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| Unit Three: Academic/Professional Field Arguing Essay
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The purpose of Unit III is to take the analytical skills you developed in Unit I, the information you gathered in Unit II, and apply them to a topic in your own potential academic field. You will not be expected to speak as an expert on this topic to a professional audience, but rather will research your topic so that you can speak as an expert to a specific audience outside of the field.
Formal Topic Proposal: 5% (50 pts.)
This assignment gives you a chance to run your initial position, your analysis of the potential audience, the main claims you want to make, and the kinds of evidence you intend to research by me before you start the largest project of the semester.
Annotated Bibliography: 10% (100 pts.)
An annotated bibliography is an extended version of a regular "Work Cited" page. It gives you a chance to explore many different pieces of researched material and the points they support or refute in your essay. This also gives me a chance to offer advice about your sources, let you know where there might be holes in your research, or if a source might be unsuitable for your field/argument.
Arguing Essay: 25% (250 pts.)
In the Arguing Essay, you will start with a specific claim you want to make about an issue in your major, and argue for the validity of that claim to a specific audience outside of your field.