree program here at Capella.

In this unit's studies, you read Kryder's 2011 article, "Eportfolios: Proving Competency and Building a Network." While this article is written for professionals teaching a technical writing course, you can learn quite a bit about how ePortfolios can be used to benefit your own learning and self-marketing during a job search, or even how the ePortfolio may be useful to you as a learner while working through a program.

Your first task is to set up your ePortfolio. Continual updating is in your best interest. Add files to your ePortfolio as you progress through this course (and others), as you will eventually lose access to your courses and the files in them. A second important step in this course will be to send your instructor the link to your ePortfolio, via course assignments. Review the assignments and other activities in this course to see which demonstrate your program outcomes, and add those to your ePortfolio now.

You manage the content and layout of your ePortfolio. Create categories in your ePortfolio for each program outcome where you can save related artifacts. Complete information regarding the use and management of your ePortfolio can be found via the Campus ePortfolio link in Resources.

Collect artifacts (documents, images, other relevant files) that you believe showcase your abilities as a writer, particularly as they pertain to our course competencies and your ability to be a leader in writing in the criminal justice workplace. Think about where you are going with your career and the types of writing that highlight your abilities or the types of writing that someone in this position might be doing. Also collect those artifacts that demonstrate your abilities to achieve the goals you set for yourself for this ePortfolio. Arrange the artifacts in a navigational structure and workflow that reads well and makes sense to you—one that tells the story of your work and leadership in the way you want it to be told. Be sure to include reflective content in each category you create in the ePortfolio to help the reader make sense of what they are finding, from how it has been arranged to what the specific artifacts themselves are or even more. You will also write a reflective cover document for the ePortfolio as a whole.

You will construct your final ePortfolio to showcase your skills and learning. And you will write a final reflection essay in Unit 10 that explains how to navigate through your ePortfolio, as well as the rationale for the contents you have selected.

Complete the following steps to get started:

Follow the link in the Resources. Review the ePortfolio instructions and job aids, and log in to your ePortfolio.
Set up your ePortfolio to organize your professional writing artifacts by creating categories.
Start to identify artifacts that will showcase your writing skills.
Start your ePortfolio. Draft a short (one-page) reflection explaining the following:

How do you believe business and technical writing differs from academic writing?
How will this ePortfolio showcase your writing and the edge it could provide in a job search?
Adhere to the following writing objectives:

Recognize the relevant differences between scholarly and professional writing.
Polish and proofread carefully to produce a clean final document.
Requirements
Written communication: Writing should be free of errors that detract from the overall message.
Length of paper: One page.
Font: Arial, 10 point.

Questions and Topics We Can Help You To Answer:
Paper Instructions:

A specific claim that promotes your position (side) on how your topic/issue is a problem in the United States - Remember, the argument is based around the idea that people disagree and/or take various sides on an issue. You need to take a firm stand on how your topic is a problem in our country- a national perspective. Do not simply state a fact, like, "There are many homeless people in the U.S." This is not an argument. It is a fact that has been proven with research. However, you could argue, "The increasing homeless population in the U.S. is largely due to mental health issues that are not properly addressed because of federal laws."
Logical reasoning and evidence that prove your claim - You need to craft an organized and logical argument that proves your claim. You must present sound reasoning that is supported with scholarly, relevant and recent evidence. It is also important how you present this information, meaning the research you use should not take the place of your own writing. Remember, research is there to support YOUR reasoning, not take the place of it.
You understand opposing claims/points of view and can refute them - You need to show that you understand the varying points of view on your topic and that you can analyze, paraphrase or summarize them. Also, you are able to refute these opposing claims using logic, reasoning, and evidence (not simply stating that others are "wrong" in their opinion).
The use of a table, graph or infographic that adds emphasis to your argument - Select a relevant and recent table, graph or infographic from a source to incorporate into your argument. It should be tied to your reasoning and used as evidence to support your claim. Properly cite it using MLA citation. *Only use one and it can not be larger than the size of a normal paragraph. Carefully consider the sequence, structure, and design of your argument when placing the infographic into your essay.
You understand your college-level audience and write to them in an objective, high style using clear, concise language - Even though this argument is based on your own opinion, you still need to write in a formal manner. Don't use wording that "hedges" your argument, like, "I believe" and "I think." Write in a confident tone. You are the authority of this argument. Do not rely on sources too much or have sources take over your essay. Your research should support your voice, not replace your voice as the authority in this argument. You want to continue to show that you have progressed in your writing this semester. It should be clear, concise and virtually free of basic errors in grammar and mechanics.
You understand how to properly create a full citation and in-text citation using MLA guidelines.
*To complete the assignment:

Write a four-page argument paper (not including your Works Cited page) that focuses on proving your topic is a national problem in the United States.
Use MLA citation
Incorporate and properly cite a minimum of 4 sources - 2 of them MUST be new sources (not used in any of the previous writing assignments) and 2 MUST be from the library databases
Incorporate one table, graph or infographic from a cited source that is relevant to your argument