Documented Argument in APA
Your argumentative essay will be on an environmental topic from the list of options below. Consider your audience for this paper to be your peers. The essay should be between 3 ½ and 4 pages (850 to 1,000 words) in length, not including the cover page, abstract, or reference page. It should be double spaced in Times New Roman 12-point font and must meet the following criteria:
- An introduction, a minimum of 3 body paragraphs, and a conclusion
- A clearly articulated thesis in the introduction of the paper; the thesis must state the claim, position, or stance that your essay will prove
- 4 cited sources
- At least 4 quotes from your sources
- Topic sentences that focus the discussion in each body paragraph
- Examples, details, statistics, explanations, and other researched evidence in the body paragraphs that clearly support the claim of your thesis
- Counterarguments (at least one but preferably more than one) and refutations that show you understand the complexity of your argument and can accurately acknowledge the views of the opposition and refute them
- Clear connections between ideas from paragraph to paragraph and within paragraphs (transition words and phrases)
- Proper APA style format in the cover page, in the abstract, in the in-text citations, and in the Reference page (see the template and instructional video for creating the APA format)
- Reference page listing a minimum of 4 sources
- Standard usage, grammar, and mechanics
IMPORTANT INFORMATION:
- You will submit your final draft through the Turn-it-in drop box designated for this purpose in the course. Please be aware, that although Turn-it-in does allow for similarities for quotations up to 24% of your paper, any similarity above 24% is considered too high for an original paper and will be flagged as plagiarism.
- You can get help with your paper at any of the campus writing centers (see the link in the course with this information), and you can also receive online help via SmartThinking, the online tutoring service provided by the College. This service is available by clicking on SmartThinking in the left-hand menu bar of the course under Tools & Resources.
Choose any one of the following 16 topics (Note reference resources at the end of the topic list):
1 Research the effects of the environment on human health. Does the health of the environment affect the health of the human beings within it? Make an argument that supports your answer. Start your research by reading this article: https://orionmagazine.org/article/beyond-the-patient/.
The following websites might provide some data for your research:
- The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency Laws and Regulations: https://www.epa.gov/laws-regulations.
- The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency Data: https://www.epa.gov/facts-and-figures-about-materials-waste-and-recycling.
- World Bank Data: https://data.worldbank.org/topic/environment.
- United Nations Environment Program: https://www.unenvironment.org/regions/north-america.
- org: https://350.org/science/.
- NASA on climate change: https://climate.nasa.gov/.
- The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC): https://www.ipcc.ch/about/.
- The World Wildlife Federation: https://www.worldwildlife.org/
- The Opportunity Atlas: https://www.opportunityatlas.org/
