Essay #3: The Exploratory Essay
For Paper #3, you will expand merely summarizing sources in an annotated bibliography into a substantial reflection in the exploratory essay. The exploratory essay asks you to describe and reflect on your critical thinking process.
In the process of completing this essay, you should first identify what your original perception was on the research question you had. If you write about gun control, for instance, you may say something to the effect that you believed the government should not interfere before you started doing your research. This will be your introduction: what was your original thought? In the terms of the dialectic, this is your initial thesis.
Then, you will want to bounce each source off of your original question in the body of the paragraph. Each paragraph should contain a strong response to a source. In a dialectical fashion, how did the source add/enhance your understanding or opinion of the issue? Did it change your opinion, or make it stronger? How about the process of writing to find the sources: did you discover a gold nugget at 3 AM before the due date for the annotated bibliography? Have you found anything new now, even after your original ten sources, to change/alter your thinking? Each paragraph should build off the other and tell a story about the pains and pleasures of the research process. You don’t have to talk about all of your sources from your annotated bibliography, but talk about all the ones that will build a strong argument. You should talk about new sources even outside the bibliography. Make this paper personal and creative!

Getting sources that go against your initial opinion is essential. This part of the dialectic is called the antithesis. It’s meant to clash with your initial thesis. It’s important to see how your ideas clash with that of others. Without a substantial antithesis, your research process is significantly weakened.
The final conclusion will be the synthesis, which is the logical result when a thesis and antithesis collide. What is your final opinion on the issue now, after completing all this research? How has your understanding of the problem changed? If it’s the same, how is your opinion stronger? If different, what changed it? The conclusion to your exploratory essay will be the thesis for your next paper, the argument. This is your final thesis that you have come to after undergoing a rigorous process of research.
Sources should be professional academic sources; www.****.EDU
https://www.libraries.wvu.edu/ is recommended.