Wikipedia as a Spring-board for Your Topic

When conducting research for yourself or others (such as in an article or essay), you can use Wikipedia to spring-board your ideas on the topic.  However, since Wikipedia is not always reliable—meaning that the content is not always properly verified or accurate—it is best to not use any content from Wikipedia to construct your opinions or arguments on a matter. Instead, peruse the content on Wikipedia, gather ideas, write down some notes about keywords, people, or issues, and then get ready to search the library for scholarly sources to learn as much accurate content as possible. 

Getting Started on a Proposal Argument

You’ve been assigned a proposal essay. Keep in mind that every essay ‘writing style’ has specific aspects of securing a properly written argument in that specific style.  In academic writing, you will be learning to argue your position on an issue.  Depending on what style of argument, you may be writing a persuasive proposal (Proposal Argument), an ethical argument for quality standards (Ethical Argument) or proving a causal relationship between two things (Cause/Effect Argument).

In this handout, you will learn some basic points to arguing in a proposal essay.  A proposal essay assignment requires you to come up with a proposal for fixing a current issue in society.  For ENGL101, your proposal argument will be focused on alleviating the opioid crisis in America.

Use the Links to Learn More

CONVENTIONS OF FORMAL WRITING

What to Include

What to Avoid

Format your paper in the style required by your major: APA, MLA, Turabian/Chicago/Chicago Solid thesis statement Standard English grammar, spelling, and mechanics Third person personal pronouns only Attention-grabber opening sentence Active verbs; minimal “to be” verbs Analysis (cited examples and/or quotes) to support assertions Scholarly research (e.g., professional journals—General Writing Resources and Requirements Present tense unless referring to historical background or context Transitional words and phrases between sentences and paragraphs Semiformal-formal tone Use characters’ and authors’ first and last names once; after that, use last names only Vary sentence structure and word usage in close proximity Times New Roman, size 12 Place commas and periods inside closing quotations marks unless citations follow in which case they are placed after the citation’s closing parenthesis.

Acronyms (unidentified) Anecdotes Informal/conversational tone Everyday speech ·         Contractions ·         First or second person personal pronouns ·         Slang, colloquialisms, regionalisms ·         Clichés ·         Idioms References to self as the writer (e.g., “this writer”) References to “the reader” (of this paper) –which is 2nd person voice Personal opinions, commentaries, or suppositions Obvious or simple with which your audience is familiar, Pretentious language Non-scholarly material—online or printed. (e.g., encyclopedias, general websites, Spark Notes) Questions Italics—Use italics sparingly Announcements—Avoid phrases such as the following: ·         “This paper will address”—Do not literally tell your audience what you will be accomplishing in your paper. ·         “In Conclusion”—If it’s your final paragraph, your audience know it’s your conclusion. ·           New information in the conclusion

If you have questions, please email your professor.

E1 Article Exerpt - Current Challenges in Educational Research for Opioid Abuse Prevention

To see this full article, you will need to log into the MindTap system through our classroom.  This excerpt is available online at   https://www.questia.com/library/journal/1G1-495666781/current-challenges-in-educational-research-for-opioid

Article details

PRPEER-REVIEWED PERIODICAL

PUBLICATION:

Journal of Alcohol & Drug Education

VOLUME/ISSUE:

Vol. 61, No. 1

PUBLICATION DATE:

April 2017

SUBJECTS:

• Overdose--Prevention
• Drug abuse--Prevention
• Educational research
• Opioids
• Medical schools
• Public health