Political Essay

Prompt: Convince the reader to vote in favor of or against a cause or candidate of your choice.
Context:

• This will be a handwritten practice essay assignment (25 pts).  
• Thesis due Mon., Nov 4. 

Some places to start:
* Voter Guides (for more info.)

• Official State Guide
• Christian Principles 
• Democratic
• Republican

• California Ballot Initiatives 
• District 17 Representative to Congress (Sam Farr, incumbent) vs. Jeff Taylor
• Jill Stein: Green Party
• Libertarian Party
• Mitt Romney
• Pres. Obama
• Fact Check
• CNN Opinion (more liberal)
• NY Times Opinion (more liberal)
• Washington Post Opinion (more liberal)
• Town Hall (more conservative)
• Fox News (more conservative) 
• The Wall Street Journal (usually pretty fair)

 
Audience: Your teacher is your direct audience. American voters are your indirect audience.

Requirements:

• Follow the LTOW model for the THE (structure and parallelism)
• Follow all MLA guidelines.
• Use and cite a minimum of two sources. (See Bedford 55, 56, 57.)
• Include a properly formatted Works Cited page.

More Notes:

• Keep a third-person perspective (one, voter=good; I, you=bad)
• Use good sources (mom and dad's voter guide; mom and dad and grandparents; good web sources)
• Citing mom and dad and grandparents: Use MLA interview format for a "Personal Interview"
• Handwritten Outline due Tue., Nov. 6.
• Handwritten RD due Wed., Nov. 7. 
• Handwritten in pen, FD with a handwritten works cited due Block Day.
• Citation basics
• Works Cited Page
• Example MLA Paper...but you will do this handwritten...oh yeah!

Citations

• This is an example, "Yes, an example" (Schwager 3). 
• Here is one from the ".gov website" (California). 
•  The voter registrations says, "Vote for a vacuum" (California 10). 

Works Cited

• Alphabetical
• Notice that the second line is indented (opposite of a normal paragraph)
• A key difference between print and online citations is that online citations go by date of access and print sources date of printing.  Date of printing is a year; date of access is a day month year (6 November 2012).
• One change, you do not need the url for a website...as it changes so often and may be accessed from different url's. 
  

Examples 

Interview

Purdue, Pete. Personal interview. 1 Dec. 2000.

Voter Guide

California. General Election Official Voter Guide for Tuesday, 

       November 6, 2012.  Sacramento: Secretary of State, 2012. Print.

Voter Guide Online

California. General Election Official Voter Guide for Tuesday, 

       November 6, 2012. Web. 4 Nov. 2012.

Web Image or Cartoon 

Klee, Paul. Twittering Machine. 1922. Museum of Modern Art, New York.  

       The Artchive. Web. 22 May 2006.

Website

Romney-Ryan. Official Mitt Romney Campaign Site. Romney for

       President, Inc. Web. 4 Nov. 2012.


 FD Collection

• Please underline your thesis
• Be sure works cited is attached
• Staple nicely (only FD, not RD or outline)
• Place on the center table 
• Do you actually cite anything in the essay that makes the Works Cited necessary?  You should have two different sources, at least, cited.
• Turn in window:  I will accept this essay until Wed., Nov. 14. with no points deducted for timing.  You will score 50% or lower if turned in after class on Wed.