Your task is to write an 800 word minimum Position Argument essay formatted in MLA with a Works Cited List in response to the essay in Reading Critically, Writing Well by Amitai Etzioni: Working at McDonalds on page 249. This three draft essay is a thesis-driven argument that strives to meet the standards detailed in the rubric.You will argue for or against the positions Etzioni takes about high school students holding job, agreeing or disagreeing with Etzioni, while using the article as a source and a reference.Read the article carefully to understand what he is claiming. Your purpose is to convince your readers to take your argument seriously. Therefore, you will need to acknowledge readers opposing views as well as any objections or questions they might have. This is not a review; you are not evaluating Etzionis essay; you are taking a position while referencing each of his claims as a focus point.Brainstorming/Pre-writing questions to consider:Do you agree with the authors estimation of the value of work at McDonalds? Support your answer with reasons.
What do you think of Etzionis observations on the use and what he considers the general abuse of the money teens earn?
What are some of the opinions, values, or beliefs that Etzioni uses to support his judgment that working at McDonalds is bad for teenagers?
Does Etzionis essay remind you of any jobs you have had in the past? What would Etzioni have thought of your job?
Position papers take on controversial issues that have no obvious right answer, no truth everyone accepts, no single authority everyone trusts. Consequently, simply gathering information fact finding or expert sources will not settle these disputes because ultimately they are a matter of opinion and judgment. Although it is not possible to prove that a position is right or wrong,it is possible to convince others through a well-constructed, reasoned argument..Citation Guidelines: You must use and cite the one source from the text; no other sources are required, but if used, no more than three in total.
Make sure to include a correctly formatted MLA Works Cited List. Anything outside your own experience, or that is not considered common knowledge, must be cited, but your own ideas and voice must clearly be heard in the paper, while using the source as evidence to support your claim. You may NOT use Wikipedia as a source, but may use it to see what the conversation is about in your topic (make sure to scroll to the bottom of their page to see their credible sources). Be sure to review how to use quotes, paraphrasing, and summary effectively, and how to integrate evidence into a paper while citing correctly, both in-text and on the Works Cited List. Be sure all sources used (no more than three) are cited in-text correctly. For the textbook article, put the authors last name and the appropriate page number in parentheses after every instance of summarizing, paraphrasing and quoting if not introduced in a tag line Author states/claims/argues.Cite other sources correctly according to MLA style citation standards. Include ALL sources on the Works Cited List, alphabetized correctly. Essay evaluation by the Portfolio Evaluation Team in the Testing Office will be based on correct submission of all three essay drafts in the Portfolio, the Originality Report indicating a small percentage (no more than 10%) of similarity, correct use of sources and citations, effective essay structure with an introduction, conclusion, strong thesis statement, and an evaluation of sentence level mechanics: grammar, language, spelling, syntax, and punctuation.You may visit the SCAA in person, or work with an online SCAA tutor; contact the Center for more details. Please note that, if you have gone to the Writing Center, you must include the drafts you worked on with them, in order. Drafts with handwritten tutor comments must be scanned and uploaded.Be sure that the latest draft, a clean copy with no instructor comments, is placed first in the Portfolio, followed by earlier drafts and pre-writing, so that the evaluation team looks from latest to earliest writing when opening that section of the portfolio.This will help the evaluation team to see your writing in process. Here is the process for submitting the essay:
1. The first draft is uploaded through the assignment link available in the Position Essay Information folder in Week Four.
Save your draft as a Word document as: Your Name Position Essay First Draft.doc
Late essays are NOT accepted; the link will be unavailable after the due date NO exceptions.
2. You will receive instructor comments on the first draft.
3. Revise that paper get feedback comments from the Learning Center either in person or on line, or you can get peer reviewed from a classmate that is your second draft.
(Save this for your Portfolio it is NOT submitted to the course.)
4. You write another revised draft; this is the Final Draft
5. Upload your Final Draft through Blackboard to Turnitin.com watch this video: How to Submit Essays to Turnitin.com
6. Download your Turnitin Originality Report watch this video: How to Download Originality Reports
7. Save all three drafts for the Final Course Portfolio in this order:
Position Essay Assignment Prompt Sheet
Final Draft with NO comments labeled as the Final Draft
Turnitin Orginality Report of 10% or LESS similarity
Draft Two with tutor comments
Draft One with instructor comments
8. Create your E-Portfolio during Week Nine and submit it to the course by 5 pm Monday of Week Ten. Once is it approved, it will be sent to the Testing Office by Thursday noon.
Late Portfolios are NOT accepted by the Testing Office, and the class is OVER Thursday at noon of Week Ten. Formatting:
LABEL your uploaded draft as: Your Name Position Essay First Draft (NOT with the title)The formatting should be a 12 point legible font. Indent each paragraph, but do not put extra spaces between paragraphs. Page numbers in upper right corner
Double-space in the upper left corner of only the first page: Your Name
English 3000 Section No.
Instructor Ziff
Date
Position Essay First Draft (or Second or Final)
Informative Title Should be Centered and Capitalized CorrectlyNOTE: Consider that the TITLE is the first opportunity to inform the reader. DO NOT just title it Position Essay.