Category: English

Purpose

This assignment asks you to write an argumentative essay that identifies a significant real-world problem and proposes a thoughtful, realistic solution. In Composition II, argument means more than expressing an opinionit requires research, analysis, and consideration of multiple perspectives.

You are encouraged to focus on a local, national, or global problem, and you may choose to research an issue that directly affects Houston or your own community. The most effective essays are those that combine personal investment with credible research and practical solutions.

Choosing a Problem

Your essay must focus on one clearly defined problem that:

• Is meaningful to you or your community
• Affects a specific group or population
• Can be addressed through realistic solutions

You may focus on:

• Local issues (Houston or surrounding areas)
• National concerns
• Global challenges

Assignment Requirements

Your essay must:

• Present a clear thesis that identifies the problem and proposes a solution
• Demonstrate research-based understanding of the issue
• Propose specific, feasible solutions
• Address counterarguments or limitations
• Follow MLA format (9th edition)

Research Expectations

You must use at least 46 credible sources, such as:

• Peer-reviewed or scholarly articles
• Credible news organizations
• Government or nonprofit reports
• Local Houston data (when applicable)

Sources should:

• Provide evidence of the problems significance
• Support your proposed solutions
• Be integrated using MLA in-text citations
• Appear on a properly formatted Works Cited page

Suggested Essay Structure

While you may organize your essay differently, a strong problemsolution essay often includes:

1. Introduction

• Engaging opening (context, example, or local connection)
• Brief background on the problem
• Clear thesis statement presenting your solution

2. Defining the Problem

• Explanation of the problems causes and impact
• Evidence and data to establish urgency
• Specific focus (who is affected, where, and how)

3. Proposed Solution(s)

• Detailed explanation of your solution
• Discussion of how the solution would work in practice
• Evidence supporting effectiveness

4. Addressing Challenges or Counterarguments

• Potential objections, costs, or limitations
• Thoughtful response to these concerns

5. Conclusion

• Reinforce the importance of addressing the problem
• Reflect on broader implications or future impact
• End with a compelling call to awareness or action

Local Focus Encouraged (But Not Required)

You are encouraged to consider how your problem and solution might:

• Affect Houston communities
• Involve local organizations, policies, or programs
• Be influenced by local data or lived experiences

Essays that thoughtfully connect research to real-world local contexts often result in stronger, more persuasive arguments.

Personal Philosophy Essay

Throughout this unit, we have explored existential questions through philosophy and literature/film:

• The existentialists (Sartre, Camus, Kierkegaard, Nietzsche, etc.)
• The Myth of Sisyphus (Camus)
• A Clean, Well-Lighted Place (Hemingway)
• The Truman Show
• Platos Allegory of the Cave
• Arrival

Each of these works grapples with fundamental questions:

• Does life have inherent meaning?
• Are we free, or are we determined?
• How do we respond to suffering, uncertainty, or absurdity?
• Is ignorance blissor is truth worth the cost?
• What makes a life meaningful?

Your task is to write a personal philosophy essay in which you articulate your own worldview. Your essay should:

1. Clearly state your core beliefs about meaning, freedom, suffering, truth, and/or human purpose.
2. Engage deeply with at least three texts from this unit.

• You must meaningfully reference and analyze these texts.
• Do not simply summarize themuse them to support, challenge, or refine your ideas.

1. Develop a coherent, unified philosophy.

• Your ideas should connect logically.
• Address tensions or contradictions in your thinking.

1. Include specific textual evidence (quoted or clearly referenced moments, scenes, or arguments).
2. At the end of your essay, include a brief reflection (1 paragraph):

• How has your philosophy changedor become clearerthrough this unit?

You will be assessed on:

• Depth of philosophical thinking
• Meaningful synthesis of texts
• Clarity and coherence of philosophy
• Originality and intellectual risk
• Writing quality and organization

Option 4

Quote A Quote B

While secrecy can be destructive, some of it

is indispensable in human lives. Some control

over secrecy and openness is needed in order

to protect identity. Such control may be

needed to guard privacy, intimacy, and

friendship.

adapted from Sissela Bok, The Need for

Secrecy

Secrecy and a free, democratic government,

President Harry Truman once said, dont mix.

An open exchange of information is vital to the

kind of informed citizenry essential to healthy

democracy.

editorial, Overzealous Secrecy Threatens

Democracy

Writing Prompt: Do people need to keep secrets or is secrecy harmful? Plan your response, and

then write an essay to explain your views on this issue. Be sure to support your position by

discussing several examples from literature, science and technology, the arts, current

events, or your own experience or observation. I also put below the essay that I sent in and she said ” Your 3.05 Argument Essay was flagged for AI. I have attached a copy to this email. I have spoken to Mrs. Jankowski and we are allowing you to revise and resubmit. The revision needs to include the quotations provided on the assignment directions, and you need to provide more specific information to your examples, not just a broad overview. You will also need to revise and resubmit the 3.05 Checklist.”

Use the first and secondary source to complete my assignment. Things Fall Apart by Chinua Achebe Related articles.

It is a formal letter

for the first assignment ____ After considering the feedback from your teammates and updating your Antibias Wheel upload it into the assignment folder. Share what you added to your Antibias wheel in this text box. I will upload a picture of the first assignment you did for me but now with the students feedback

ASSIGNMENT 2____ After considering the feedback from your teammates and updating your Curriculum Wheel upload it into the assignment folder. Share what you added to your Curriculum Wheel in this text box. this one did not get any feedback but I will upload so you know what you wrote for me last time

It should be a very good essay

Please write a four-to-six page analytical essay in which you examine how Mann uses setting, symbolism, and characterization to explore the conflict between discipline and desire. In your essay, you should:

— Analyze Aschenbach’s internal struggle and how it reflects broader themes of art, morality, and self-control. Why is Aschenbach unable to save himself?

— Explain the Socratic concept that beauty is only a path to the intellect, not an end in itself. How does Aschenbach run afoul of Socrates’ counsel to Phaedrus? Relate this to the idea that, to avoid disaster, desire must transcend Dionysian, instinctual impulses. What are the results of such transcendence?

— Discuss the symbolic role of Venice, including the cholera epidemic and decay.

— Examine the significance of Tadzio as an embodiment of beauty, art, or idealized youth.

— Consider how classical ideals (such as Apollonian order vs. Dionysian passion) shape the novella’s philosophical framework.

–Support your claims with specific textual evidence and close reading. This means you MUST incorporate short quotations from the text to support your claims and analyses.

You must also address how the novella reflects pre-World War I anxieties about modernity, illness, repression (remember Freud’s id, ego, superego), aestheticism, and decadence. Be sure to develop a clear thesis, integrate quotations smoothly, and engage critically with the text rather than simply summarizing it.

Good luck.

The essay will be five paragraphs including the following: Introduction Paragraph Body Paragraphs (3) Conclusion Paragraph Your essay will be centered on the prompt: How much of what happens in our lives do we actually control? You need to use our readings as evidence to answer the question. At least two pieces of evidences is required in each paragraph. Each citation (evidence) must be explained in your own words, with two (2) sentences. Each body paragraph then must be 9 sentence minimum (Topic sentence, intro. to reading and evidence, evidence, explanation sentence #1, explanation sentence #2, 2nd evidence, 2 sentences to explain, closing sentence). The essay must be in MLA format