Assignment:
The goal of your final paper is to explain to your classmates and me why a meal you eat in your life is significant, or important, to you--why, you might perhaps consider, your life would be different, if you did not eat this meal. Please visit the Unit 1-1 discussion of topic selection for more information about the type of meal you might choose for this research project.
To present "varied online resources", you will want to use different methods to collect your resources. For example, you will want to make use of the library databases, catalog (perhaps), and browsers (pay attention too to the types of web sites you find--look for .edu, .org, .com, .gov, etc.). Since you may find talking with family members very helpful, you may want to conduct email interviews (or face-to-face or telephone interviews) that you will quote/summarize/paraphrase as evidence to support your ideas in your research essay. You may include as many interviews as are helpful in addition to your 5 online sources.
Here are some necessary steps in implementing this project:
• identifying a research question https://owl.english.purdue.edu/owl/resource/552/01/
• narrowing a topic and finding a focus https://owl.english.purdue.edu/owl/resource/545/01/
• evaluating sources for their usefulness https://owl.english.purdue.edu/owl/resource/559/01/
• writing summaries, competent paraphrasing, and smooth and correct incorporation of direct quotations.https://owl.english.purdue.edu/owl/resource/589/02/ & https://owl.english.purdue.edu/owl/resource/557/02/
All of these topics are discussed in the St. Martin's Handbook. In general, the more focused and specific your paper is, the easier it will be to write, and the more enlightening it will be for your reader.
Additional sources may include books from the general and reference collections, articles, film and videos, live interviews (you will conduct) etc.
I will be randomly conducting plagiarism checks, so make sure that you are following MLA citation formats to avoid plagiarism!
In this paper, you will discuss why a meal in your life is significant, using your personal experiences and resources collected during your research process to support your thesis.
There is no one correct way to organize and write this essay (see the discussion of selecting a topic above). Since this is a personal essay, I expect you to create a personal narrative, which would use the first person "I" in your essay. The finished product, a 4-6 page research paper, presented in MLA paper format, will be determined by the meal you select and the research question that shapes your paper. Don't forget your additional Works Cited page that presents your 5+ resources that are all cited in your essay (if you find a resource that you do not plan to or cannot use in your essay, then you must search for another resource). You should also have a variety of resources that present information in different genres and/or different points of view.
In this researched essay, you should explain why, after researching your special meal, you feel it is so significant in your life. (Remember, your essay should not explain the history of the meal or how the meal is prepared; instead these may be element you provide as support for why the meal is significant in your life.)