Paper #3- Sparking Change

Capstone Paper Project #3 — Sparking Change — Richter, CPN-101 Spring 2017

We live in a constantly evolving world. With the persistent, multi-modal onslaught of new news, facts and information that is pumped at us every day, it’s difficult to keep track of it all. This oftentimes makes social change in our world seem impossible to achieve. The hardest part, sometimes, is simply figuring out where and how to get started.  Sometimes, all that’s needed is a spark.

What is the most important change for our society to strive toward? How might we begin to realize this necessary change? How might we spark others into action to solve this problem?

Your essay will tackle an individual topic, and should explore 2-3 “factors” that play a major role.

To find a topic that interests you and that you have a personal stake in, I suggest you scroll through a website such as Global Citizen or long-form investigative news magazines such as The Atlantic or Slate.  Like with Paper #2, I encourage you to explore and push boundaries on writing topics. What is most important to you? If you’re truly lost, I’ve compiled a list of possible topics that I’d be happy to share with you in office hours or online. Don’t choose a topic you’ve already written on for a previous paper.

You will compose in four parts:

1. An outline in Google Docs that will include a paragraph summary of your paper idea, a thesis statement, and two possible scholarly sources.  This will be turned in on (4/17).
2. A first draft that will be at least four pages in length, handed in on (4/21).
3. A second draft, six pages in length, which will be handed in on (4/28) and will receive a letter grade counting as 30% of your final CPN-101 grade (see syllabus).
4. A digital version of Paper #3 that will be posted onto a class-constructed and class-designed website.  Your essay will be posted alongside 2-3 other students’ essays as an individual tab on the website.  Each tab will have a thematic focus– ie. a student writing on solar power might group together with students writing on deforestation in the Amazon and on endangered species populations. Likewise, a student writing on mass incarceration might collaborate with a student writing on police shootings against persons of color. This version of your paper will incorporate multimedia elements— images, videos, sound files– and will be publicly available to anyone with an internet connection. More on this later. It’s a separate grade.  See syllabus. 

Your essay will obey the standard conventions of MLA formatting that we have been practicing all semester. It will be typed in Times New Roman font at 12pt size; double spaced; standard MLA heading; proper MLA Works Cited page and proper in-text citations; it will maintain a scholarly tone; the essay will showcase logical organization and unity; it will be six full pages.

–>Your paper will utilize at least 7 scholarly sources from academic journals and scholarly books. Regular websites are great, but won’t count toward this number. Research will be a heavy factor in your ultimate grade; I will not be giving you any breaks on this.