Your final paper will be a 4-5 page Argument & Persuasion essay using the Rogerian method about a topic that you have found in our readings from An Anthropologist on Mars’ essays. The topic should express a concept related to a dimension of your own academic interests or your interest as an individual and as a member of society. The minimum word count is: 1200. This tab represents the first part of the assignment: a brief description of your proposed topic, how it relates to Anthropologist on Mars (specifically) and sources you may want to use.
Purpose: In this three-part essay assignment, students will demonstrate how well they have mastered complex and structured thinking. As in past essays, students continue to work on controlling ideas, paragraph development, and MLA standards. In addition, students will continue to improve sentence variety and style. Finally, students will respond to readings and use citations. For this assignment, students will consult, evaluate, and cite at least four (4) sources, two from outside the textbook and two from An Anthropologist on Mars. In addition, one of the outside sources must be an academic or scholarly source obtained through Saddleback Library databases or a text or academic video accessed through the Library. 
Topic: Throughout class, we have read and responded to essays and viewed videos about contemporary society and education, food technology, and human diversity. Many of today’s most common technologies could not exist without the work of people who are on the Autism spectrum. As one example, in the past, individuals on the Autism spectrum were institutionalized or not allowed to contribute anything to society. Going back to the beginning of the semester, and Mike Rose’s essay “Blue Collar Brilliance” about his mother’s intelligence as a waitress, in the past women rarely worked outside of the home and those who did, like Mike’s mother, were devalued and looked-down upon. Using material from our readings in our textbooks and additional class resources as provided on Canvas, as well as two outside sources, develop a claim that answers the following question: Is society growing stronger or weaker because it is comprised of people with cognitive or other types of diversity? You may consider the values of your chosen area of study or planned profession or dimensions such as gender in your answer. 
All of the steps in this assignment are worth 200 points total. The final paper will also be longer than your prior essays. It is the biggest single assignment of the semester. It is also probably the most difficult, but all of you are capable of achieving the highest grade. Be sure to give yourself plenty of time to write. We have an extra week over Thanksgiving so that you have more time to prepare. Do not wait until the last minute.
Due Dates: Claim/Dimension and Preliminary Sources: Friday, November 22  – 50 points
Outline or Functional Form Rough Draft (minimum 3 full pages): Monday, December 2 – 50 points
Complete Draft (submitted via Turnitin.com link): Friday, December 13 – 100 points
For this first step of the assignment: your CLAIM should be your preliminary topic and opinion inspired by the book, written in MLA format and it should consist of:
1) CLAIM: draft essay title and a one-paragraph overview of your ideas for the paper. Put your claim/opinion sentence – “thesis statement” at the end of the paragraph.
2) SOURCES: a list of the sources from the books and additional materials (videos, class links) and your academic source obtained through Saddleback Library. Put these sources after your claim paragraph in MLA Works Cited format. Include a brief description (1-2 sentences) of what the source is and your purpose for including it in the paper.
3) DIMENSION/WARRANTS: The reason you have selected your claim and how you will choose your grounds – why would these grounds support your claim? Here is an interesting article from Phys (Links to an external site.).org (Links to an external site.) that says data might provide the answer as to whether society is going downhill or improving. So, the dimension for the Physics.org author would be “data”.