Define a virtue that is essential for success in a role or a discipline or a profession that is of interest to you. Explain how this virtue is practiced and what end(s) it serves. You will need to carefully define the virtue—what does it look like? What are some things that are close to it but crucially different from it?—and “success” and show how the practice of this virtue relates to this goal.
You will find a book during this unit that will be one source for your paper (this book will also be the book you review during the final exam—more on this below). In addition to this book, find at least three good articles (or books) dealing with your topic and use summaries of the information to develop your discussion, for a total of four sources. (You may use one of the sources we read together in class.) Conduct library database searches through the Discovery search (hbl.gcc.edu). Your sources may be a mix of scholarly and “popular” sources (i.e. opinion pieces, news articles, or government websites), but there should be at least four sources.
Provide an introduction to your paper with a thesis or statement of focus/purpose; clearly organize the information you have found in the body of your essay; provide a conclusion or closing to the essay; provide a Works Cited, citations, and paper format in MLA style (review in Little Seagull or on PurdueOWL online).
The main purpose of this essay is to learn how to write an informational essay. The second purpose is to demonstrate the ability to integrate outside information into your own writing, specifically through signal phrases/journalistic attribution and MLA format.
Rhetorical skills: definition, comparison, description, summary, analysis, and informative thesis statement.
Your final essay should be 3-5 typed, double-spaced pages in length (1000-1500 words excluding references).