Sources: 2 primary texts (“On the Duty of Civil Disobedience” and “Small Change”) and 3 secondary texts (research sources you will find and use for your annotated bibliography).

Quotes: 8 quotes total (2 quotes per point) 2 Thoreau quotes, 2 Gladwell quotes, 4 research quotes

Assignment Summary

Essay 2 is a light research paper that asks that you evaluate a modern protest movement using the ideas and the vocabulary of Thoreau and Gladwell to decide if a modern protest movement has the potential for successfully creating systemic change. We are also looking at the ways in which the protest movement succeeds beyond Thoreau or Gladwell’s criteria or fails based on entirely different criteria.

Your job is to choose one modern protest movement (#MeToo, Black Lives Matter, Immigration, etc.) and evaluate it in terms of Thoreau and Gladwell. Your essay will evaluate the modern protest movement in terms of the cause of the movement, the structure of the movement, and the outcome of the movement. Within the analysis of these three areas, you will be incorporating Thoreau, Gladwell, and your research to explain your evaluation of the modern protest movement.

Audience: The audience for this essay is informed. This means that the audience will have read both “On the Duty of Civil Disobedience” and “Small Change.” You will be using a focused summary of specific points and arguments from Thoreau and Gladwell to explain your criteria for evaluating the modern protest movement, but the essay does not call for broad summary of the two texts.

Research: This assignment asks you to incorporate 3 research sources. They should be journalistic sources from credible publications. We will be working with the MCC library databases, and you are expected to use source material from these databases. Remember that the goal for the essay is to explain and prove your evaluation of the modern protest movement. That means that your voice and your analysis is the most important part of the essay. Quotes from Thoreau, Gladwell, and your research should not exceed 20% of your essay.

Essay Structure Guidelines

Introduction—1 paragraph

1. The Hook—the hook is an important piece of your essay.
   1. The hook is an interesting starting point for your essay that draws the reader into your ideas.
   2. You can start with a story, an interesting quote (not from a primary source) or a statistic. Whatever you choose must be attention grabbing.
   3. The hook must be explained like any quote or example.
   4. If the hook is a quote or a statistic it must be cited.
   5. It cannot exceed ¼ of your introduction.
       
2. The Conversation—the reader needs to be introduced to the general discussion about protest. What is the debate going on? What are people arguing about in this conversation?
    
3. The Primary Texts—introduce the reader to the texts through which you are evaluating the modern protest movement. Introduce Thoreau and Gladwell in terms of the authors’ full names and the titles of their texts. Give a brief statement of the focus of their texts, but no real summary—that’ll come later!
    
4. The Modern Protest Movement—introduce the reader to the movement under evaluation. This is going to be brief. You’ll get into all kinds of details later; this is just to make sure the reader knows where the paper is going.
    
5. The Thesis—the thesis needs to be a brief statement at the bottom of the introduction that tells the reader the argument you are making about the modern protest movement. These following questions must be answered for the thesis. You are welcome to have 3 sentences.

1. Thoreau’s opinion on this protest movement in terms of the cause and in terms of active protest:
2. Gladwell’s opinion on this protest movement in terms of strong bonds and hierarchal structure:
3. Your own opinion on the success of this protest movement:

Section 1: Thoreau (4 paragraphs minimum)
 

1. Point 1 The Cause—2 paragraphs
    
   1. Paragraph 1—Explain Thoreau’s argument about what is justified protest
      1. The topic sentence must state if your protest meets Thoreau’s definition of a just cause for protest
      2. Summarize and explain Thoreau’s definition of a just cause.
      3. You are required to include 1 quote from Thoreau in this paragraph.
          
   2. Paragraph 2—Explain why your protest is justified or not
      1. The topic sentence must state why your cause meets or doesn’t meet Thoreau’s criteria for a just cause.
      2. Discuss how the cause of the protest is just and worthy of a protest in Thoreau’s terms.
      3. Discuss the ways in which you agree or disagree with Thoreau’s argument in terms of this protest movement.
      4. Use your research to prove this cause is just or not in Thoreau’s terms and in your own opinion. A minimum of 1 research quote is required in this paragraph.
          
2. Point 2 Active Protest—2 paragraphs
    
   1. Paragraph 1—Explain Thoreau’s argument about active protest
      1. The topic sentence must state if the protest movement meets Thoreau’s definition of active protest.
      2. Summarize and explain Thoreau’s argument about active protest.
      3. You are required to include a quote from Thoreau in this paragraph.
          
   2. Paragraph 2—Explain how your protest movement is active or not
      1. The topic sentence must state why your cause meets or doesn’t meet Thoreau’s criteria for active protest.
      2. Discuss how this protest meets or doesn’t meet the criteria for active protest in Thoreau’s terms.
      3. Discuss the ways in which you agree or disagree with Thoreau’s argument in terms of this protest movement.
      4. Use research to support and prove your argument. A minimum of 1 research quote is required in this paragraph.
          

