This final essay is intended to draw upon all the elements of writing addressed in this course. Look back over the notes/media files for each week as...

This final essay is intended to draw upon all the elements of writing addressed in this course. Look back over the notes/media files for each week as you prepare to write this essay. These are the major components I will be assessing:

Identifying and implementing the elements of argumentation
Developing your own thesis statement, using critical thinking and finding connections between sources and themes
Narrowing or broadening the scope of the thesis to fit the required length of the assignment
Organizing the main ideas into a well-developed essay
Synthesizing several sources to support your claim, using 2-3 sources to support each main idea
Properly using MLA format, in-text citations and writing a properly formatted Works Cited page
Finding punctuation and grammar errors and correcting those in the editing/proofreading process

For this essay you will first need to take a step back (mentally) and think about all of the articles we have read for this term. We covered various topics that the authors of our textbook call "American Myths." What connections do you see between them beyond the fact that they are myths? Are there any common threads that run through all or most of the concepts? I would like for you to think deeply about this over the next few days and hopefully come up with your own connections, but if you draw a blank, here is one possible idea:

Almost all of the chapters contain an article that discusses some sort of prejudice. How does race or prejudice affect the American myths OR how are they affected BY the American Myths? You could view that from either way. I don't want to say more here because I want you to come up with some ideas on your own. Also, each chapter includes two sections towards the end entitled "Exploring Connections" and "Extending the Critical Context," and while these often focus on two or three of the articles in that chapter, the questions can certainly spark some ideas for a thesis to make some broader connections with other articles. I am not insisting that the articles come from several sections. That part is up to you because perhaps one of the chapters isn't relevant to your claim (thesis).

You will need to use a minimum of 5 of the readings in the book to support your claim, spanning at least 3 chapters. You are creating an argument and using the sources to support it. I expect that they will be articles that you have already read for the class, but you can add in one we didn't read if you think it will be beneficial to your argument. Just be sure you are not merely summarizing any of the articles. If you need to pull some facts or statistics from a web site, you may do so, but don't use other types of sources or opinions from the web - we are trying to find connections between the articles and myths we have already discussed.

Articles: "The crossing"

"The melting pot myth'"

'The land of liberty"

"The myth of the 1950s family"

"Just a family"