**This is the final, but below is what was asked for in the first draft. I didn’t do it.
Here are the questions that you can use to get going on your first draft:
1. What is your topic and why does it matter?
2. Do you have a preliminary argument or thesis about it? ( you can answer this after you have responded to the other questions)
3. Does your topic have a history or back-story or terms you need to clarify before you can proceed with your topic?
4. What are the arguments you have in support of your topic and what evidence do you have to support each of these arguments? Write each of your arguments as.a series of paragraphs with clearly cited evidence. Be sure to have at least 4 good supporting arguments.
5. Are there any counter-arguments to your position?
5. How would you rebut these counter-arguments? Or, if you cannot entirely rebut these counter-arguments, can you explain why your position on the topic is still valid?
6. Now that you have gone through all your arguments, how would you best phrase your thesis so that it accounts for both what your position is and why you hold it?
You can write this preliminary first draft as a series of answers to these questions and worry about putting it together into a draft for when you meet me with your first draft next week. Remember though, these answers need to be in full paragraphs and not in bullet points.
How long does this draft need to be?
Just be sure that you have answered all the questions and that you are certain that you have enough evidence to make for a convincing paper. You should be at about 6-7 pages. If you are at much below that, you probably do not have enough material to go on. Remember, your final paper needs to be at least 8 pages at a minimum, but you don’t have to be there just yet.
Citations:
Make sure also that you have clearly cited your evidence parenthetically with author and page number. Ex: if you have quoted or paraphrased something from an article by Simon Marks on page 19, your parenthetical citation should read (Marks 19). If your articles does not have an author, use the title instead.
Works Cited page
Be sure to include a Works Cited page at the end of the draft. The in-text citations will be meaningless without it. Use the MILA style, no matter what kind of paper you are writing. You can, for now, use a citation generator like EasyBib Here is a link to the OWL Purdue site to help you with it.
However, I do not want to you get too caught up in the nitty-gritty of citation style just yet. Just make sure that you have all the relavant details (auhtors, titles, journals, year of publication, dates, etc.) We will be spending a week in April going over the details of citation style and you can use that time to get the details cleaned up.
