Fall '25 - ENGL 1301 - Cooper - by Kara Dixon: Your Assignment

Remember: Your instructor's requirements and guidelines always come first!  Librarians are here to help you meet those expectations.

PAPER #3:

READ THIS ENTIRE PAGE ALL THE WAY TO THE END BEFORE STARTING!

• For this assignment, you will write a persuasive paper. Refer to section 11 (under Tab 3) in the Maimon textbook (“Arguments”). The minimum word count is 800 words, which is NOT counting your Works Cited section.
• Note: Write this essay in an objective third-person point of view (NOT in first person nor personal “I”--unless you have relevant first-hand experience upon which to base one of your arguments. If you do, you may use the first person in ONE BODY PARAGRAPH, which also means neither the first nor last paragraph).
• Try very hard not to overuse you/your.
• You must underline your thesis statement (which cannot have nor need a semicolon nor be a question).
• Do not put a list in your thesis sentence, especially not a list of three things.
• Choose a position to argue for your thesis sentence. Here is the list so far:

PERSUASIVE TOPICS:

1. Gene Drive Technology: Okay, or too scary?
2. the ethics of pirating music/shows/movies/games/books
3. the ethics of facial recognition technology
4. Is it ethical for a government (on the federal, state, or city level, or anywhere in-between) to censor access to the Internet and social media? (This choice refers to censorship and restricting access for all adults-- things like what China does for its citizens, and like the United States trying to ban TikTok, not to the issue of restricting access for children.)
5. The ethics of social media companies selling your private information to advertisers
6. Online learning for K-12 students: what should be changed for it to be done most effectively?
7. The ethics of parents using technology to see what sites their children are going to on the internet (is this an invasion of privacy, or just good parenting?)
8. Should kids under the age of 16 be banned from being able to download and use taxi-service apps such as Uber or Lyft?
9. The ethics of AI art

• You may suggest your own technology-related topic (indeed you must, if other students have already taken all of the above), but you may NOT write paper #3, (nor paper #5), as a paper about why one company or product or business is better than another, or better than all the others, or the best of all possible choices.
• You must use at least two reputable, professional sources. (See the link below to resources from a librarian that might help with this.) You must annotate your works cited section (See the bottom section of this page, below.)
• You must get your topic approved by me before you start writing, because you are not allowed to choose the same topic as a classmate.

--Reminder: Your thesis sentence should be underlined.

--Don't start a sentence in an academic paper with And, But, nor Or

--Do not ever end a paragraph with a direct quote. Instead, talk for at least one sentence about the direct quote before moving onto the next paragraph, and explain why that direct quote is so important. (It must have been important, if one did not just paraphrase it...)

--A paragraph (for an academic paper) should be at least three complete sentences long, but do not make paragraphs that are 250 words nor more in length.

--You must cite at the end of each and every single sentence and/or quote that uses information or one or more ideas that came from a source, no matter what.

--In addition to citing each and every single time any information comes from a source, I also require that parenthetical notation be used at least once per source (because if I didn't, some students would attempt to avoid learning to use parenthetical notation by just mentioning the author name in the sentence, and it's not okay for students to not learn to use parenthetical notation).

--The next step after getting your thesis sentence approved by me should be getting your sources approved by me (Dr. Cooper). Don't start the paper until I approve the thesis, and then don't start until I approve the sources.

--I don't want you to use two (nor more) sources from the same source. So, for example, I don't want you to use two newspaper articles from the same newspaper.

--We do not use sources from non-journalistic websites. If it talks about "products" or "solutions" or is otherwise looking to get money from you (other than for a journalistic-type subscription, maybe), then they'll say anything to get money, and we don't trust them to be a secondary source (a secondary source is what we want-- someone unbiased who's not related to your topic except in that they're giving their expert or sufficiently-informed opinion about it).

--You must use in-text citation. Specifically, MLA uses parenthetical citation. 

--You must cite at the end of each and every single sentence that uses information from one of your sources.

For parenthetical citation, the most simple thing  I can say is that:

--you put the author last name and page number in the parentheses

--unless there's no author last name and then you put the first few words of the title instead in quotation marks (and the page number)

--skip the page number part if there isn't one

This is required for paper #3 (and paper #5).

Your textbook (or any MLA guide, or probably a lot of places online) can explain more about MLA and parenthetical notation.

--All drafts of paper #3 emailed to me must also include the MLA-and-annotated Works Cited section at the end.

--MLA wants your Works Cited section in alphabetical order based on whatever is listed first.

--If there is no human author name listed, skip that part and start with the title.

Persuasive topics you make up:

--Must have two arguable sides!

--People must possibly care!

--Should be interesting!

--You must pick a side!

All thesis sentences:

--cannot be in the form of a question!

--must be ONE COMPLETE SENTENCE! Therefore:

--cannot have nor require a semicolon!

--should be underlined, please

--should be somewhere in the first two paragraphs//somewhere in the first 240 words

--cannot contain a list, especially not a list of three things. (Two things is okay-- that's not enough to count as a "list.")