Section 2: Gladwell (4 paragraphs minimum)

3. Point 1 Strong Bonds—2 paragraphs
    
   1. Paragraph 1—Explain Gladwell’s argument about strong bonds
      1. The topic sentence must state that the protest meets or doesn’t meet Gladwell’s requirement for strong bonds.
      2. Summarize and explain Gladwell’s argument about strong bonds.
      3. You are required to include 1 quote Gladwell in this paragraph.
          
   2. Paragraph 2—Explain how the protest movement uses strong bonds or not
      1. The topic sentence must state why your protest meets or doesn’t meet Gladwell’s criteria for strong bonds.
      2. Discuss how this protest meets or doesn’t meet the criteria for strong bonds in Gladwell’s terms.
      3. Discuss the ways in which you agree or disagree with Gladwell’s argument in terms of this protest movement.
      4. Use research to support and prove your argument. A minimum of 1 research quote is required in this paragraph.
          
4. Point 2 Protest Structure—2 paragraphs

1. 1. Paragraph 1—Explain Gladwell’s argument about hierarchy
      1. The topic sentence must state that the protest meets or doesn’t meet Gladwell’s requirement for a hierarchical protest structure.
      2. Summarize and explain Gladwell’s argument about protest structure.
      3. You are required to include 1 quote Gladwell in this paragraph.
         
         
          
   2. Paragraph 2—Explain how the protest movement uses hierarchical protest structure or not
      1. The topic sentence must state why your protest meets or doesn’t meet Gladwell’s criteria for hierarchy.
      2. Discuss how this protest meets or doesn’t meet the criteria for hierarchy in Gladwell’s terms.
      3. Discuss the ways in which you agree or disagree with Gladwell’s argument in terms of this protest movement.
      4. Use research to support and prove your argument. A minimum of 1 research quote is required in this paragraph.

Conclusion—The Final Evaluation (1-2 paragraphs)

The conclusion of this paper is very important. This is where you are going to give your final evaluation of this protest movement.

1. Paragraphs 1 and 2—your own evaluation of the protest movement
   1. The topic sentence must state if you think that this protest movement is or will be successful or not.
   2. Discuss if you agree or disagree with Thoreau and Gladwell’s requirements for success for this movement
   3. Discuss the issues that impact the success or failure of this movement that Thoreau and Gladwell don’t consider.
   4. Use research to support and prove your argument. A minimum of 1 research quote is required in this paragraph.

Research

1. This is a research paper.
2. This means that you will be finding 3-5 research sources and incorporating them into the body of the paper to support your arguments and points.
3.  Only sources from the MCC library’s databases are acceptable.
4. You are welcome to use scholarly sources if you can find them, but the majority of research will be journalistic sources.

Quotation/Incorporation/Citation

You are required to quote from 5 texts total—Thoreau, Gladwell, and 3 research sources. Keep in mind the required 20/80 proportion. Only 20% of your essay can be quotation. In order to succeed in using your quotes, you must introduce, accurately quote, cite, and explain all quotes.

1. The first paragraph of each point will include 1 quote from Thoreau or Gladwell.
2. The second paragraph of each point will include, at minimum, 1 research quote. All 3 of your research sources must be quoted once in the paper.
3. Choose your Quote—pick a quote that helps give detailed support to the point you are making, or helps you introduce a new angle or idea on the topic. Make sure that you thoroughly understand the quote. NO REPETITION!
4. Introduction—give the author’s name and an appropriate action verb leading into the quote.
5. Accurate Quotation—the quote must be a direct copy of the text. The only change should be with the use of the ellipse in the middle if you have removed information.
6. Citation—you are required to use a parenthetical citation.
7. Explanation—you must explain the content of the quote specifically—even and most importantly with statistics. Tell the reader what the quote means and why it’s important. Use the following template:

What _________________ means is _____________________________________________.

Use of MLA in the Essay: Essays should be formatted according to MLA style rules.  In addition, all quotations and paraphrases should be properly cited according to MLA rules, and all texts should be cited on a Works Cited page, properly formatted in MLA style. 

Grammar / Correctness:  Any final draft writing should be free from grammar and sentence level errors.   The goal to strive for is fewer than one error per page.  Using ‘I’ infrequently is acceptable but using ‘you’ is not acceptable. Be careful with possession vs. contraction. If grammar is a problem on the rough or final draft, make an appointment with the writing center and get extra help editing your paper for correctness before the final draft or the revision is due.

Formatting

• Times New Roman font
• 12pt size
• Heading (name, date, class, assignment) in single space (1.0) on only the first page
• Double space the body (2.0)
• Headers (top right) with your last name
• Page numbers on the upper right
• 1” margins
• Edit for grammar and easily caught mistakes
• Title your essay
• Title the points of the paper
• Indent your paragraphs
• No extra spaces between paragraphs except for point titles