What does rcd mean in penn foster

Study Guide

Advanced Composition By

Robert G. Turner, Jr., Ph.D.

About the Author

Robert G. Turner, Jr., holds a B.S. in business and an M.S. and a Ph.D. in sociology. He has more than 20 years of teaching experience, mainly at the college level, and is currently serving as an adjunct professor at Virginia Tech, Blacksburg. Dr. Turner is primarily employed as a professional freelance writer. His literary credits include two stage plays, two novels, and two nonfiction works, along with an array of publications in academic and educational venues.

Copyright © 2012 by Penn Foster, Inc.

All rights reserved. No part of the material protected by this copyright may be reproduced or utilized in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system, without permission in writing from the copyright owner.

Requests for permission to make copies of any part of the work should be mailed to Copyright Permissions, Penn Foster, 925 Oak Street, Scranton, Pennsylvania 18515.

Printed in the United States of America

08/05/14

All terms mentioned in this text that are known to be trademarks or service marks have been appropriately capitalized. Use of a term in this text should not be regarded as affecting the validity of any trademark or service mark.

INSTRUCTIONS TO STUDENTS 1

LESSON ASSIGNMENTS 9

LESSON 1: PLANNING A PAPER WITH SOURCES 13

LESSON 2: FINDING SOURCES AND TAKING NOTES 31

LESSON 3: WRITING A PAPER USING SOURCES 49

LESSON 4: LITERARY ANALYSIS: : FIGURATIVE LANGUAGE IN MUSIC AND SONG 71

PREWRITING EXAMINATION 89

ESSAY EXAMINATION 93

LESSON 5: USING DEFINITION WITH CLASSIFICATION 95

EXAMINATION 103

LESSON 6: USING COMPARISON AND CONTRAST 107

PREWRITING EXAMINATION 117

ESSAY EXAMINATION 121

LESSON 7: WRITING AN ARGUMENT 123

EXAMINATION—COURSE FINAL 133

SELF-CHECK ANSWERS 137

APPENDIX 165

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INTRODUCTION

Welcome to your Advanced Composition course. In this course, you’ll practice research and writing skills by develop- ing papers that require you to use sources and correctly cite them using MLA formatting. You’ll learn to look at writing with a critical eye—a skill you can apply to your own work, as well as to the reading you do for research or in your daily activities. You’ll apply these skills to your own writing through editing and revising.

COURSE SYLLABUS

Course name: Advanced Composition

Course number: ENG 300

Instructors: See faculty listing in the Student Handbook.

Hours: Monday through Friday, 9 A.M. to 7 P.M. Eastern Standard Time

Contact information: After logging into your homepage at the student website, click Contact us. For email, choose Contact Your Instructor. You must type your email address correctly to ensure a reply to your question and include your student number in the message. You also must add edserv@pennfoster.edu to the list of approved or accepted senders in your email browser.

For the best instructional assistance, ask specific questions, explaining what you don’t understand and the particular page in the study materials or exam requirement that it relates to.

Textbook: Kathleen T. McWhorter, Successful College Writing, Brief Fifth Edition

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Instructions to Students2

COURSE OBJECTIVES Primary objective: You’ll use research to plan, organize, develop, and edit a variety of papers with clarity and precision using standard MLA formatting.

When you complete this course, you’ll be able to

n Use the writing process to write essays using different patterns of development

n Apply an appropriate rhetorical style to an audience and purpose

n Write effective thesis statements

n Develop paragraphs using topic sentences, adequate detail, supporting evidence, and transitions

n Identify, define, and analyze literary elements

n Develop critical reading skills

n Use responsible research methods to locate appropriate secondary sources

n Use Modern Language Association citation and docu- mentation style to reference secondary source material correctly and appropriately

n Quote, paraphrase, and summarize secondary source material correctly and appropriately

n Use the conventions of standard written American English to produce correct, well-written essays

Note: For Lesson 6, you’re required to read one novel that has been turned into a movie and to watch that movie. The list of movies made from books is extensive and includes To Kill a Mockingbird, The Princess Bride, and Girl with a Pearl Earring. (A short story or children’s book isn’t an appropriate selection. You must read a full-length novel.)

