THE TOPIC SHOULD BE SOMETHING ABOUT RAP MUSIC
Position Essay
This researched position essay is the culmination of the inquiry and exploration students
have conducted throughout the semester. Their goal is to compose an essay that offers the
argument they find most persuasive within the issue they have been examining. Their job is
to take a position within this debate, refute competing positions and alternatives, and
organize ideas effectively and efficiently. This research-based essay is directed to a
specific, academic audience, and it should include a bibliography of at least 10 sources (6
of which must be scholarly, peer-reviewed sources). The position essay will be 8-12 pages
in length, and students will deliver their findings to the class in an oral presentation with a
visual component on the day of the final exam. Below is a copied and pasted instruction sheet with more details:
Essay III: Research Position Essay
Details: You must make a debatable argument: this is not a summary or a report-style essay. You must understand your sources and cannot rely on them to make your argument for you. Your essay should be 8-12 pages long in order to pass, it must be a minimum of 8 full pages of writing (not counting the title page or works cited. It should reference at least 10 sources (6 of which must be scholarly, peer reviewed sources). All others must be CREDIBLE… All sources must be referenced in the body of your paper and cited on your works cited. Any time you borrow someone’s ideas you must properly cite that source, using MLA. Any passages lifted directly from a text must use quotation marks and be quoted accurately.
Project Goals:
- Find and read academic sources carefully to evaluate their credibility and relevance and obtain useful information.- add them to your annotated bibliography as you go …
- Accurately and ethically represent the ideas of sources
- Understand a topic thoroughly and complexly through research
- Argue for your own position in conversation with others
- Argue for your own position soundly and complexly, avoiding fallacies and oversimplification
- Understand and respond ethically to the views of others who may disagree with you
- Revise previous research and writing for new rhetorical contexts
- Practice and refine your own writing process (plan, invent, draft, revise, edit) for complex writing assignments.
Purpose: Mainly this paper should argue for your own position on a topic, supported by research. It should combine your own thinking and argumentation with that of outside sources. I recommend choosing a thesis that is either a claim of value, policy or cause -see your text book for more information on this.
Research: You should use sources in a variety of ways, including 1. Factual support. 2. Necessary contest for your argument, and 3. Conversation partners for you to agree with , disagree with, or differ from. A major part of your credibility in this paper is showing that you understand the topic in a complex, academic way , if the essay demonstrates noteable ignorance of important aspects of the topic, this will substantially lower the grade. Therefore, you should not procrastinate in doing research for this project as you will need to be familiar with all important aspects of the topic.
Sources: This essay must reference and cite a minimum of ten sources. It must use at least 6 scholarly sources (academic books, book chapters, or peer reviewed journal articles) In addition, the essay may cite sources from other credible media such as newspaper articles, popular periodicals, government documents, published interviews, etc. you should be careful to evaluate your sources for accuracy, credibility, and relevancy. You should avoid relying on dictionaries and encyclopedias and should not rely on just one or two sources for the majority of your information. The essay should not use more than two block quotations and not more than 750 words (about two and a half double – spaced pages) of quoted material.
Process: I cannot accept your research paper if I have not seen your work in progress (research spreadsheet, outline, rough drafts, sections of your paper, etc.)
Topic: Crucial to success in this paper is choosing a topic that is focused and able to be researched in scholarly books and current, peer – reviewed journals.
Previous Essays: You may integrate a relevant portion of your previous essays or annotated bibliography into this essay if you revise them for this new rhetorical purpose.
Organization: The essay can be organized in a number of ways and you should organize it in a way that best fits your purpose. It must include an introduction , clear argument, responses to possible objections, and a conclusion.
- The Introduction should grab the reader’s attention, provide necessary background information on the topic, provide a focus for the paper, and state a clear thesis. The introduction will likely be more than one paragraph long.
- The Body should offer a clear argument driven by your own reasoning as well as clear engagement with your sources . Your essay should employ sound reasoning and present sound evidence. It should contain no material that is not relevant to the thesis. Explanations, illustrations , and supporting detail frequently and appropriately to demonstrate the validity of the thesis.
- Responses to Objections: Your essay should present criticisms of the thesis (ie: counter arguments) fairly and ethically , and it should address such criticisms rationally and appropriately.
- The Conclusion should bring adequate closure to the paper. While it should reemphasize the thesis, it should avoid excessive repetition of previous points. It should also hype our thesis for your audience: What are the implications of what you’ve just said? How does it connect to some larger debate or problem? How might this affect your audience’s lives or their communities?
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