Essay Assignment: Problem and Solution
Write a problem and solution Essay about Sexual Assaults on College Campuses.
What to Do:
For this essay, propose a solution to a problem that is relevant to eitherthe UW-Stout community or to your home town or city. Inform your essay with research.
What is the Research Requirement?
Use at least 5 sources total. Among these 5 sources should beat least 1 scholarly journal articleand 1 book (an e-book you retrieve through the library is acceptable).
Word Count: Minimum of 1000 words (not including the works cited page)
Common Aspects of Problem-Solution Essays:
• Describe the problem:
o Establish that the problem is worthy of your audience's concern.
o Make the problem vivid. Help your readers see where and how this problem occurs in the real world.
o What are the causes of the problem, and what are the effects?
o What will happen if the problem is not dealt with?
• Propose a solution:
o Assert your claims about how the problem should be solved.
o Provide support demonstrating that your ideas for solving the problem are valid and realistic.
o Weigh the costs and benefits of your proposal.
o Perhaps provide a vision for how things would be different if the solution you're proposing were enacted.
• Justify your claims:
o Provide evidence demonstrating there is a problem and that your ideas for solving it are good ones
o Discuss why other possible solutions would not be as effective as yours
o Perhaps discuss the values that your solution holds
How Will Your Essay Be Graded?
Your essay will graded on how well it meets these challenges:
• Identifies and describes the problem.
• Describes how the problem occurs in the UW-Stout community or your community back home.
• Details a solution and establishes its viability.
• Integrates your research into your writing in a way that crafts a conversation or argument.
• Utilizes at least the required minimum of sources.
• Summarizessources' ideas accurately and in detail.
• Quotes and paraphrases effectively and correctly.
• Employs correct citation and formatting (MLA).
• Uses a style that meets the needs of the audience and that contains a minimal amount of distracting errors.
Who is your audience for this essay?
In The Curious Researcher, Bruce Ballenger recommends "writing across" rather than "writing up" (19). By "writing across," Ballenger means writing to your peers-your classmates, who are in your "discourse community" (i.e. your ENGL 102 class).
During this project, you'll be discussing your ideas with your classmates, sharing your writing with them, and receiving and implementing their feedback.
As Ballenger points out, "you're trying to make your topic relevant and interesting to people who share in your own ‘discourse' community. As you advance in college, that community will become more specialized and so will your writing" (19). As you may have noticed when we were introducing ourselves in class, we're a pretty varied group, coming from a variety of places and having a variety of interests. We're also all here, a part of the UW-Stout community!
Formatting:
The document should be formatted according to MLA guidelines.
The Double-Entry Journal for Essay 3
What to Do:
The "double-entry journal" is a tool for tracking your research and your responses to the ideas you encounter in your research for Essay 3. As you research, write the APA or MLA citations for the sources you're consulting in the left-hand column and below them jot down quotes and paraphrases (at least 3 for each source). In the right-hand column, type your commentary on these quotes and paraphrases. Be sure to place quotation marks around any exact phrasing borrowed from a source, and do include page numbers as applicable (some sources don't have page numbers, so you can't give page numbers).
As Ballenger discusses in The Curious Researcher, "diving deep" into your topic helps you become knowledgeable about your topic. Include entries for at least 2 scholarly journal articles andat least 2 books or ebooks.Have entries forat least 10sources total.
Value: (5 for correctly formatted works cited entries, 10for quoting and paraphrasing correctly, and 10 for thoughtfulness of the commentary).
In this column, write each Source's APA or MLA works cited entry. Then, below each entry, write at least 3 quotes or paraphrases from each source. Include page numbers. In this column, write your commentary on the quotes and paraphrases in the other column. Commentary may be what you notice, what you're confused by, what is surprising, what you initially agree with, what you initially dispute, what you want to learn more about, what you might want to use for Essay 1 and how, etc.