Instructions to Students 3

A STUDY PLAN This study guide contains your lesson assignments and the exams for the seven lessons you’ll complete for this course. The self-checks at the end of each assignment will help you assess your understanding of the material so you’ll know whether you should move on to the next assignment or review the material before continuing.

Study pace. You have a study time limit for the semester but not one specific to Advanced Composition. You must pace yourself wisely through the semester’s courses to meet the expiration date, allowing sufficient time for reading, prewrit- ing, drafting, revising, and grading. Generally, you should allot at least two weeks for each English lesson, with some taking longer than that, and you must complete each exam in the correct order. The goal of this course is to help you grow as a writer by building on your strengths and improving your weaknesses with each assignment. Therefore, this course emphasizes the process approach to writing. Ideally, you’ll submit each exam in order after you’ve received your evalua- tion of the previous lesson so that you can apply the instructor’s feedback to your next writing project. You must successfully complete the prewriting assignments for Lessons 4 and 6 before you can submit the essays. While you’re waiting for evaluations, you should begin to work on the next les- son’s assignments. If you have other courses available for study, you may work on those materials while taking this English course and submit any completed exams.

Organization. To keep your work for this course organized, create clearly labeled files in your word processing program. We recommend you create a primary file folder named “Advanced Composition.” Within that folder, create separate files, such as “Self-Checks” and “Course Notes.” Also create a folder for each written exam (Lessons 4, 5, 6, and 7), where you’ll keep files of your research notes, rough drafts, and final draft. Establish a clear naming system for each file so you don’t confuse early drafts with your final version of an essay. When you reopen a rough draft, immediately use “Save as” and add the date before further revision. That way you won’t lose anything you may delete but then wish you had kept.

Instructions to Students4

Exam submissions. Use the following guidelines when submitting your exams: n Multiple-choice examinations (Lessons 1, 2, and 3):

You’ll submit your answers for these exams online. n Written examinations (Lessons 4, 5, 6, and 7): Unless the

individual exam instructions specify otherwise, papers must be typed double-spaced using a standard, 12-point font and left justification. Use 1-inch margins at the top and bottom and 1.25-inch margins for the left and right sides of the document. Each page must have a header in the proper format, containing student name, student number with exam number, page number, mailing address, and email address. Jane Doe 23456789—50068000 5 987 Nice Street My Town, AZ 34567 janedoe@yahoo.com

Name each document using your student number first, then the six-digit lesson number, and finally your name (for example, 23456789_500680 Jane Doe). Save each as “File Type: Rich Text Format” regardless of the word processing program you use. Follow the instructions in the text on pages 637–639. Use “Instructor,” rather than an instructor’s name. The course is Advanced Composition ENG 300. Don’t use headings in the body of your paper.

Exams can be submitted online from the student homepage using the Take Exam button next to the lesson number on the “My Courses” page. Check to be sure that the document you’ve uploaded is the one containing your final work for evaluation. When your paper is received into the exam sys- tem, it’s coded as RCD with the date received.

Evaluation. Evaluation usually occurs within seven business days of receipt (from the RCD date code). Exams are scored according to the parameters of the exam assignment using the Advanced Composition Course Rubric, which is located in the Appendix of this study guide with a complete explanation of evaluation criteria and skill levels. Instructors may write feedback on both the essay and the evaluation chart. To read the instructor’s comments, click on the View Project button next to your grade for the exam and then download the Instructor Feedback file. Be sure to save this file to your computer since it’s available on your My Courses page for just a brief time.

Instructions to Students 5

Evaluation Process

Your instructors will score each writing assignment by apply- ing the rubric shown on the next page to evaluate how well your work illustrates both the basic and advanced traits of good writing in various research settings (see Appendix). Although the basic techniques of writing aren’t taught in this course, you’re required to produce good writing. If you’re unsure of something, return to the textbook to fine-tune your skills. For more information, scan your textbook’s table of contents for a chapter breakdown and page numbers. For specific characteristics, use the index of your textbook.

