Expository Essay Draft

Write a 1000-1500-word essay about a topic of your choice in the style described within Unit VI and VII.

Purpose: Throughout Units VI and VII, we have discussed the conventions of the expository essay. The purpose of this assignment is to measure your mastery of those conventions by putting your knowledge to practice. As we discussed in Unit VI, Lesson 1, the expository essay is a general term for an essay that expounds upon or explains a topic. The objective of the essay is to convey information to the reader; most importantly, an expository essay is an exploration of a topic, and the tone is explanatory. After choosing your topic, you will need to choose the form that is most appropriate to fit the topic: cause and effect, problem and solution, or sequential. A thesis statement, which contains the paper’s argument, will be appropriate to the form you choose.

Process: For the expository essay, you will complete the following steps:

1. Choose a topic: See Unit VI, Lesson 2, for more information about choosing a topic.

2. Create a plan of action: See Unit VI, Lesson 3, for strategies for assessing what you already know and assessing what you need to know.

3. Research the topic: See Unit VI, Lesson 4, for instruction on research methods.

4. Choose the organization of your essay: Choose between cause and effect, problem and solution, or sequential organization types. See Unit VI, Lesson 1, for a list of the three organizational forms, and see Unit VII, Lesson 1, for a description of thesis statements written according to the organizational form of the essay.

5. Create a thesis statement: See Unit VII, Lesson 1, for a description of thesis statements written according to the organizational form of the essay.

6. Draft the essay: See Unit VII, Lesson 1, for keeping brainstorming in mind and Unit VII, Lesson 2, for more on the drafting process and description of each essay section.

Stylistic details: All essays must meet the following requirements:

• Include 1000-1500 words.
• Write in Times New Roman, 12 pt. font.
• Include one-inch margins on all sides.
• Use double spacing (top-to-bottom every page, to include above and below titles and centered words).
• Include an APA title page (for all essays) and reference list that includes all of the sources used in the essay.
• Include a header.
• Include page numbers (upper-right corner only).
• Adhere to APA convention and documentation style (See the CSU citation guide for assistance.).
• At least one source is required. All sources used must be cited.

Hi Class–For your last essay, you have a choice of three types of expository essays:1. Cause/EffectExample: Three causes of air pollution and its negative effects. Thesis: Knowing the three causes of air pollution will… Organization: Focus on offering three body paragraphs that discuss one cause and one effect. Questions to ask: What are the causes? What are the effects? Who is effected? How? 

2. Problem/SolutionExample: The Problem of air pollution and the solutionThesis: The best solution to create cleaner air is… Organization: Think: Body 1: Discussion of the Problem, Body 2, 3, 4… Focus on the solution(s)Questions to ask: What is the problem? Who does it impact? Why is it a problem? What is the solution? Benefits of? Who does it benefit? How? 

3. Sequential Example: Five steps in writing an essayThesis: Understanding these five easy steps will… Organization: Think: steps or categories if more than five steps or if you’re focusing on “parts” of your topic (ie: three parts of a car engine). Questions to ask: Why is it important for your audience to know or understand these steps or parts?

Your task is to help the organization answer the health question by critically analyzing the data. You will run statistical tests, interpret the results, and present the results and recommendations to non-technical decision makers in the form of a statistical report. Keep in mind that it is your job to do this from a statistical standpoint. Be sure to justify your conclusions and recommendations with appropriate statistical support. Prompt: In order to successfully explore the health question, you need to plan what tests you need to run. In Milestone Three, you will create a table in which you propose the calculations and graphs you will need to perform to answer the health question you are investigating. In crafting your table, consider the following: 

Watch Choosing a Statistical Test (12:31). 

What tests will you need to run? If you are hypothesis testing,

what are your null and alternative hypotheses? 

Are there any tests that you want to use that you have not learned about yet?

What are they?

What is your plan for researching these tests?

Then explain why you chose these calculations to explore your health question. Specifically address this critical element: ● Process: Propose how you will go about answering the health question you were asked to address based on the data set provided. 

Chapter 13 Persuasive Messages

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Actions for Chapter 13 Persuasive Messages

Read the Chapter.

What are the two most important concepts in this chapter?

Describe the concepts as if you were explaining them to a friend.

How will you use the concepts in the class or in your personal or professional life?

To receive credit, you must use the terms from the text and write at least 150 words.

Chapter 14 Persuasive Speaking

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Actions for Chapter 14 Persuasive Speaking

Read the Chapter.

What are the two most important concepts in this chapter?

Describe the concepts as if you were explaining them to a friend.

How will you use the concepts in the class or in your personal or professional life?

To receive credit, you must use the terms from the text and write at least 150 words.

Chapter 15 Ceremonial Speaking

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Actions for Chapter 15 Ceremonial Speaking

Read the Chapter.

What are the two most important concepts in this chapter?

Describe the concepts as if you were explaining them to a friend.

How will you use the concepts in the class or in your personal or professional life?

