Penn foster practical english exam

Graded Writing Assignment Writing Skills: A Research Project If you need to do so, refer back to the graded writing assignment, Writing Skills: A Personal Narrative, to review the essential parts of an essay, as well as the steps of the writing process and assistance with grammar and mechanics. By the end of this assignment, you should be ready to submit your essay for grading. When you complete this assignment, you’ll be able to ■ Identify and effectively use the first-person point of view in conjunction with research ■ Use research to enhance ideas and opinions ■ Use resources to improve grammar and mechanics ■ Write a research paper without plagiarizing ■ Construct a personal research paper using MLA format Preview This assignment is intended to assist you in composing a personal research project, fulfilling the requirements for the second writing assignment in your Written Communication course. The assignment outlines your options for the project and describes what’s involved in completion of each option. It redefines the first-person point of view (which you mastered in completion of your first writing assignment in this course) and why it’s necessary. Finally, the assignment offers several different ideas for inclusion. iii 1 WHAT IS A RESEARCH PROJECT? 1 YOUR OPTIONS 2 Option 1: Personal Take on Current Issues Option 2: Planning a Career 2 3 WHY USE THE FIRST-PERSON POINT OF VIEW? 3 REVIEW: AVOIDING PLAGIARISM 4 ESSENTIALS: FORMATTING YOUR ESSAY 5 SOME QUESTIONS TO CONSIDER BEFORE SUBMITTING 7 SUMMARY 8 GRADING RUBRIC 9 SAMPLE PAPER 10 Contents WRITING SKILLS: A RESEARCH PROJECT v Writing Skills: A Research Project For your second and final writing assignment in this course, you’re being asked to construct a variation of a personal essay, which can also be referred to as a research project. The essay that you produce must be based on a combination of personal experience(s) and research, it must be told primarily from the first-person point of view, and it must meet the given length requirement of 500 to 1,500 words. The essay that you write should be a direct response to one of the two prompts offered. It should offer your ideas and opinions and use research as support. This essay, much like the personal narrative, will be directed toward a general and unfamiliar audience—people who don’t know you personally. Your finished product should be completely original and contain research only as support for your established ideas. You should not rely on the results of your research to create your essay, but to support ideas of your own. This will help to ensure that your finished project is unique, credible, and ethical. WHAT IS A RESEARCH PROJECT? A research project is exactly what its name implies: a project (in this case an essay) that utilizes research for support. In a very basic sense, all essays are personal, in that it’s impossible to avoid a personal opinion, even in the most objective writing; however, the research project must combine personal opinion with research to produce supported arguments and opinions. 1 While the author doesn’t need to hide his personal opinion, he must be sure to use appropriate and accurate research to support his or her ideas. Unlike the personal narrative, the research project requires more than the thoughts, feelings, ideas, and personal input of the author. The essay that you create should clearly state your ideas and opinions, and show the reasoning behind your opinions, as well as identify the ideas you’ve located to back your opinions through research. These ideas will work together to ultimately show your learned expertise and your authority to write on your chosen topic. Remember that using others’ opinions or ideas in your own words without giving the original author credit isn’t proper, even if you agree with them or feel that they best explain your own thoughts and feelings. When you include information obtained from research, you’re obligated to cite that information, giving full and deserved credit to the original author. Always remember that research should support your opinion and/or viewpoint; you should ensure that your ideas and opinions (not your researched information) are the main focus of your essay. YOUR OPTIONS Be sure to review the grading rubric on page 9 before starting your paper. The rubric can serve as a guide when writing your paper. There are two distinct topic options for this particular assignment. While each of these options has specific requirements and expectations, there is also a great deal of freedom included with each. Because your essay is being created based on your opinions/ideas and research, no two completed essays will be exactly alike. Option 1: Personal Take on Current Issues Choose a current issue in local, national, or international news. Write an editorial piece explaining the issue and offering your opinions and any solutions you can think of that may apply. 2 Writing Skills: A Research Project You’ll need to thoroughly research the issue at hand in order to provide a solid explanation of the issue, as well as informed opinions and solutions. You must be sure to provide an appropriate context for the issue you choose; the audience needs to understand why this is a problem that deserves consideration and why you feel your solutions can affect it. The sample paper at the end of this booklet highlights key requirements of your paper. It is a good idea to review it now. Part of your purpose is to convince your audience that your solutions are viable. Option 2: Planning a Career Choose a career that you would like to pursue. You’ll need to thoroughly research your career choice. You should explain the career to your audience. Although an explanation of the career is certainly necessary, you must be sure to keep the focus of the essay on yourself and why you want to enter this particular career field; the focus shouldn’t be solely on the career field itself. Be sure to provide as much detail as possible about your career choice, including what type of education, training, or certification is required; what a typical day or week would be like; what kind of salary you can expect; what the future looks like for employees in this field; and whether or not geography will affect job opportunities. Part of your purpose is to convince your audience that you’re making an informed choice, allowing you a chance at success in the job market. WHY USE THE FIRST-PERSON POINT OF VIEW? When writing from the first-person point of view, you’re relaying your personal thoughts, feelings, and experiences and speaking for yourself only. You can make observations regarding others, but you’re not able to speak for them or truly know what they’re thinking. In the confines of your research project, you must write from the first-person point of view because the fundamental ideas on which your essay is based are your own. Writing Skills: A Research Project 3 REVIEW: AVOIDING PLAGIARISM All work submitted to Penn Foster High School for grading must be entirely original.