On the chart in the Appendix, each trait is broken into three skill levels explaining what writing at that level looks like and to what extent the writing shows that trait. Each skill level is assigned a score that corresponds to the appropriate letter grade within the Penn Foster College grading scale. (For infor- mation about the grading scale, see the Student Handbook.) As such, these scores don’t represent an amount awarded from a possible range of points. Instead, each score value is constant. That means if your writing exhibits the given char- acteristics, you automatically earn the designated score for that trait and skill level. Papers with inconsistencies among skill levels will be scored according to the middle ground. For example, you may have spelled and punctuated everything with excellent style but your grammar is poor. The evaluator will average the score of high Skill Realized for Conventions with the score of low Skill Emerging for the score on Conventions.

Skill Emerging describes writing that either doesn’t have the trait or that lacks controlled, deliberate appli- cation. As below-average work, writing with traits at this level earns a D or an F.

Skill Developing refers to writing which shows general competence in the trait but which lacks finesse or depth of understanding in application. Traits in this range earn a low B or a C.

Skill Realized indicates the writing demonstrates the trait effectively and creatively, earning an A or a high B.

Instructions to Students6

When evaluating your paper, the instructor first reads through your essay to become familiar with its content and flow. He or she then works through the essay, evaluating both problem areas and strengths related to the rubric. Next, he or she fills out a blank evaluation chart identifying where your writing falls within each trait, relying on the descrip- tions in the Appendix to provide the full explanation of the traits your writing displays. Consequently, while reviewing your evaluated exam, you must refer to the following rubric.

The instructor may provide further comments or explanation about a particular strength or weakness within a trait, but primarily you’ll depend on the information given in your study guide. In light of that feedback, you should reexamine your paper and review the textbook to learn ways to strengthen that trait the next time you write. With each exam, your goal is to craft your writing more deliberately and skillfully.

Thesis: Focus for Audience and Purpose

The thesis establishes a clearly defined, analytic focus unique to the assigned topic, purpose, and audience.

Development and Structure of Ideas in Relation to Thesis

Using applicable pattern(s) of development, the writer explores in depth the relationship between thesis, assertion, and evidence. The opening engages the reader with the thesis. The body para- graphs develop the thesis in a controlled fashion. The discussion closes with a sense of finality reinforcing the thesis.

Incorporation of Source Material

Paraphrases, summaries, and direct quotations are aptly integrated with the writer’s style for the purpose and audience. Sources are relevant and reliable.

Overall Organization of Writing

Transitional words and connective phrasing guide the reader through the relationships between ideas. Each paragraph contains one idea that supports the thesis. The supporting sentences connect to/develop the paragraph’s focus.

Word Choice and Presentation Style

The writer shows a consistent point of view, captivating the reader with skillful, precise language for the purpose and audience. The essay is graceful and easy to read aloud with a natural, pleasant rhythm through varied sentence length and structures.

MLA Citation

Using the MLA citation style, the writer accurately documents the required number of sources.

Conventions

According to standard written American English, the writer correctly applies spelling, punctuation (including sentence structure), and grammar. These choices make the writing professional and easy to understand. The writing meets the required length and overall submission format for the assignment.

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Retakes. Students are required to complete all assigned work, including a retake for any first-time failing attempt on an exam. The evaluation of any first-time failing exam will include a Required Retake form. That form must then be included with your retake exam submission to ensure proper handling. If the assigned work isn’t provided, submissions will be evaluated according to the criteria but additional points will be deducted for not following the instructions. In addition, please review school policy about retakes in the Student Handbook (available online).

Plagiarism policy. Carefully review the plagiarism policy in the Student Handbook (available online). The first submission that departs from this policy earns a grade of 1 percent. If it’s a first-time submission, you may retake the exam (per retake procedures). A second such submission on any subsequent exam means failure of the Advanced Composition course.

