Draft Essay:
Your Submission 3 (Draft essay) is a chance to expand, develop and articulate key
arguments and evidence reviewed in your Argumentation Map. Use your map to help
guide the writing of your essay. Please note that you can deviate from your map as you
improve your essay. With each submission of this project, your essay should grow and
improve.
You have a word limit of 1600 words. This word limit does NOT include your cover page,
references, or topic justification paragraph included at the end of the document.
Please double-space your essay and use font size 12 in Times New Roman, Arial, or
Calibri. Remember that you must paraphrase. No direct quotations please!
Sections of your essay:
You are welcome to use the following as sub-headings within your essay, although it is
not mandatory.
I. Introduction
Introduce broad topic; get the reader’s attention
Why is the topic important?
Lead into discussion of your thesis statement. Your thesis statement is a
restatement of your question.
II. Evidence for the “yes” side
Here you want to review your argumentation in SUPPORT for the YES
answer to your question and the supporting evidence.
III. Evidence for the “no” side
Here you want to review your argumentation that NEGATES your question
and the supporting evidence.
(Alternatively, for sections II and III, you can go back and forth between the
YES and NO sides, discussing both sides of each argument at a time. It is up
to you which format you choose)
IV. Conclusion: Comparison of the evidence
Here you want to compare/contrast the quality of the supporting evidence in
your “yes” and “no” arguments.
Provide a clear statement of which side of the answer (yes vs. no) has the
most evidence behind it and your rationale (which is an amalgamation of
your research!)
V. References:
Note – must be peer-reviewed references, in the style of Nature. You must
have at least six primary references (3 for the “yes” side,” 3 for the “no” side).
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References must be organized in order of appearance in the essay.
References should be shown in the essay as numerical exponents, in order.
VI. Topic Justification:
200-300 word limit, one-paragraph explanation of why you selected your
topic. Within your explanation, you must explain both why your topic matters
to you, and why the topic should matter to the general population. You may
write your topic justification in first person.
Note: You may copy and paste this from your outline and argumentation map.
You are welcome to modify this paragraph if you wish, but it is not included in