All persuasive thesis sentences:

--must clearly explain to me/reader exactly what it is you’re trying to convince/persuade me/reader of/about!
 

--Also, in the entire paper: don’t say “I believe” or “I think” or “in my opinion” etc.

You are allowed ONE body paragraph where you mention yourself or your sister or a friend of yours or your father or whomever IF it helps you persuade.

BUT this also means that:

--You can't mention yourself in more than one paragraph,

--You can't mention yourself in the first paragraph, and

--You can't mention yourself in the last paragraph.

Because:

--You can only mention yourself or say "my friend" or whatever in ONE body paragraph.

More about coming up with your own topic:

--Your topic, as stated above, cannot just have all the good arguments on one side. You cannot write your topic as "My paper will convince students to stay in school and not drop out." First of all, I don't want your thesis sentence to say "My paper will convince" like that, ever (but this is a bad example thesis, so what the heck). Second of all, that topic doesn't involve technology enough (but this is a bad example thesis, so whatever). But most importantly, the opposite of this thesis would be "My paper will convince all students to drop out of school immediately and forever." Well, that's just absurd (or "unbalanced"), so you aren't allowed to argue the opposite side of a stupid paper. You have to have a topic that could theoretically be taken seriously from either side, even though you're only arguing one side.
 

Persuasive essays only:

• Pathos: appeal to emotion/heart

"You should adopt this puppy because it's so cute!"

• Logos: appeal to logic/reason/brain

"You should adopt this puppy because studies show that petting a puppy lowers your blood pressure."

• Ethos: appeal to ethics/morals

"You should adopt this puppy because it's the right thing to do."

• A different kind of ethos: appeal to celebrity

"You should adopt this puppy because I, Keanu Reeves, think it's a good idea for you to do it."

This is because ethos doesn't REALLY mean "ethics," because the word "ethics" doesn't REALLY mean "ethics." What both of those words REALLY mean is "stuff people believe in." And sometimes people believe people just because they're famous, so they trust that famous person (whether they should or not).

• A different kind of ethos: appeal to authority

"You should adopt this puppy because I, a mental health expert, think it would be good for you."

This is just a little different-- it's ethos because it's about trusting the person saying it, but in this case, there's a little more reason for trusting their opinion.

Counterargument/Rebuttal:

These are basic terms from debate classes.

• Counterargument:

Counterargument is when you imagine what people who wouldn't agree with you might say (so you can get ready to show why what they might say isn't as good of an argument as what you have to say).

"Some say that you shouldn't adopt a puppy, because you'll have to take it for walks and clean up after it."

• Rebuttal:

Rebuttal is where you actually show why what someone who wouldn't agree with you might say isn't as good of an argument as what you have to say. (Sometimes you can sort of skip over actually saying the counterargument directly, like in the example below, which works with or without the previous example sentence.)

"Even though it's true that if you adopt a puppy, you'll have to take it for walks and clean up after it, that's not as important as the years of love and happiness you'll get as a result of adopting a puppy."

SO: You must use at least some logos in your paper. You may use only logos, if you wish, because some topics are just like that. The paper must also use rebuttal at least once. (Some topics need extra rebuttal-- I'll tell you if you have one of those).
 

Here is stuff that a librarian has compiled and written for this class about the library and research--...

https://researchguides.austincc.edu/ENGL1301_Cooper

BE SURE TO TAKE NOTE OF THE TABS AT THE TOP OF THE RESEARCH GUIDE PAGE. EACH IS CLICKABLE.

(Yes, you have to do paper 3 (and paper 5) using MLA citation style.)

VERY IMPORTANT!

THESE ARE THE RULES FOR THE ANNOTATIONS!

You must not only HAVE a bibliography/works cited section, it must not only be done MLA style, but you must also ANNOTATE it. To understand what that means, read below!

(THIS IS VERY IMPORTANT! YOUR PAPER WILL NOT BE ACCEPTED IF YOU DON'T DO THIS! YOU MAY NOT TAKE THE C-TEST IF YOU DON'T DO THIS!)

To make the Annotated Bibliography/Works Cited, answer-- FOR EACH AND EVERY SOURCE IN YOUR WORKS CITED SECTION-- any three of the questions below (BUT ALWAYS #2!), using complete sentences:

1. Is this source useful to your paper topic? Why/why not?
2. (ALWAYS ANSWER THIS ONE!) Is the writer/creator of this source reliable and trustworthy as far as knowing what they’re talking about? How do you know/how can you tell? (In other words, besides maybe doing a good job writing about it, what reason is there to think that their opinion is any better than just the average person's opinion?) (ALSO: the credentials of the writer are often quite important, it's true, but usually what's even more important is whether or not the publisher is trustworthy, since they're the ones who are supposed to validate the credentials of the author.)
3. Does the date when this source was written matter? In a good or a bad way? Why/why not?
4. What was the most interesting/useful part? Why?

So, every time you list a source in your Works Cited section, it'll have at least three complete sentences below it. (And always, one of those will be answering question #2.)