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You are to write an argumentative paper, organized around an argument in support of a specific thesis statement. The thesis statement is the answer to your research question and is derived from your theoretical framework. Evidence is to be drawn from your information sources to support your theory-based thesis statement. The argumentative paper is written for the purpose of persuading the reader to accept your conclusions, based on logic and evidence (not emotion).

Organization and format of the paper

The paper must have an introductory section of about two (2) paragraphs. In the first paragraph you must clearly identify your Research Question,:

SHOULD THE U.S. DEPLOY COMBAT TROOPS TO IRAQ AND SYRIA TO FIGHT ISIS?

the answer to your research question (your thesis statement), the main theoretical framework you used to answer your question, and a summary of the main points of evidence you will employ to support your argument. These points will be developed further and in more detail in the body of the paper. In the second paragraph explain to the non-expert reader why your question is an important question to consider.

The body of the paper must contain a well-developed argument in support of your thesis, drawing on information from your research and informed by your theoretical and conceptual framework. The body must be about five (5) to seven (7) pages or so. The body must be organized to coherently and logically address your points of evidence clearly and distinctly.

The paper must have a concluding paragraph in which you summarize your research question, thesis statement, and argument.

The paper must include a reference page at the end, providing bibliographic information on your sources. Reference entries must be listed in alphabetical order by last name of author.

The paper must be between six (6) and eight (8) pages in length, excluding the reference page. Do not excessively quote material directly. If using direct quotations, use short ones and be sparing in your use of them.

Do not cut and paste summaries of articles from the ProQuest articles or reports. This will be obvious and will be counted against you.

Sources for research

Use the ProQuest electronic resource to locate newspaper, journal and magazine articles and other reports.

The following publication sources, all of which are indexed with full text access in the database, are excellent sources of information on world politics and U.S. foreign policy. You are highly encouraged to use them.

 Newspapers

 The Christian Science Monitor

 The Financial Times

 The International Herald Tribune or International New York Times

 The Los Angeles Times

 The New York Times

 The Wall Street Journal

 The Washington Post

 Journals or Magazines

 Foreign Affairs

 Foreign Policy

 The Economist

 The Atlantic (Monthly)

 The New Yorker

 Time Magazine

Use only substantive articles and reports with an identifiable and named author or reporter. You may use opinion/commentary articles from these sources if the commentary has an identifiable author. If the article or report does not have a NAMED author, do not use it. The only exception to this rule is the Economist. If the article is a short little blurb or paragraph, find something more suitable and substantive.

***Use at least six (6) different publication sources to write your paper! You may use as many articles as you need from a single publication source, as long as you have used articles from at least 6 different publication sources all together.

Choose articles and reports with a publication year no earlier than 2010.***

Using articles and reports

Do not simply discuss the contents of each article or report one after the other. This rarely leads to an efficient and well-organized paper, but draw on relevant points of information or evidence from across your sources to support the argumentative points you make in the body of the paper.

Format

The paper must be between six (6) and eight (8) pages (excluding the reference page), typed in a Word document, double-spaced with one inch margins all around, and using 12-point Times New Roman Font. Type your name and the course title in the upper right-hand corner. The paper must be paginated.

Citation style

Use Chicago Manual of Style (CMS), Author-Date system for in-text citation and to format the bibliographic information on the reference page. You will find instructions for properly citing your sources on the following web site: http://www.chicagomanualofstyle.org/tools_citationguide.html

There are two CMS formats: (1) notes and bibliography and (2) author-date. Be sure you are looking at the information for the author-date system. You will have to click on the author-date tab located on the first page.

Special instructions regarding newspaper and magazine citation: CMS considers their inclusion on a reference list optional. I do not. Newspaper and magazine articles must be listed on the reference page.

Be careful relying on automatic citation software. It may be incorrect.

Grading rubric

To earn an “A,” papers must exhibit the following characteristics:

Content for an argumentative paper

The paper identifies a specific research question and formulates clear and tight thesis statement; the paper gives strong reasons for the importance of the question; the paper provides strong reasons, examples, and factual evidence from approved sources to support the thesis statement; the conclusions are reasonable and logically sound; use of concepts and theories must be relevant and applicable to the research question; supporting reasons, examples and evidence must come from a broad range of articles and not be heavily drawn from a small number of articles.

Organization

The paper is clearly focused around the research question and thesis; there must be a logical progression of ideas, with smooth transitions from paragraph to paragraph; paragraphs must be cohesive; evidence in support of an argument must be well-developed and clearly presented and explained.

Language facility

Paper must demonstrate facility with the conventions of standard written English with minimal errors regarding grammar, spelling, usage, writing mechanics (agreement, tense, case, punctuation, italics, capitalization), etc.; sentences must be well-phrased and varied in length and structure, flowing smoothly from one to the other.

References and citation

Citation format must be in Chicago Manual of Style Author-Date System (see above); uses articles and reports from at least six (6) different sources; all articles or reports must be cited in the paper and there must be a reference page listing the articles in CMS-Author-Date system. Reference page bibliographic entries must be listed in alphabetical order.

Formatting

Paper follows all formatting instructions identified above.

Grounds for earning an F for the paper

Submit a paper exhibiting any of the following characteristics will fail their paper:

 Papers submitted without a list references and/or without citation of the material in the body of the paper

 Papers submitted using publication sources other than those to be found through using the ProQuest data base or employing fewer than the minimum required

 Papers that primarily rely on a small number of articles for research material below the minimum required.

 Papers addressing topics which are not international or global or which focus only on domestic US issues and policies

 Papers, which are essentially one long series of direct quotations

 Papers, which are so poorly organized and with so many grammatical and spelling errors as to make them practically unreadable

 Papers that plagiarize