Write a 500- to 800-word essay arguing a clearly stated position

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Assignment 2: The Argumentative Research Paper
THE ASSIGNMENT: Write a 500- to 800-word essay arguing a clearly stated position. This
essay will be the most formal essay you’ll write this semester. Your paper must have at least
two outside sources. Use the Modern Language Association’s format for documenting sources.
On this assignment, do not use first person (I, me, my, mine) or second person (you, your). Use a
more formal, academic-sounding, objective tone.
GETTING STARTED AND WRITING YOUR ESSAY: First, get your own ideas down on paper.
This assignment will be just like other essays you have written, with an introduction ending
with a clearly-stated thesis sentence, body paragraphs, and a brief conclusion. Give your
weakest arguments first and build to your strongest arguments. Consider and deal with your
opposition’s arguments, either by concession (agreeing that your opponent has a valid point,
but it does not outweigh yours) or by refutation (showing that your opponent’s arguments are
simply wrong). Whatever you do, don’t just ignore your opposition. Once you’ve got your own
ideas in order, back up those ideas with relevant information and opinions from reliable
sources.
HOW TO FIND AND DOCUMENT OUTSIDE SOURCES FOR ARGUMENT ESSAYS: You will be
required to use outside information (two sources) in your argument essay. Relevant quotes,
statistics, or facts that support your argument can make your point more persuasive.
Finding Reliable Sources on the Internet:
One reliable source for full-text newspaper, magazine, and journal articles is our Amarillo
College Library databases of articles. Go to https://www.actx.edu/library/ and then click on
Find Articles. Here, you’ll find several databases, some of which contain full-text articles you
can print. One helpful database for argument essays is Opposing Viewpoints. Another helpful
database is Points of View Reference Center. You can access both of these under the category
Multi-Subject Databases. Use key words related to your argument topic to search these
databases, such as “Arguments on the Death Penalty.” Be sure to narrow your search key
words as much as possible or you may end up with too many items in your search results.
If you use our AC Library databases, you are guaranteed reputable, college-level sources. Many
sources on the Internet are not reliable or college-level, so you need to avoid them, as they
don’t add support or credibility to your argument. MAKE SURE YOU FIND OUT AND KEEP ANY
AUTHORS’ NAMES, WEB SITE EDITORS’ NAMES, WEB SITE TITLES, DATABASE TITLES,
ARTICLE TITLES, DATES, URL’S, ETC. You will have to document this information when you
use outside information in your essay. Sometimes you can access this information by clicking
the “Cite” button to the right of any page of a database article.
How to Document Outside Sources in Your Argument Essay Using MLA Style (8th ed.):
If you use statistics, facts, comments or any other information that you find in an outside
source, you must give credit to the author / originator of that information. Otherwise, you
commit plagiarism, a serious academic offense. The only exception to this rule is common
knowledge—information that can be readily found in several sources or that is commonly
known. For example, the fact that the Black Death happened in the 14th Century or that the
Houston Astros won the World Series in 2017 would be considered common knowledge.
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If you use outside sources in your paper, you need to take three important steps:
1. Introduce all borrowed information, whether a direct quotation in quotation marks or a
summary of statistics and research. (NOTE: Underlining has been added to indicate the
introduction. Do NOT underline your own writing.)
According to Dr. James Smith, Professor of Psychology at Brown University, many
bright students perform poorly on standardized tests.”
As a UCLA study demonstrated, 20% of students have some form of test
anxiety (Jones 10).
One researcher has found a dramatic rise in trips to the nurse’s office during
standardized testing (Townsend 25).
2. Provide at least the source’s last name and the page number (for a print source) when
using an outside source. In English and other humanities classes, use the MLA (Modern
Language Association) method of documenting sources. (NOTE: Underlining has been added to
the documentation for emphasis. Do NOT underline your own writing.)
One psychology professor concluded that many bright students perform poorly on
standardized tests (Smith 12).
Psychology Professor Dr. James Smith concluded many bright students perform poorly
on standardized tests (12).
For an electronic source with no page numbers provided:
According to one psychology professor, “Many bright students perform poorly on
standardized tests” (Smith).
NOTE: Do not create page numbers for online sources. Unless you are using a scanned or PDF
file with original page numbers, or page numbers appear in the online document, you should
not use a page number with an online source.
If an electronic source is reputable but no specific author is provided, use a shortened
form of the article title in the parentheses following the borrowed information:
A 2002 study at Yale University found that most high school teachers would prefer to
eliminate high stakes standardized testing (“Standardized Testing”).
