Essay 4 Requirements

1.    Write an essay in which you take a position--on an issue in science and technology--which takes into account the complexity of the issue and which is persuasive.

2.    Incorporate into your essay at least two different sources, representing differing perspectives on your issue.  Cite particular passages as evidence for your points, integrating them smoothly into your own text.  Summarize concisely and accurately the Presence essays ideas.  One of them should be from the science and technology section in The Presence of Others.  

3.    Pull your readers into your issue in the introduction and give them a general but clear sense of what will follow.

4.    Lead the reader through the parts of the essay in a way that the reader sees where you're headed and give the reader a sense of having arrived somewhere by the conclusion.

5.    Use evidence that will be particularly persuasive to your readers--because of the authority of the source, the appeal of the anecdote, the power of the statistic or fact.

6.    Create the "ethos" in your essay of a writer who is fair, openminded, and unpretentious.  Convey a sense of your writer's voice--without being too informal and "talky."  That is, the style of the essay should have a certain enlivening energy to it within an academic context..

7.    Follow MLA format, 3-4 pages long, with metatext, submitted to Learning Space and final draft submitted as a printed copy.

*You may notice that much of all the requirements is similar to the requirements for Essays 1, 2, and 3, so you should be able to build upon what you've already learned.  The key new requirements have to do with being persuasive, through considering multiple perspectives, choosing effective evidence, and creating a narrator who comes across as fair.