ACADEMIC SUPPORT AND ONLINE RESOURCES Penn Foster’s digital library offers students access to online resources in all major disciplines and courses offered at Penn Foster, as well as one of the most comprehensive academic databases available today, Expanded Academic ASAP. Learn more about the library here:

How-To Guide— http://community.pennfoster.edu/docs/DOC-57990

Top 3 things— http://community.pennfoster.edu/docs/DOC-58013

Digital Library FAQ— http://community.pennfoster.edu/docs/DOC-58011

Citation Information— https://community.pennfoster.edu/docs/DOC-58115

Penn Foster’s librarian is available to answer questions about research and to help students locate resources. You can find her in The Community, by using the Contact an Instructor link in the Help Center in your student portal, and the Ask a Librarian link in the library.

Lesson Assignments8

Penn Foster has partnered with the tutoring service Smarthinking to provide support for students including writ- ing, science, math, and business. Smarthinking is available to all Penn Foster students through the link in the Help Center on their student portal. Smarthinking tutors are experts in their subject areas and can provide general help with courses and papers. They are not, however, Penn Foster employees, so students must be sure to clearly explain the purpose of an assignment to get the best possible results from their tutoring sessions. Students can live chat with tutors to ask questions about course material. Students can also take advantage of the Writing Center and upload a paper for review before submitting it to Penn Foster for grading. You’ll need to check the Drop-In Tutoring schedule for hours of service for live chats, but you can submit a question at any time and a tutor will reply. Consider adding Smarthinking to your academic routine; tutoring can help even the best students enhance their education.

Grammarly.com is offering discounts to Penn Foster students who register for a year of service. For $40 (a $95 savings), Penn Foster students have unlimited access to the Grammarly’s grammar, spell, and punctuation check, as well as the pla- giarism check. For students who have limited experience with research writing, Grammarly could be the helping hand you need to negotiate the research papers in your future.

Other online resources for grammar, punctuation, sentence structure, and mechanics include the following:

Daily Grammar

http://www.dailygrammar.com/archive.shtml

Blue Book of Grammar and Mechanics

http://www.grammarbook.com/

Guide to Grammar and Writing, sponsored by Capital Community College Foundation

http://grammar.ccc.commnet.edu/grammar/index2.htm

Purdue University’s Online Writing Lab

http://owl.english.purdue.edu/owl/

Please contact your English instructor for registration information

Lesson 1: Planning a Paper with Sources For Read in the Read in

study guide: the textbook:

Assignment 1 Pages 13–16 Pages 575–578

Assignment 2 Pages 17–21 Pages 578–583

Assignment 3 Pages 22–24 Pages 583–587

Assignment 4 Pages 24–28 Pages 587–593

Assignment 5 Pages 28–30 Pages 46–65 and 89–93

Examination 500439 Material in Lesson 1

Lesson 2: Finding Sources and Taking Notes For Read in the Read in

study guide: the textbook:

Assignment 6 Pages 32–35 Pages 595–603

Assignment 7 Pages 36–38 Pages 603–606

Assignment 8 Pages 39–45 Pages 606–615

Assignment 9 Pages 46–48 Pages 102–115

Examination 500440 Material in Lesson 2

Lesson 3: Writing a Paper Using Sources For Read in the Read in

study guide: the textbook:

Assignment 10 Pages 50–54 Pages 621–630

Assignment 11 Pages 54–59 Pages 630–636

Assignment 12 Pages 60–62 Pages 636–640

Assignment 13 Pages 63–66 Pages 640–662

Assignment 14 Pages 67–69 Pages 115–118 and 125–133

Watch the Using and Citing Sources Lecture Quiz 500697

Examination 500441 Material in Lesson 3

Lesson Assignments 9

A s s ig n m e n ts

A s s ig n m e n ts

Lesson 4: Literary Analysis: Figurative Language in Music and Song For Read in the Read in

study guide: the textbook:

Assignment 15 Pages 71–74 Pages 166–179

Assignment 16 Pages 75–77 Pages 182–194

Assignment 17 Pages 78–85 Pages 684–689 and 698–704

Assignment 18 Pages 85–88 Pages 152–157 and 309–312

Watch the Figurative Language Analysing Poetry Lecture Quiz 500698

Prewriting Examination: 50046800

Essay Examination: 50044200

Lesson 5: Using Definition with Classification For Read in the Read in

study guide: the textbook:

