North Seattle Community College

ENGL&102: Composition

JC Clapp

Argument Synthesis Assignment
 

Overview:

This Argument Synthesis assignment requires you to use your analysis, research, and critical thinking skills to formulate a unique argument (persuasive thesis) that uses researched evidence to support it.  You'll be writing a 5 page (at least 1,100 words) academic essay, complete with a Works Cited page (Chapter 4 in A Sequence for Academic Writing spells out the details). In your essay, you will be focused on answering this question: What should be the role of science in society?

Choosing a "way in" to the topic: For this paper, your task is to analytically answer the question "What should be the role of science in society?" -- and that's a very broad question!  So, in order to approach it, you will need to choose a very specific angle or "way in" to it.  Think very carefully about the part that science, scientific education, scientific research, and scientific methodology should play in society and what changes we need to make (or what we should continue to do) to put science in that role you've defined.  You'll need to explain to us what role you feel science should play (and have research to support your position) and explain, using a particular example or "way in", what society would look like if the role of science was viewed in the way you view it. For example, you might want to focus in on science education, or the environment, or space exploration, or robotics. These readings in our Science and Society text are argumentative/persuasive and answer the question "What should be the role of science in society?" by using a particular focus as their examples:

As you're deciding on the way you're going to approach answering the question of what the role of science in society should be, try to make your "way in" (your topic) be as narrow and defined as possible. "Global Warming" is way too broad. However, looking at the ecological damage done by coffee cup lids in the Puget Sound might work.  There is a sample student paper here with the assignment sheet (same folder), so read it as a model.

Research Requirements: You need to decide what your "way in" will be and then use that particular topic to answer the question posed.  This assignment requires that you use at least one of the readings from one of our class textbooks (any part of either Science and Society or Lies, Damned Lies, and Science as evidence for your thesis).  Then, you will need to research on your own to find at least two other research sources to use as evidence as well. If you'd like to watch a video explanation, try going to YouTube (this video wasn't created by me!): http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=trIJ4dptq7I (this is the first of a multi-part lecture on writing an argument/analysis synthesis)

Argument Structure: Your goal here is to write a thesis-driven essay that is argumentative/persuasive: you are going to be trying to convince your reader to consider your definition and angle on the role of science and society as a valid one. To do this, you will need a clear thesis/claim grounded in what you know about the rhetorical triangle, a clearly formulated argument strategy, evidence that uses rhetorical appeals, and a strong organizational structure (the PIE approach works well).

Reflection on the Process: After you've written your essay, think about what the experience of writing this essay (and the experience of taking this class) may have taught you. For a minimum of one page, talk about your process as a writer and thinker. How has your approach to writing and researching changed? What did you learn this quarter? What did you hope to learn, but didn't? How do you see what we've worked on in this class being applied to your life outside of school? Do you feel your critical thinking, writing, and reading skills have been improved? If so, how and in what ways? You don't have to prescriptively answer all of these questions, but reflect on the writing of this essay and the taking of this course.

Formatting and Submission: For this assignment, please use standard MLA formatting (double-space, use 1" margins, 12 point font in Times New Roman, etc.), and save your file as a .doc or .docx or .rtf or .pdf file type so it can easily be opened. If you need assistance formatting your essay in MLA format, there's a great tutorial on YouTube (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1PRb6557EmI) -- that video walks you through how to format your essay and then, if you'd like, save that format as your default for Word.  If you need help formatting your MLA works cited page, this YouTube video explains it well: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aVplNS6ASAk  You will need to upload your file to the appropriate drop-box marked "Argument Synthesis" found under the Week 11 folder under the "Get Assignments" area of our class webpage. No late papers will be accepted.

Grading Criteria: The below criteria will be used to assess your work . . .