Description
Essay Question:
Of the three forms of inequality we have learned about, which do you consider the most important one to solve in your lifetime and WHY?
In your essay, describe what the problem is like, giving examples from the videos and research, then propose a solution that will improve the situation. You need to argue for why your solution will work and why it’s the best option. Support your argument with facts, examples and quotes from experts. You can also include a specific personal example if that helps make your case, but other sources should be at least 60% of the essay.
Required Research:
In addition to the videos and article you were assigned to watch for the course, you need to find on your own at least one more source to help back up your points.
Use reputable sources. Your source must list an author (unless it’s a government website) and the writer must be an expert on the issue. Look up the writer using a google search. Do not use Wikipedia or Reddit articles in your paper.
I strongly suggest using the library article databases because these databases have already collected good articles and weeded out the garbage that circulates in the internet. Here’s a link to the library databases.
(Links to an external site.)
I like EBSCOhost, but JSTORE is excellent and so is ProQuest. You’ll need your De Anza portal credentials to log in and search for articles.
Organization:
Introduction: Paint a picture of the problem, explain what’s at stake, why it matters and any other background people might need to understand the issue you’ll talk about in the paper. Your thesis should name both the problem and the solution you’ll propose.
This is a problem/solution essay, but you don’t have to fix it for once and for all—just give the reader and the government a way to move forward, be more successful and reduce the problem you have chosen to write about.
Use one or two body paragraphs to explain the current level of this problem. What led up to this? If possible, identify any causes or sources of the problem and include your facts (research) about what’s going on now.
In one or two more paragraphs, explain what has been tried so far, and how well it has succeeded. Why do you think it has worked or not worked? Some of this can be speculation, but try to find out and if it’s hard to know the “why” part, make it very clear that you are guessing based on clues, rather than providing a definitive answer.
In the paragraph before the conclusion, suggest something that you think the people should try or do more of in order to reduce this problem. Remember, you aren’t arguing that homelessness or gender bias or racism in education is bad or but what we should do to at least partly solve it.
In the conclusion, you can remind readers briefly of your overall point, but after that one sentence, move on to look at the issue more broadly. Answer at least one of these questions:
Why does this matter to you, to readers and/or to the world?
What recommendation can you make for action on our part (readers)?
What will be the outcome if your advice is followed or not?
You can also end with a poetic quote. Please don’t summarize all your body paragraphs here, and don’t throw in new details or examples—it’s time for the big picture.