Assignment 19 Pages 95–98 Pages 410–416 and 420–426

Assignment 20 Pages 98–101 Pages 442–453

Examination 50044300

Lesson Assignments10

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Lesson 6: Using Comparison and Contrast in Novels and Movies For Read in the Read in

study guide: the textbook:

Assignment 21 Pages 108–109 Pages 374–384

Assignment 22 Pages 110–111 Pages 384–396

Assignment 23 Pages 111–113 Pages 396–407 and 615–619

Assignment 24 Pages 113–116 Pages 688–698

Watch the Using Comparison and Contrast/Analyzing a Novel Lecture Quiz 500699

Prewriting Examination: 50046900

Essay Examination: 50044400

Lesson 7: Writing an Argument For Read in the Read in

study guide: the textbook:

Assignment 25 Pages 124–125 Pages 514–520

Assignment 26 Pages 126–128 Pages 520–533

Assignment 27 Pages 129–131 Pages 544–557

Assignment 28 Pages 131–132 Pages 568–571

Final Examination: 50044500

Note: To access and complete any of the examinations for this study guide, click on the appropriate Take Exam icon on your “My Courses” page. You should not have to enter the examination numbers. These numbers are for reference only if you have reason to contact Student Services.

Note: For Lesson 6, you’re required to read one novel that has been turned into a movie and to watch that movie. The list of movies made from books is extensive and includes To Kill a Mockingbird, The Princess Bride, and Girl with a Pearl Earring. (A short story or children’s book isn’t an appropriate selection. You must read a full-length novel.)

Advanced Composition12

NOTES

Lesson 1 13

Planning a Paper with Sources

INTRODUCTION

The writer Isaac Asimov is said to have written many of his popular-science books without doing any research. But Asimov was a professor of biochemistry and vice president of Mensa International, an organization for people with exceptionally high intelligence. While most of us use the reservoir of knowl- edge and experience in our minds when we write, it’s unlikely that the average person can write competently and extensively using only that mental filing cabinet. Even if you think you know something—for example, a quote you memorized long ago—when you check it against the original, it may not be precisely as you remembered it. That’s why we use sources to check, and while we’re checking, we may find additional information that’s relevant to our topics.

Research papers aren’t busy work. You’ll learn not only how to think, write, and organize, but also how to pay attention to detail, communicate your ideas to others, and find support for your ideas. The skills used in developing a research paper are all transferable to the job market.

OBJECTIVES

When you complete this lesson, you’ll be able to

n Develop a feasible topic

n Frame useful research questions

n Establish a working thesis statement

n Read actively and critically to analyze sources

n Identify bias and recognize the difference between fact and opinion

n Explain the difference between primary and secondary sources

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Advanced Composition14

ASSIGNMENT 1: USING SOURCES Read the following assignment. Then read pages 575–578 in your textbook. Be sure to complete the self-check to gauge your progress.

INTRODUCTION

People in any society depend on each other for sustenance of all kinds. That’s definitely true in the world of scholars. Those who acquire and express ideas through the written word rely on many resources, and they understand the need to acknowledge the work of other thinkers and writers. Like Isaac Asimov, they may have assimilated a lot of general knowledge and made conclusions of their own; but anytime a writer borrows ideas and words directly from another person, that person must be cited as the source for those ideas.

When you write a research paper, you develop your idea by searching for similar ideas to back it up. As you locate sources to support your thesis, you recognize that all the ideas aren’t your own, so you make it clear which ones are and which are not. This practice applies no matter the type or date of the source.

READING HIGHLIGHTS

Quick Starts. These opening exercises for each chapter aren’t assigned activities, but pause to read each one before beginning the chapter reading.

Pages 575–578. The sources you select for your research will fall into two distinct categories. Primary sources come from “the horse’s mouth.” That is, the information is available in a first-person document or recording, rather than a quote or interpretation by another person. Such sources are considered extremely reliable. Primary sources include letters, speeches, diaries, the writings of scientists and philosophers, and many other types of text or records. It may be a personal account of a battle or an interview with a celebrity.

