In the major writing project, you will be writing to analyze a subject from any area of your academic, professional, civic, or personal life. When you write an analysis (we will consider the definition of "analysis" in class), as our textbook tells us, "you need to consider how it will help your readers understand your topic in a new way and why you want them to gain this understanding."
You are free to choose your topic within the confines of what is appropriate to discuss within the class context. As with the previous writing assignments you undertook, the way you approach your topic - your angle - and the ways in which you realize it in writing are yours to choose for this assignment, too. For this assignment, because research is essential to analytical writing, you should make use of at least four (4) sources to develop and discuss your topic; these sources have to be reliable sources vetted by (and therefore discovered through) the databases and other resources and search tools held by the ASU Libraries - no .coms, .orgs, or any other websites or articles you might find through Google or similar search engines!
Because you are by now familiar with much of the process, you will develop this assignment in only four distinct stages:
1. select a topic and begin to develop it by fleshing it out with some necessary, telling detail ( McGraw-Hill Guide, pp. 219-20), some of which you will develop through research (see McGraw-Hill Guide, pp. 220-23) - a peer workshop will help you identify where you need to add or prune away such detail;
2. expand your invention work into a first complete draft (see McGraw-Hill Guide, pp. 224-9) - further feedback through peer review;
3. use the comments and suggestions you received during peer review to revise and improve your complete draft (see McGraw-Hill Guide, pp. 229-31) - another peer review session will specifically look for reactions to previous suggestions and whether the clarity and style of your text have improved;
4. use peer feedback and your own critical eye to edit and polish your text (see McGraw-Hill Guide, p. 231) into the final draft you will submit as the culmination of your writing activity for this assignment.