INRW 0340 Co-req w/ ENGL 1301: Spaventa/Frye Spring '24: Your ENGL 1301 Assignment!

ENGL 1301: Exploring American Identities: Research Essay

This is Part 3 of the research assignment journey. Part 1 is reading information and taking the quiz; Part 2 is completing the annotated bibliography.

Overview:

Choose two people from America (the United States/indigenous land) who have advocated for civil rights, and compare and/or contrast their work. After presenting a brief overview of their work and a few details that you find interesting, write about why you chose these particular people from the list and what you find remarkable about them. Feel free to also compare them to each other and to people you know. The essay should be 1,000-1,500 words. The list of advocates to write about appears in the Blackboard folder, the Annotated Works Cited instructions, and in a box on this tab of this research guide. Please stick to that list. You must use and document 4-6 credible sources, at least 2 of which come from ACC’s databases.

Essay Structure:

Make sure you read the slides that complement this essay (provided in class). It is helpful to think of this essay’s structure in 4 parts: introduction, research, reflection, and conclusion. Outline examples for this research essay (essay 3) may be found here.

Introduction

In your introductory paragraph, provide a hook, give necessary context, and end with a thesis. Your thesis will introduce the full names of the activists and allude to your interest in them. Don’t put very specific sorts of information in the introduction.

Research

In the first body paragraphs of the essay, use your research to explore the activists in a comparison and/or contrast pattern. The following questions may help you organize the information.

Summaries of the activists: make sure to cite your sources.

• What were/are their backgrounds?
• What were/are they advocating for?
• What was/is their motivation?
• What actions did they take or have they taken?
• What controversies, if any, did they inspire?

Interesting details: make sure to cite your sources.

Arrange these paragraphs using alternation of detail (see example outline). You will be using the third person point of view here.

Reflection

Discuss your motivations for researching these people. You should use the first person point of view here.

Conclusion

Tie your paragraphs together. You might end by talking about legacy.

Works Cited

Even if you turned in the Annotated Works Cited Assignment, you must include a Works Cited page (without annotations) at the end of your essay and in the same document.

ENGL 1301: Exploring American Identities: Research Essay

Activists as Subjects

Here are some subjects for your research. Choose two, and choose at least one person with whom you are completely unfamiliar. Do preliminary research before you decide on your subjects. I will consider other activists, but they must fit the criteria (from the United States, historically underrepresented population, articles available in ACC database) and you need written permission.