RESEARCH AND THE OTHER WES MOORE (EXPANDED)

ESSAY 4: RESEARCH AND THE OTHER WES MOORE (EXPANDED)

DUE: TUESDAY, APRIL 21 BY 11:59PM

In Essay 3 you began connecting the book we’ve read to your initial research on one important social issue that plays a role in the lives of the characters of The Other Wes Moore.

Ultimately, your goal was to create a thesis: a statement that combines your research topic and your insights about the topic’s connection to the book. To support the thesis, you combined evidence from the book and your research.

For Essay 4, you will build on your progress in Essay 3. You’ll also use my feedback to help you improve your structure, evidence integration, analysis, and MLA format. Your thesis might stay the same, expand, complexify, or change entirely. You will likely need to add new paragraphs, and you might change your overall organization. You will also expand the amount of research you have found, so you can go even deeper into your subject and support your claims more substantially.

Structure: 6-8 pages, double-spaced, 11 or 12 point font. The page length does NOT include the Works Cited, which will be on a separate page at the end of your essay. You will determine your paragraphs’ focus, evidence, and analysis. There is no “right” way to structure your paper, and everyone’s organization might differ. BUT: 1) This is not a book report; do not spend your whole paper simply recounting everything that happens in the book, 2) Your research should be integrated into paragraphs effectively; you do not want your paper to feel as though it is two separate components (the book and the research).

Research: You will be doing your own research, finding sources from the school’s database and the Internet. Any type of source can be used (movie, tweet, article, book, podcast, interview, website, etc.), so long as it is a credible source. Do not use Wikipedia as a source. Your sources will be cited in your essay as in-text citations and on a Works Cited according to MLA format. In Essay 4, your MLA format will be graded (you can see that on the rubric in the ‘evidence’ category, with the criterion marked with an asterisk * and a higher point total in the last column).

For Essay 4, you must use a minimum of 6 sources, and at least 1 must be from the school’s databases. You will also include The Other Wes Moore as a text, but it does NOT count as one of the 3 outside sources. There is no maximum number of sources, but pay attention to the page length requirement, and make your research manageable as you expand your essay.