Content: This assignment builds on the Annotated Bibliography and research you completed in Unit 2. You will use that assignment to build a short research
paper.
Length: 500 – 750 words
Content: An essay that informs the audience of a chosen topic through use of factual information.
Directions:
Choose from one of the topics below or design your own.
Have a clear thesis and develop at least four detailed paragraphs in support.
Have at least two sources quoted and cited within the paper, with a matching Works Cited entry. (You may have more than two sources, and you will also
paraphrase and cite.)
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Topics:
1. Science: Discuss a fairly recent (a 5 year window is acceptable) scientific discovery that you find interesting. Consider answering the following questions
in your essay: What is the discovery? How did scientists figure it out? Why is it important?
2. Odd Habits: Discuss a bizarre/peculiar/interesting thing that people do to benefit themselves. Consider answering the following questions in your essay:
What is the odd habit? Why is it being undertaken? When and why did it start? How do people benefit from it?
3. Strange Places: Discuss a place that you find strange and intriguing. It can be man-made, like a city or a building, or it can be a geographical location.
Consider answering the following questions in your essay: What is the place? What is strange about it? If it’s man-made, why and how was it built? If it’s
geographical, what physical factors contributed to its formation? What would it be like to visit this place? Does it still exist?
4. Free Topic: Choose your own topic. This one will involve more work since you will have to devise the topic and make sure it’s appropriate for a paper of this
length — neither too narrow nor too broad. However, if there’s something you’re really interested in that doesn’t make this list, you are welcome to explore it.
Academic Honesty:
Remember, any words or ideas that you take from another person must be documented, meaning, you have to tell me where you got them (in-text citations
plus Works Cited page). Failure to document outside sources appropriately may result in a failing grade for the assignment.
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Organization:
Multiple paragraphs required.
At least four are necessary for an essay of this length.
A simple way to organize would be to include your thesis in your introduction, then to use the paragraphs to explain at least one detailed fact about the topic
you’ve chosen.
Each paragraph should also include a reference to at least one of your sources.
A conclusion leaves the audience with an important idea to take with them.
