The assignment will consist of seven sections, which are the following:
1. TITLE [centered, formatted as described]: This assignment is not the CAESUR Essay itself, but the Proposal for it. Accordingly, the title on this assignment needs to reflect that. What you need to do is to come up with a good creative, informative, relevant title for your planned CAESUR Essay, and then format it as:
Proposal for “Creative Attention-Grabbing Main Title: Followed by a More Straightforward, Succinct Description of My CAESUR Essay”
2. THESIS STATEMENT [one sentence, or two max.]: Your thesis statement must use the components of the TS formula (P, X, ABC) in a way that clearly conveys your argument, expresses what it reveals about our culture, and delineates its subtopics with clarity and specificity to show how it will prove this arguable claim. A good starting place for beginning to formulate your TS is to write out an answer to your Research Question from Paper #3.
3. OUTLINE OF BODY PARAGRAPHS [minimum of 5 sections, in outline format indicated below]: Your outline should represent the skeleton of the body of your essay. To complete this, you will need to consider how to organize the paragraphs, how to make the ideas progress in the best manner, and how each paragraph relates to the ones preceding and following it. Each section should be formatted like so:
I. STATE THE PARAGRAPH TOPIC
1. Write the Topic Sentence for the paragraph as a complete sentence.
a. Piece of evidence #1 (a quote or paraphrase–or a description of your plan for the paragraph–with in-text citation)
b. Piece of evidence #2 (a quote or paraphrase–or a description of your plan for the paragraph–with in-text citation)
4. HISTORICAL CONTEXT [one paragraph]: Every topic has ample background information that is crucial to understand before being able to assess its current standing. In this section, you will trace the background/history/development of your subject and bring the reader up to date on where the issue stands today. Do this section in chronological order, briefly hitting major landmarks from the beginning until its current state. Topics with particularly long histories should focus in on the more relevant and significant aspects of this history to your topic, while remaining comprehensive. Remember that you must cite all information derived from an outside source, both in-text and as an entry on the Works Cited page.
5. AUDIENCE ANALYSIS [one paragraph]: This section goes into detail about the “Who cares?” question, identifying the group most likely to take an interest in your essay from the start, but also considering those who are less likely to be interested. How will you make your essay accessible to those who are not its central target audience while still keeping the essay interesting for those who have more knowledge and familiarity with the topic? What specific aspects of your essay will be directed at each of these groups, and why do you think this tactic will be successful at gaining its respective audience members’ interest and attention? [Note: This section will not appear in your the final CAESUR essay (aka Paper #5). I am asking you to consider it here in order to develop your own understand, rather than as itself a component of the essay-to-be.]
6. COUNTERARGUMENT [one paragraph]: Even if your topic is not one with two immediately apparent sides, any argumentative essay can be (in fact, must be able to be) disagreed with. Consider how naysayers might disagree with and try to refute your argument. What would be their counterargument? How would they seek to prove this counterargument? How will you incorporate the naysayer into your essay? Are there aspects of your essay/argument that you worry are particularly open to criticism and refutation? Remember that you can’t avoid challenges to your ideas—you need to embrace them as ways to strengthen your argument. This section is an analysis of that process.
7. WORKS CITED [minimum of 10 sources in alphabetical list]: End your proposal with a Works Cited listing for any sources used in writing this proposal, as well as any sources that you plan to use to complete Paper #5 (but which have not appeared in the current assignment). Identify the distinction by placing the sources cited in this Proposal in bolded font. For example, if you have a total of 12 sources on your WC page, and 10 of them have been used in the body of your Proposal (either in the Outline, or in Historical Context, or elsewhere), those 10 should be in bold font. The other two, which you plan to incorporate for the final essay, but which were not yet used in this Proposal, should be in regular font.
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There are a whole lot of details to keep track of for this assignment, as you can see from the above. In order to help you ensure that you’re approaching Paper #4 in the right way, I have uploaded to Files a former student’s “Proposal for CAESUR,” to serve as an illustrative model for the format of the assignment. (I encourage you to download the file and make use of its formatting if you wish to save yourself the effort of aligning each of the sections yourself. Note that the way this example essay appears is exactly how your Paper #4 should look and be formatted.) You can access this full example here: 1320 EXAMPLE ESSAY – Paper #4, Proposal for CAESUR.docx Download 1320 EXAMPLE ESSAY – Paper #4, Proposal for CAESUR.docx
Word limit: 1200 words minimum
Your essay must have: (1) A label with your name, course #, my name, and the date on the top left of the first page only. (2) a header with your last name and the page # at the top right of each page, (3) A title for your essay, centered. [This particular assignment, as an annotated bibliography, deviates from the standard essay format. Thus, it contains] (4) the seven sections listed above, in order, ending with a Works Cited page.
Layout: Compose your essay in Times New Roman size 12 font, with page margins of 1″ all around, doublespaced. Use Microsoft Word if possible (you can get it for free via ITACLinks to an external site.), and save/export the file as a .docx, .doc, .rtf, or .pdf to ensure it will be fully accessible once submitted.
For an example of the essay’s proper formatting–which could also be used as a template for those settings–use the following file: 1320 EXAMPLE ESSAY – Paper #4, Proposal for CAESUR.docx Download 1320 EXAMPLE ESSAY – Paper #4, Proposal for CAESUR.docx