Lesson 1 15

Here are some examples:

n A letter from James Madison to his wife Dolley

n Abraham Lincoln’s second inaugural address

n A diary kept by a soldier during the Korean War

n The poetry of Emily Dickinson

n A radio broadcast from a reporter observing the destruction of the Hindenburg

n Albert Einstein’s published papers on the special theory of relativity

Secondary sources either support or comment on primary sources. They may serve your purpose better than primary sources if you’re looking for authority to back up an argument. If an original manuscript of a play is the primary source, then a critical essay discussing the work is the secondary source. An author interested in the life of Samuel Adams would consult as many primary sources (actual writings by Adams himself) as he or she could before writing a biography of Adams. If you used the resulting biography as a source for your paper, that would be a secondary source. The author may have quoted the primary sources and collected facts from them, but he or she also went on to interpret and draw conclusions from the material.

Even when using primary sources, you must be careful of translations. For example, Plato’s dialogues have been trans- lated differently by different scholars; Emily Dickinson’s poems were arbitrarily edited in early editions. You may have to do further research to determine the professional reputation of the translator or editor. Also be careful with websites; it’s often difficult to verify the credentials of a website’s author(s).

Examples of secondary sources include

n Ken Burns’ documentary, The Civil War

n An Encyclopedia Britannica article on Freud’s theories

n Rome: The Biography of a City by Christopher Hibbert

Advanced Composition16

Pages 577–578. A research paper, like any other type of conventional writing, needs a structure. Facts, statistics, and other details have to be fitted together so they flow logically and create a meaningful article, narrative, or commentary. Using the framework of your thesis, you must seek out infor- mation to support your ideas, choosing evidence that best supports each point in your thesis. Just as every line of dia- logue in a screenplay is designed to move or inform the plot, every source you use must contribute to developing your thesis. Your in-text citations also must fit into the flow, pro- viding the necessary information in the correct form. MLA style is the preferred approach to parenthetical in-text cita- tions in English and the humanities, and it’s what you’ll use in this course. Chapter 23 provides a guide. Take a few moments to skim through the MLA section.

Review Figures 21.1 and 21.2 on pages 578–579 for a visual of the systematic way you need to approach locating and using sources. In particular, note all the ways information can be extracted and used during the research and writing process.

Self-Check 1

At the end of each section of Advanced Composition, you’ll be asked to pause and check your understanding of what you’ve just read by completing a “Self-Check” exercise. Keep your answers in your self-check file or a separate notebook. Answering these questions will help you review what you’ve studied so far. Please complete Self-Check 1 now.

1. Write a brief paragraph differentiating primary and secondary sources and give one example of each. Then, in a second paragraph, describe the advantages and disadvantages of secondary sources.

2. Using an example for each, describe how to acknowledge sources in an MLA-style essay or research paper.

3. What element of a research paper determines its boundaries, guides its development, and establishes its objective?

Check your answers with those on page 137.

Lesson 1 17

ASSIGNMENT 2: PLANNING YOUR PAPER Read the following assignment. Then read pages 578–583 of Chapter 21 in your textbook. Be sure to complete the self- check to gauge your progress.

INTRODUCTION

Complete freedom to choose a topic might make the job of planning a paper harder, not easier. Your assignment will give you some limits to work within and some description of what’s expected, so begin planning your paper by defining the assignment. First, think about the objective of the paper. A good place to start is with the verbs—what are they asking you to do? Verbs like describe, persuade or convince, or com- pare and contrast tell you what you need to accomplish with the paper, as well as what primary pattern of development to apply. Once you have your objective clearly in mind, you’ll be able to explore appropriate sources.

READING HIGHLIGHTS

Review Figures 21.1 and 21.2 on pages 578–579, which show you the steps involved in writing a paper using sources. This chapter’s skills are outlined in detail. The basic steps in selecting, narrowing, and discovering ideas for a research topic are similar to methods used in any other essay writing. They include preliminary reading, prewriting, and viewing your topic from different perspectives.

