Beginning Your Draft: Laying Out the Qualifications

Last updated
Save as PDF

Page ID: 186633

\( \newcommand{\vecs}[1]{\overset { \scriptstyle \rightharpoonup} {\mathbf{#1}} } \) \( \newcommand{\vecd}[1]{\overset{-\!-\!\rightharpoonup}{\vphantom{a}\smash {#1}}} \)\(\newcommand{\id}{\mathrm{id}}\) \( \newcommand{\Span}{\mathrm{span}}\) \( \newcommand{\kernel}{\mathrm{null}\,}\) \( \newcommand{\range}{\mathrm{range}\,}\) \( \newcommand{\RealPart}{\mathrm{Re}}\) \( \newcommand{\ImaginaryPart}{\mathrm{Im}}\) \( \newcommand{\Argument}{\mathrm{Arg}}\) \( \newcommand{\norm}[1]{\| #1 \|}\) \( \newcommand{\inner}[2]{\langle #1, #2 \rangle}\) \( \newcommand{\Span}{\mathrm{span}}\) \(\newcommand{\id}{\mathrm{id}}\) \( \newcommand{\Span}{\mathrm{span}}\) \( \newcommand{\kernel}{\mathrm{null}\,}\) \( \newcommand{\range}{\mathrm{range}\,}\) \( \newcommand{\RealPart}{\mathrm{Re}}\) \( \newcommand{\ImaginaryPart}{\mathrm{Im}}\) \( \newcommand{\Argument}{\mathrm{Arg}}\) \( \newcommand{\norm}[1]{\| #1 \|}\) \( \newcommand{\inner}[2]{\langle #1, #2 \rangle}\) \( \newcommand{\Span}{\mathrm{span}}\)\(\newcommand{\AA}{\unicode[.8,0]{x212B}}\)

Laying Out the Qualifications

It’s now almost time to begin writing your research argument. If your outline was really well writte - this should be cinch! You should be able to pretty much turn your outline into sentences and...presto!

Just to remind you...this research paper will try to accomplish multiple tasks:

Provide an overview a small portion of your person’s life(without sounding like an encyclopedia entry!), focused on one topic within their life or on one time period in their life
Make an argument about why your person is influential in today’s world. Think to yourself how you might persuade an audience that a school or a park or center should be named after this person -- or think about presenting an argument that your person has shaped history more than many others.
Provide evidence from your survey and your research of how your person changed our world today

Other requirements for the paper will include:

4-5 pages in length
Includes parenthetical citations and an MLA Works Cited page
Cites at least five sources total, with at least two of those sources being primary sources
Uses student survey as an additional source
Has an engaging introduction that identifies the research topic and invites further reading
Has a clear organizational pattern
Uses transitions effectively
Includes a conclusion that entices the reader to consider further implications of the project
Uses rhetorical devices (covered in more depth in session 5)
Varying sentence structures for easy reading
Few, if any, grammatical errors

The rubric attached below will help you further understand the purposes for your writing.