3. Create a Works Cited page as the last page of your essay. For each source cited in your
paper, you must have a corresponding Works Cited entry. Works Cited entries are arranged
alphabetically by last name. The last name used in your Works Cited entry must be the last
name cited in parentheses in your essay. The Works Cited page should be DOUBLE-SPACED
with no extra space between entries. Indent entries after the first line.
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Basic Style for Citations of Sources
(Including Online Databases)
Here are some common features you should try and find before citing electronic sources in
MLA style. Not every Web page will provide all of the following information. However, collect
as much of the following information as possible both for your citations and for your research
notes:
 Author and/or editor names (if available)
 Article name in quotation marks.
 Title of the website, project, or book in italics.
 Any version numbers available, including editions (ed.), revisions, posting dates,
volumes (vol.), or issue numbers (no.).
 Publisher information, including the publisher name and publishing date.
 Take note of any page numbers (p. or pp.) or paragraph numbers (par. or pars.).
 URL (without the https://) DOI or permalink.
 Date you accessed the material (Date Accessed).
 Remember to cite containers after your regular citation. Examples of containers are
collections of short stories or poems, a television series, or even a website. A container is
anything that is a part of a larger body of works.
Use the following format:
Author. Title. Title of container (self contained if book), Other contributors (translators or
editors), Version (edition), Number (vol. and/or no.), Publisher, Publication Date, Location
(pages, paragraphs and/or URL, DOI or permalink). 2nd container’s title, Other contributors,
Version, Number, Publisher, Publication date, Location, Date of Access (if applicable).
____________________________________________________________________________________________________________
Sample Entries for a Works Cited Page for English 1301
 A Story from a Textbook:
Faulkner, William. “A Rose for Emily.” Literature: A Portable Anthology, edited by Janet E.
Gardner, et al., 4th edition, Bedford/St. Martin’s, 2017, pp. 168-175.
 A Book with a Single Author:
Pritchard, William. Updike: America’s Man of Letters. Steerforth, 2000.
 An Essay in a Book with an Editor or Editors:
Frist, John. “Faulkner Revisited.” Interpretations of William Faulkner, edited by Lawrence Edwards,
Prentice, 1994, pp. 50-57.
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 An Article in a Web Magazine:
Provide the author’s name, article name in quotation marks, title of the web magazine in italics,
publisher name, publication date, URL, and the date of access.
Schloredt, Valerie. “Alice Walker: ‘Go to the Places That Scare You.’” YES! Magazine, 02 Oct.
2012, www.yesmagazine.org/issues/its-your-body/alice-walker-go-to-the-places-thatscare-you. Accessed 21 March 2017.
–Articles in Online Scholarly Journals
For all online scholarly journals, provide the author(s) name(s), the name of the article in
quotation marks, the title of the publication in italics, all volume and issue numbers, and the
year of publication. Include a URL, DOI, or permalink to help readers locate the source.
 An Article in an Online-only Scholarly Journal
Dolby, Nadine. “Research in Youth Culture and Policy: Current Conditions and Future
Directions.” Social Work and Society: The International Online-Only Journal, vol. 6, no. 2,
2008, www.socwork.net/sws/article/view/60/362. Accessed 20 May 2016.
 An Article in an Online Scholarly Journal That Also Appears in Print
Cite articles in online scholarly journals that also appear in print as you would a scholarly
journal in print, including the page range of the article. Provide the URL and the date of access.
Wheelis, Mark. “Investigating Disease Outbreaks Under a Protocol to the Biological and Toxin
Weapons Convention.” Emerging Infectious Diseases, vol. 6, no. 6, 2000, pp. 595-600,
wwwnc.cdc.gov/eid/article/6/6/00-0607_article. Accessed 8 Feb. 2016.
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 An Article from an Online Database (or Other Electronic Subscription Service)
Cite articles from online databases (e.g. LexisNexis, ProQuest, JSTOR, ScienceDirect) and other
subscription services as containers. Thus, provide the title of the database italicized before the
DOI or URL. If a DOI is not provided, use the URL instead. Provide the date of access if you wish.
Alonso, Alvaro, and Julio A. Camargo. “Toxicity of Nitrite to Three Species of Freshwater
Invertebrates.” Environmental Toxicology, vol. 21, no. 1, 3 Feb. 2006, pp. 90-94. Wiley Online
Library, doi:10.1002/tox.20155.
Langhamer, Claire. “Love and Courtship in Mid-Twentieth-Century England.” Historical
Journal, vol. 50, no. 1, 2007, pp. 173-96. ProQuest, doi:10.1017/S0018246X06005966.
Accessed 27 May 2016.
 Films or Television Programs
List films by their title. Include the name of the director, the film studio or distributor, and the
release year. If relevant, list performer names after the director’s name.