To receive credit, you must use the terms from the text and write at least 150 words.

Speech Analysis

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Actions for Speech Analysis

Write an analysis of your speech presentation.

Write an overview of your feelings about the speech.

Then explain three things that you did very well and give two things you would like to improve?

Create an interview protocol that contains the following required components: (in regards to using PTSD treatment still as a topic)

• Central guiding research question
• Target population and sampling plan
  • Include estimated size of final sample
• Type of interview with rationale
  • Semistructured
  • Responsive
  • Narrative
• Format and schedule of interview questions
  • Main questions
  • Follow-up questions
  • Probes
  • Neutral prompts
• Planned location and estimated length of interview process
• Plans for the following:
  • Recording and transcription
  • Field notes
• Proposed analysis model and detailed plan for establishing reliability of your coding process outcomes
  • Cite the methodologist

4 pages APA format

You have written a profile about your basketball coach Mike Warren.

Praise

Your discussion of your former coach is perceptive and often nuanced.  You’re admiration of him is apparent and your sense of his character is robust – very good!

Recommendations and Strategies for Improvement

Focus

This paper lacks a thesis, and for that reason, your paper lacks a clear focus (except that it’s about coach Mike).  Remember, a thesis should describe all the major ideas you will explore in your essay – it’s a kind of blueprint, so that the reader can understand the basic arguments in your essay.  Try this exercise:

1.      After your first draft is written:  REVERSE OUTLINE a.k.a. IDEA MAP

Number your paragraph and write down the main idea of each paragraph of your essay.   Combine your main points into a single, strong, argument—now you have a thesis!

Also, you neglect a central aspect of the assignment – it needs to be in 3rd person.  That means you cannot refer to yourself – no “I” “me” “my” allowed. You are not a character in this essay, and your focus needs to be exclusively on Coach Mike. 

All of your editorializing about what you did for this assignment is unnecessary.  A section like this on page 2 needs to be cut out entirely:

“For this project, I booked for an interview with Coach Warren. He invited me to his office and took part in an interview. Combined with my personal observation of him, as well as, the comments from some of my teammates, that formed the basis for my profile essay about him.”

This assignment says you need to write a profile about someone, not a paper about the process.  Pay special attention to your assignment guidelines.  Try this exercise with all assignemtns:

2.      UNDERSTANDING THE ASSIGNMENT SHEET

·         Read the assignment sheet all the way to the end.  Reread the assignment sheet, circling important words, that explain what you are being asked to do or the steps you are being asked to take to accomplish the objective.   Hint:  Go for the NOUNS & VERBS!

·         Then, write the goal or objective of the assignment in your own words.  Then write:  What skill does the professor want you to develop by doing this assignment?

Organization

This paper lacks any clear organization.  While you do a good job focusing on one aspect of the coach at a time, there doesn’t seem to be much rhyme or reason why you pair a paragraph about loving the sport with a paragraph about the coach’s sense of the value of education.  Try to break your paper up into these three basic angles (each should have a few paragraphs):

Coach Mike the man

Coach Mike the coach

Coach Mike’s ethics

Sentences

Your sentences are generally clear. The major problem here is wordiness.  Your sentences are frequently repetitive and wordy, which obscures the ideas you are exploring.  Here’s one example:

“Being a person who loves and actively participates in the sport of basketball; I have had to regularly interact with Professor Mike Warren, our basketball coach who is also a sociology professor at my college. In this context, though Professor Mike Warren is a distinguished professor with exemplary academic capabilities, I have chosen to focus on his basketball coaching skills. This is the area I know of him best. I’m not as familiar with his teaching skills because I’ve not been part of his class. This paper will purpose to highlight his astute coaching skills that have seen in him.”

This can simply be rewritten like this:

“Mike Warren is a sociology professor and coach.  Although I haven’t take any of his classes, as a coach he has been a hero to me.”

You can write something better than I have, but you get the point.

Of course, this section relies too much on your own experience and should be cut entirely.

Wrap-Up

When you take out all the first person pronouns, you will find that your paper is far too short.  This will give you an opportunity to expand your paper and dig deeper in thought you haven’t explored.  Here are a few instances you can develop:

Where is coach Mike a coach?  You spent far too much time discussing yourself, I don’t know where he’s a coach and professor.

What makes a coach good – draw up a list – then describe all the ways Mike is a good coach.

Can you connect his academic training in sociology to his ability as a coach?  That would be cool.

You still need to brainstorm new angles for this essay.  Try this exercise:

3.      QUESTIONS:  The Inquiry Method  (You can use this in Development too.)

·         First, write 5 KEY Questions about your topic beginning with How, What, Where or Why.  (Make sure no question can be answered with only a yes or now.)

·         Second, list the 3 of those 5 KEY Questions which most interest you, leaving space below each one.

·         Third, write 3 MORE questions about each of those 3 Key Questions in the space you have left.  Same rule applies:  use How, What, Why, Where so you do not get yes or no answers.