ASSIGNMENT: STANCE ESSAY

Congratulations! You made it to your final assignment, and you have learned so much along the way.

• In the personal essay, you learned how to write with a strong personal voice.

• In the informative essay, you learned how to write objectively and support your points with credible sources to inform the audience.

Now in your final assignment, you will combine these writing techniques to write a stance essay. A stance essay takes a position on a topic and argues and supports that position with evidence. Consider your topic:

• What possible positions/arguments are there?
• What position resonates with you? (Which position do you believe is correct?)
• What are your main points?
• What are the counterpoints? Are you ready to dispute them?
• Do you have enough evidence to effectively support your argument?

For the stance essay, your personal voice (your perspective) should come through. This is just like assignment 1, except you should maintain a formal tone. And just like assignment 2, you will need to support your points with credible sources. You're ready to take a position on the topic you have been writing about and to be persuasive!

INSTRUCTIONS:

Compose a three-four page paper in which you do the following:

1. Use third person point of view (POV) and the appropriate voice and tone throughout your paper. a. Did you use third person pronouns? (he, she, they, their) b. Does your personality carry over in your writing? Are your word choices personal and consistent? c. Is the tone formal? Does it express your atitude about the topic?

2. Write an introduction paragraph, which includes your thesis statement. It is suggested that this paragraph contain 5-7 sentences. a. Does your introduction include solutions or approaches on the topic? b. Does your thesis statement include three supporting reasons that clearly express your stance on the topic? c. Is your thesis statement clear and concise? d. Does your introduction provide a preview of the rest of your essay?

3. Write a supporting/body paragraph for each of the three points/reasons from your thesis statement. It is suggested that each paragraph contain at least 5-7 sentences. a. Do your body paragraphs support each point of your thesis with relevant examples or statistics? b. Do you address the opinions or concerns that your audience might have? c. Did you paraphrase, quote, or summarize properly to avoid plagiarism? Did you comment on each quotation?

4. Write with logic and with transitions throughout your paper. a. Are your ideas consistent and well-organized, i.e., chronological order or order of importance? b. Do your ideas flow from one sentence to the next and one paragraph to the next, in the order presented in your thesis statement?

5. Write a conclusion paragraph. It is suggested that this paragraph contain 5-7 sentences.

a. Did you paraphrase or restate the thesis in a new way?

b. Did you leave a lasting impression, so that your readers continue thinking about your topic after they have finished reading?

6. Apply proper grammar, mechanics, punctuation and APA formatting throughout your paper.

a. Did you check your grammar?

i. The way words are put together to make units of meaning: Sentence structure, pronoun-agreement, etc.

b. Did you check your essay for mechanics?

i. All the "technical" stuff in writing: Spelling, capitalization, use of numbers and other symbols, etc.

b. Did you check the punctuation?

i. The "symbols" used to help people read/process sentences the way you want them to be heard and understood: Periods, question marks, commas, colons, etc. d. Did you format according to APA style? (See requirements below.)

APA FORMATTING REQUIREMENTS:

Your assignment must follow these general APA formatting requirements:

• Be typed, double-spaced, using Times New Roman font (size 12), with one-inch margins on all sides. It should also have a running header, short title headers, numbered pages, indented paragraphs, and a References List with hanging indent(s).

• Include a cover page containing the title of the assignment, the student's name, the professor's name, the course title, and the date.

Note: The cover page is not included in the required assignment page length of three-four pages.

• In-text citations follow APA style, using attributive tags and signal verbs.
• Did you cite at least four sources (no more than two of the provided sources in the webtext)? Are your sources credible?
• Refer to the Soomo webtext or check with your professor for any additional instructions.