Gryphon. Directed by Mark Cullingham, performances by Amanda Plummer, Sully Diaz, Alexis
Cruz. Wonderworks Family Movie, 1988.
When composing your “Works Cited” page, follow the examples given in the Sample Works
Cited Page for English 1301 carefully.
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Sample Works Cited Page for English 1301
Works Cited
Ames, Julia. Standardized Testing. Pantheon, 2001.
Edwards, Robert. “The Argument for School Uniforms.” Current Debates in Education, edited by
Mary Ellen Williams, Prentice, 2000, pp. 45-50.
Hall, Trish. “IQ Scores Are Up, and Psychologists Wonder Why.” New York Times, 24 Feb. 1998,
late ed., F1+. InfoTrac Newspapers, www.galegrouparticle405.com. Accessed 5 Oct. 2009.
Jost, Kenneth. ”Rethinking the Death Penalty.” CQ Researcher, vol. 11, 2001, pp. 945-68. CQ
Researcher, www.cqlibraryarticle678.com. Accessed 5 Oct. 2009.
Pillard, Richard. “The Causes of Homosexuality Are Probably Genetic.” Homosexuality, Opposing
Viewpoints Ser., Greenhaven, 1999. Opposing Viewpoints in Context,
wwwgalegrouparticle555.com. Accessed 5 Oct. 2009.
“Promoting a Culture of Life.” DISCovering U.S. History, Gale, 2003. Student Resource Center,
www.galegrouparticle980.com. Accessed 15 Apr. 2009.
“Public Smoking Bans.” CNN, 3 Aug. 2009, www.edition.cnn.com/2009/08/03/health/smoking.
Accessed 10 Nov. 2009.
_________________________________________________________________________________________________________
1. Ames, Julia: Book with a single author.
2. Edwards, Robert: Article from a book with an editor.
3. Hall, Trish: Newspaper article found in AC library online database InfoTrac.
4. Jost, Kenneth: Article found in AC library online database CQ Researcher.
5. Pillard, Richard: Article found in AC library online database Opposing Viewpoints.
6. “Promoting”: Article with no author provided found in AC library online database Student
Resource Center.
7. “Public”: Article from a Website with no author provided
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Francis Keaton
Professor Netherton
English 1301-013
31 February 2017
One Person, One Vote?
Four times in America’s history, the President of the United States was chosen not by the
popular vote, but by the Electoral College. The results of the 2016 election caused many people
once again to call for a removal of the Electoral College, to be replaced by a straight popular
vote for the President of the United States. However, if the president were chosen solely by the
popular vote, the voters in a very few large population centers—that is, large cities—could
decide who would be president for the rest of the entire country in every single election (see
fig. 1). Nevertheless, while it can be argued that the Electoral College is still necessary in
today’s society, it does need to be reformed in order to more accurately express the will of each
voter, no matter where he or she might live. The solution is to make the Electoral College votes
in every state to be a proportional, rather than a “winner-takes-all,” representation.
For the past several presidential elections, the media has focused much attention on what
it has come to call “red states” and “blue states.” A “winner-takes-all” Electoral College is what
creates red states and blue states—and swing states. While Maine and Nebraska use
proportional electoral representation, in all the other states, the Electoral College votes go
entirely to the candidate who gets that state’s majority vote. Although many people believe
that the vast majority of citizens in the red and blue states vote either Republican (“red”) or
Democrat (“blue”), in reality, most states are much more evenly mixed with large populations
of both Democrat and Republican voters. Texas, which is definitely a red state, is a good
example. A majority of its citizens have voted for the Republican presidential candidate in
every election since 1980. However, even in this solidly red state, 41 per cent of the populace
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voted for Barak Obama in 2012 (“Texas Presidential Election”) and 43 per cent voted for Hillary
Clinton in 2016 (Cantu). Still, with over 4 out of 10 Texans voting for Obama and Clinton, all of
Texas’s 38 electoral votes went to Mitt Romney in 2012 and Donald Trump in 2016. The
result? Many Texas voters, both Democrat and Republican, stay home on Election Day, and for
good reason: they know their vote literally does not matter in the long run. The same scenario
is played out across the nation, with Democrats in solidly red states not having a real voice in
the election and Republicans in solidly blue states, such as California, not having one either.
