English Composition II - ENGL 1213

The purpose of Essay 1 is to further expand on your argument abilities gained in Composition I.  In Composition I, the final assignment is the Classical Argument.  This is one of the most important structures in academic discourse.  It cannot be mastered in one go.  Reflect on your strengths and weaknesses with your first Classical Argument and write a new argument using the same structure from Composition I.

The essay should include the folllowing:

• MLA Format
• 3 pages (double-spaced), not including the Works Cited page
• In-text citations in the body of the essay
• Works Cited page with your credible sources
• A minimum of three sources

To complete this assignment, you should:

• Reflect: Think back on what you did well on the first attempt of the Classical Argument in Composition I.  What were some of your strong points?  Why do you think so?  Also, think about your weak points.  Why did you not do so strongly in some areas?  What can be done this time to make the essay better?  You must submit a reflection technique as part of the final essay grade.
• Utilize invention techniques: Before writing the essay, begin identifying your issue through a series of invention techniques, including but not limited to the following: brainstorming, listing, clustering, questioning, and conducting preliminary research.  You must submit invention techniques as part of the final essay grade.
• Plan and organize your essay: After the invention process, it is important to begin planning the organizational pattern for the essay.  Planning includes identifying your thesis, establishing main ideas (or topic sentences) for each paragraph, supporting each paragraph with appropriate evidence, and creating ideas for the introductory and concluding paragraphs.  You must submit evidence of a planning process as part of the final essay grade.
• Draft and revise your essay: Once you have completed the planning process, write a rough draft of your essay.  Next, take steps to improve, polish, and revise your draft before turning it in for a final grade.  The revision process includes developing ideas, ensuring the thesis statement connects to the main ideas of each paragraph, taking account of your evidence and supporting details, checking for proper use of MLA citation style, reviewing source integration, avoiding plagiarism, and proofreading for formatting and grammatical errors.

In Composition I, you wrote about a belief system and took a position about a part of the belief.  If you did not do this in Composition I, think back on what you believe you did well the last time you wrote a Classical Argument.

In Composition II, think about the research problem you selected in the Research Proposal.  Using the information discovered during the research proposal assignment, there needs to be an examination of a larger debate where you take a side in the argument, defend their stance with credible evidence, examine the counterpoints, and propose solutions to the problem.

This assignment helps you practice the following skills that are essential to your success in school and your professional life beyond school.  In this assignment you will:

• Access and collect needed information from appropriate primary and secondary sources
• Synthesize information to develop informed views to produce and refute argumentation
• Compose a well-organized, classical argument to expand your knowledge of a topic