Subject: The topic for your paper will be an event or concept of your choice. Topics you CANNOT use are:

• immigration / illegal immigration

• attending / dropping out of high school / college

• global warming / climate change

• fast food / obesity

• alcohol / drugs (including marijuana) / smoking

• homelessness / poverty

• teen pregnancy

• abortion

• deforestation / pollution

• female genital mutilation (clitoridectomy)

• social media

• bullying / cyberbullying

Sources of information: Minimum one source required. When using sources in papers (whether summary, paraphrase, or direct quote), you must cite the sources using in-text citation AND a works cited page. Not doing so will be considered plagiarism and an automatic F on the paper.

Purpose: The purpose of this essay is to inform an audience that has little to no knowledge of your subject.

Audience: Your audience is an academic audience. While that includes your peers (classmates) and your instructor, there are other expectations an academic audience has of a college level paper.

Length and document style: The minimum length requirement for this paper is 4 pages. Maximum length of this paper is 8 pages. Going over or under length requirement will result in a grade penalty of ten points. You will use MLA format for this paper. The required works cited page does not count towards your page count.

Special assignment stipulations: Students will not be allowed to use second person (you / your) in any of the major papers in this course. For this paper, you can use either first person (I / my / me / we / our / us) or third (he / she / they) person.