Another major problem with the Electoral College as it is currently set up in most states is
that the electoral votes of “swing states” or “battleground states”—those relatively few states
that are not solidly blue or red—often really do disproportionately decide who will be
president for the rest of the nation, as was demonstrated in the 2016 election. Thus, candidates
will usually spend an inordinate amount of time (and money) campaigning in those states. As
Robert A. Levy of the Cato Institute writes, “Winner-take-all means that candidates will ignore
states where the outcome of the popular vote is evident (e.g., California and Texas) even if a
number of districts within the state are competitive.” According to New York Times writer Nate
Silver, approximately 79% of Americans live in either red or blue states (qtd. in Edwards and
Oppenheimer). Therefore, presidential candidates more or less ignore four out of five voters
each election, no matter what political party they are in, because the Electoral College’s votes of
the states where those voters live is already predetermined. As Becky Bergdahl of the Inter
Press Service News Agency explains, the “candidates’ intense focus on swing states could
weaken American democracy, as residents of different states are not equally encouraged to
engage in politics.” One of the purposes of the Electoral College when it was established in
1787 was the legitimate concern that the less populated states should be adequately
represented in the national election. Today, however, that goal has been flipped; so that now,
candidates focus on the voters in only a very few states, ignoring the vast majority of voters
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across the rest of the nation, both those who live in rural areas and those who live in large
cities.
Ironically, some Electoral College defenders believe the existence of swing states benefits
the nation at large. Richard A. Posner, writing for Slate, argues that swing state voters “are
likely to be the most thoughtful voters, on average (and for the further reason that they will
have received the most information and attention from the candidates), and the most
thoughtful voters should be the ones to decide the election.” Apparently, Posner believes swing
states are swing states solely because the citizens in those states are more intelligent and
“thoughtful” than voters in other states. However, he gives no evidence to support this
assertion. In 21st Century America, swing states are swing states mainly because of their
location and demographics. Florida, for example, which was a red state for years, is now a
swing state because of an influx of Democrat retirees from blue northern states, such as New
York. Michigan and Pennsylvania, which had been solidly blue for years, became swing states
as recently as 2016, mainly because of the dire economic situation in those two states. (Indeed,
Clinton lost the election largely because she failed to campaign in Michigan and Pennsylvania,
which both went for Trump). There is no reason why voters in these states or any other swing
state should wield so much power in the election. No one state in the United States should be
the place of a “battleground.”
So, what is to be done? Many people argue we need to do away with the Electoral College
altogether and let the popular vote decide. However, a popular vote would effectively ensure
that urban voters would decide elections every time; and besides, going to a pure popular vote
would require a Constitutional amendment, which is very difficult to get passed. On the other
hand, it also does not seem fair to keep the Electoral College as it is and thereby completely
disregard the votes of Republicans in blue states and Democrats in red states. Fortunately, a
fairly simple solution to the problem is possible: All the states could make the Electoral
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College’s vote proportional to the popular vote, such as Maine and Nebraska do. In other
words, if 40 per cent of a state’s citizenry vote for one candidate and 60 for the other, then the
Electoral College vote would go the same way. This solution allows the voice of people living in
rural areas, small towns and cities, and lower-populated states to still be heard and counted;
and at the same time, comes a little closer to the pure democratic ideal of “one person, one
vote,” so that the vote of everyone will indeed matter in the end.
Fig. 1. Map of the United States, showing that half of the population resides in only 146 out of
over 3000 counties. “Half of the United States Lives in These Counties”; Walter Hickey and Joe
Weisenthal; Business Insider; 4 Sept. 2013; http://www.businessinsider.com/half-of-theunited-states-lives-in-these-counties-2013-9. Accessed 15 Jan. 2017.
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Works Cited
Bergdahl, Becky. “Focus on Swing States Could Weaken Democracy in the U.S.” IPS News, 5 Nov. 2012.

Mexican Cooperative Promotes Energy Transition on Indigenous Lands

Accessed 15 Jan2017.
Cantu, Tony. “A Blue Dot In Sea Of Red, Travis County Voting Was Decidedly Pro-Clinton.”
Downtown Austin Patch, 10 Nov. 2016. http://patch.com/texas/downtownaustin/bluedot-sea-red-travis-county-voting-was-decidedly-pro-clinton. Accessed 12 Jan. 2017.
Levy, Robert A. “Should We Reform the Electoral College?” Cato Institute Policy Report. March/April 2013.
https://www.cato.org/policy-report/marchapril-2013/should-we-reform-electoralcollege. Accessed 16 Jan. 2017.
Posner, Richard A. “In Defense of the Electoral College.” Slate. 12 Nov. 2012.
http://www.slate.com/articles/news_and_politics/view_from_chicago/2012/11/defend
ing_the_electoral_college.html. Accessed 16 Jan. 2017.
“Texas Presidential Election Voting History.” 270towin.com.
http://www.270towin.com/states/Texas. Accessed 15 Jan. 2017.