Pages 578–583. In this section, you’ll study five practical guidelines for choosing an appealing and feasible topic. Consider what these recommendations mean to you.

After defining the assignment, and perhaps above all, it makes sense to choose a topic that interests you. However, in actual experience, some topics may seem interesting at first glance, but then seem less interesting as you learn more. In other cases, a random idea or topic may catch your attention

Advanced Composition18

while you’re exploring on the Internet or in an online catalog at the library. That’s why seeking out an interesting topic requires an open mind, as the following scenario shows. Think through it carefully, because it will reappear as this lesson proceeds.

Your composition teacher requires you to develop a paper with some connection to Central Africa, leaving the details to your interests. You’re interested in what motivated Joseph Conrad when he wrote The Heart of Darkness. The novel contrasts the mentality of Westerners to the apparently random savagery of Central Africa, where nature seems to overwhelm the order and reason of civilization. You do some Internet searching, but, as you do, you find that English graduate students and scholars of all kinds have written mountains of material on this topic. Not only would the topic be unmanageable, it’s also unlikely that you could come up with a fresh perspective on the topic.

However, you do find that the film Apocalypse Now is based on Conrad’s book. Now you may be on to something. But soon the same problem arises. You’ll have to know Conrad literary criticism inside out to write anything fresh and engaging about the film. So your search continues.

Then, skimming a page on Central Africa, you discover that civil war and mass murder in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) (formerly Zaire) involve international corporate interest in a mineral called columbite-tantalite, popularly known as coltan. You’ve never heard of coltan, but a quick Internet search reveals that coltan is essential to the produc- tion of cell phones and other electronic products. Quickly searching some more, you find that the topic yields sources, the topic is fresh and current (but not too new, since there’s information avail- able), and it seems manageable.

Lesson 1 19

As you know, a reasoned approach to narrowing and discov- ering ideas about a topic is preliminary reading, prewriting, and viewing your topic from different perspectives. You’re interested in the coltan issue and so far, in your preliminary reading, you’ve unearthed the following facts:

n Coltan is a mineral that combines niobium and tantalum. Tantalum is a rare metal that’s a crucial component of the transistors used in cell phones and in some other technological contexts.

n As the demand for coltan has soared, so has its price in international markets.

n Roughly 80 percent of the global supply of coltan is found in the far eastern highland regions of the Democratic Republic of Congo.

n The Democratic Republic of Congo is the third-largest African nation. Its capital, Kinshasa, is near the mouth of the Congo River, far to the west of the highland region.

n The government centered at Kinshasa oversees a land of poverty and political corruption.

n The coltan mining region borders Uganda, Rwanda, and Burundi.

n A brutal civil war, characterized by rape, torture, and random murder, disrupts the entire coltan mining region.

n The violence is strongly related to the smuggling of coltan from the DRC.

n International interests, out of Belgium and other nations, will buy the coltan wherever they can get it.

n Efforts by the United Nations and other nations to contain the violence have had little or no success.

n The mining is creating extensive environmental destruction.

n The habitat of the endangered Eastern Lowland Gorilla is being destroyed by the mining operations.

Advanced Composition20

At this point, you can think about different perspectives on the general topic of coltan mining. Different points of view and, therefore, different narrowed topics can be explored by using research questions. For example,

n What’s the history of Western colonialism in this region?

n What are the uses of coltan?

n What cultural and sociological impacts does coltan mining bring about?

n What’s the economic importance of coltan locally and globally?

n Who benefits from the use of coltan?

n What’s the environmental impact of coltan mining?

n What parties are responsible for the smuggling and how are they involved in the civil war (to what advantage)?

Clearly, addressing all of those aspects of the coltan issue would be unmanageable within the limits of a relatively brief research paper. You’ll need to create a working thesis that helps you narrow your topic. Reviewing all of your questions, you decide to concentrate on the environmental issue. You write, “Regional conflicts in Africa are threatening the last habitat of the rare Eastern Lowland Gorilla.”

