Unit 3 Informative Essay Assignment
In your essay assignment for this unit, due in Module 10, you will be creating an informative essay, meant to inform or explain a topic. Use these instructions to help you complete your first draft of this essay.
Purpose, Topic, and Audience
What are you curious about? We report and explain information when we want to understand an issue and share this understanding with others. Your purpose in this essay is to learn about a topic and explain it to others. The ability to accurately summarize information is important in most academic papers and in many professional settings. This type of writing appears in many academic and professional genres, such as public service announcements, brochures, magazine articles, internet sites, business reports, white papers, proposals, and briefs. In this assignment, though, you will write an academic essay following MLA format for an audience of peers: college students who would like to learn more about your topic. Please remember, however, that you should not use one of the topics to avoid as discussed in our Topic Ideas and Topics to Avoid for Your Unit 3 Informative Essay resource.
Evidence/Content
You may build on the experience you wrote about in Unit 2 or start on a new topic (See Topic Ideas for Your Unit 3 Informative Essay in the Unit 3 introductory module if you need help!). Once you decide on a topic, be sure to include what you already know about the subject. Then, use a variety of reliable sources to help you learn—web sites, interviews, magazine articles, or newspaper articles. All sources must be accessed through the GALILEO databases or community, educational, or government websites; include three to five sources total, one of which must be a peer-reviewed journal article. The best databases to use in GALILEO are Academic Search Premiere and ProQuest. You may not use any books unless you get prior approval, and you must not use AI to find sources, as AI often misrepresents what sources say.
Organization
Your organization should be logical and help the reader follow your ideas. Consider the guidelines of quantity, quality, relevance, and manner as you select and organize your material, but also remember to move beyond just reporting to explaining your information (show reasons for, connections within, or implications of the information you present).
Clarity, Readability, and Format
Write with your audience (engaged, intelligent adults) in mind, striving for academic English and effective style. Write in the third person only. Please do not use the first or second person in this essay. Your essay should follow MLA format and be submitted as a Microsoft Word file or PDF. Cite all ideas and facts with in-text citations, all words from sources with quotation marks and in-text citations, and a Works Cited page in MLA format for every source that informed your essay.
Requirements
Your essay should meet the following markers for success:
- Effective overview of the topic and its main ideas, with clearly articulated and specific thesis;
- Well introduced, contextualized, accurately represented, and explained textual evidence in each body paragraph;
- Strong organization, including topic sentences, logical relation of points within paragraphs, and transition sentences;
- Use of clear and straightforward language with little error;
- Evidence of critical thinking and synthesis, not just summary;
- Informed use of three to five credible sources, one of which must be a peer-reviewed journal article;
- Full attribution of all summarized, paraphrased, or quoted source materials through use of signal phrases, in-text citations, and works cited page;
- Completed development of a 3-5 page final draft in full MLA document format.
Grading Criteria
- Your ability to communicate a thesis: in this case a clear articulation of the topic to be explained, ideally with the points you will address to explain it;
- On the development and support of the main ideas in your paragraphs, including the use of properly introduced, contextualized, and analyzed information from your sources;
- On the organization of your work, and how effectively you have structured the synthesis of your information;
- On the clarity of your writing, and whether any errors of grammar or spelling, or places where the writing is awkward, remain after revision;
- On your use of full and correct MLA document formatting and complete and proper MLA citation for all quoted, summarized, or paraphrased source materials;
- On whether you have successfully addressed any aspects of the work that were confusing or needed further development in your rough draft.
Submissions
Your final draft must:
- Be in MLA document format, complete with running header, block header, and appropriate font, indentation, and line spacing.
- Be submitted as a Word .DOC or .DOCX file, or as a .PDF.
TOPIC
Topic Ideas for Your Personal Narrative Essay
For this essay, you will brainstorm ideas for your work and share these ideas with your classmates and professor to get feedback. The good news is that you are the expert in your own life and on what has been meaningful to you, so we hope you’ll have any number of great ideas! However, if you’re struggling to come up with a topic, here are some sample ideas. Use these to come up with something new!
- The day I challenged myself to do something I thought I couldn’t do
- An unexpected encounter or event that changed my perspective on life
- The experience of moving to a new place and adjusting to a new environment
- A difficult decision I had to make that shaped who I am today
- A mistake I made and had to face
- A moment when I had to confront my fears and overcome them
- An event that involved a special pet
- A vacation mishap or something unique that happened on a journey
- Meeting or losing a friend
- A realization I had about myself or someone close to me that had a profound impact on my life
- An experience of culture shock that challenged my assumptions and expanded my worldview
- A time when I had to stand up for myself or for someone else in the face of adversity
Topics to Avoid
Because this course includes dual-enrolled students who may be under the age of 18, it is important that all writing topics remain appropriate for a mixed-age, academic setting. Avoid subjects that are explicitly sexual, graphically violent, or otherwise unsuitable for minors. In addition, steer clear of overly personal topics that could make you or others uncomfortable, such as detailed accounts of trauma or sensitive private matters.
When in doubt, choose topics that allow for thoughtful analysis and academic discussion while respecting the boundaries of our shared learning environment. If you are unsure whether a topic is appropriate, please check with your instructor before beginning your assignment.
