After that, we will talk about your next writing assignment! Yay!
We have spent plenty of time discussing APA formatting now, so now it's time to put it into real practice. Your task will be to write a 2-3 page informational research essay on a current event or issue. This event or issue should not be the same topic that you discussed in your Persuasive essay.
You will need to consult at least 3 sources for this essay; preferably they will be different formats (i.e. they aren't all articles you accessed on CNN). Feel free to quote scholarly articles, videos, printed newspaper articles, etc.
This paper should incorporate information from each source (they should all have in-text citations), and the entire essay should be formatted in APA style.
The rough draft of this essay will be due on Tuesday.
Some tips to help you get started/ pick a topic:
1. Look through the headlines of several media outlets
2. Find an article that interests you
3. Do further research through other sources to deepen your understanding of it
4. Highlight the main ideas of each article or video, noting some important facts, statistics, quotes, etc.
5. Summarize the event or issue in your essay
Your thesis for this essay will look a little different than it did for your persuasive essay.
Here is an example of an explanatory thesis statement from the Purdue OWL Writing Lab:
Example of an expository (explanatory) thesis statement:
The life of the typical college student is characterized by time spent studying, attending class, and socializing with peers.
The paper that follows should:
- Explain how students spend their time studying, attending class, and socializing with peers