To develop this thesis, you have to confine yourself to sum- marizing the coltan issue while focusing on the Eastern Lowland Gorilla and its threatened habitat. Now you need new research questions for your narrowed topic. They might include

n What’s the Eastern Lowland Gorilla’s habitat like?

n How is the mining affecting it?

n How long has the habitat destruction been going on?

n Can the damage be reversed?

n How else can the gorillas be protected?

Lesson 1 21

Self-Check 2

Use this background material to complete the self-check. Keep your answers in your self-check file or a separate notebook.

n According to Queensland’s Environmental Protection Agency, more than 90 percent of the species that have existed on Earth are now extinct.

n Natural habitats and particular species have been affected by human activity, sometimes leading to the extinction of a species (bison, mountain lions, and gray wolves are nearly wiped out).

n Over millions of years, many species died out when they couldn’t adapt to an environment altered by climate change.

n Natural selection is the process by which species develop traits favorable to survival within a particular habitat.

1. Review the material under “View Your Topic from Different Perspectives” on page 581. Use Exercise 21.1 on page 581 for reference. To address the topic “extinction of animal species,” list one or more questions each from the perspective of biology, geology, history, and economy.

2. After reviewing the material on pages 582–583, create a working thesis and at least three research questions to address one of the perspectives further.

Check your answers with those on page 137.

Advanced Composition22

ASSIGNMENT 3: SELECTING AND EVALUATING USEFUL SOURCES Read the following assignment. Then study pages 583–587 in Chapter 21 of your textbook. Be sure to complete the self-check to gauge your progress.

INTRODUCTION

Before you begin your search for sources, make sure you have a copy of your working thesis and your research questions in front of you. Refer to it each time you locate a potential source, and make sure it’s relevant to your topic before you print or copy any articles or borrow any books. While you may not want to take time to thoroughly read each piece, at least look in a book’s index to see if your topic is covered and scan any item you believe you need. The information you find might be a repetition of something you already have, it may be out of date, or it may be too general for your needs. Select only those sources that you’re likely to use before closely reading the source.

An Internet search engine may be your favorite place to find information quickly, but don’t depend too heavily on the articles you find there. A lot of the best, in-depth information for a research paper is found only in print sources. Make sure you consult your library’s “search engine”—the reference librarian. He or she can show you where to find excellent sources online as well as in print. Make a point of choosing at least a few print sources, particularly when you need primary sources.

READING HIGHLIGHTS

Page 584. When is a source relevant? Use common sense. If the source helps you answer one of your research questions, it’s relevant. But remember to consider your audience, your thesis, and the timeliness of your source.

The school’s library provides access to many print sources online through the Expanded Academic ASAP periodical data- base. Use the library link from your home- page at the school’s website.

Lesson 1 23

Your audience and your purpose—the way you intend to develop your thesis—will affect the sources and information you choose to review and to include in your paper. Suppose you’re looking at the pros and cons of DNA testing in crime investigations. A scientific work in population genetics might be too technical for your audience. A mainstream magazine article on how DNA testing is used in novels or television programs may be biased and misleading. Your most relevant sources will be articles from law enforcement agencies or civil rights organizations that focus on this issue.

Also remember that the world changes quickly, particularly in respect to technology. When evaluating a source, you may find that it’s simply out of date. On the other hand, older sources may be helpful if you’re researching the historical background of an issue.

Pages 584–585. How can you decide if a source is reliable? Your text offers you four guidelines. In general, scholarly sources are more factual and balanced than general-interest sources. Some news sources are considered reliable—The New York Times has a better reputation than a supermarket tabloid, and a website that ends in .edu is more reliable than a blog. A good source names the author, so you can check his or her credentials. But even among scientists and schol- ars, judgments and opinions differ. You may have to check facts and other opinions to tell whether an article is biased, but be aware of your own biases, too.

Pages 585–587. The techniques for evaluating Internet sources aren’t much different from those used for evaluating print sources. The main difference is that the accuracy, pur- pose, and timeliness of Internet sources can be somewhat difficult to evaluate. If you can’t verify a fact or a site’s credi- bility, it’s best not to use it.