Humanities 11 English: Mr. Works and Ms. Breckinridge (and Ms. Jansen)

ASSIGNMENT:

Persuasive Writing - For Tuesday, February 12 - write a two to three page essay in favor or against the death penalty. Incorporate at least one appeal to logic and one appeal to emotion in your essay. We will discuss these in class.

Grading: The paper will count as a test. Ten points off for more than two spelling or grammatical errors; Ten points off for more than one proof-reading error; Your paper must include at least four sources; two of these sources must be from the SAS library databases. Two must be from a source that is also available in print. If you have questions, ask Mr. Works, Ms. Breckinridge, or Ms. Jansen.

A properly written bibliography is part of the assignment and will count for fiteen percent of your grade. Citation Builder will help with this part of the assignment. Organization will count twenty percent; Forty percent of your grade will be based on your demonstration of the principles of persuasive writing. The remainder will be based on clarity and the strength of your argument. There will be a penalty for late papers.

BOOK COLLECTION:
(on reserve in the SAS Library)

364.66 PRE The Death of Innocents
REF 347.73 SUP The Supreme Court
342.73 LIV Landmark Supreme Court Cases
REF 348.73 WES West's Encyclopedia of American Law Vol. 2
REF 364.03 ENC Encyclopedia of Crime and Justice Vol. 1
REF 364.973 SIF The Encyclopedia of American Crime Vol. 1
REF 364.03 WOR World of Criminal Justice Vol. 1
347.73 TOO The nine: Inside the secret world of the supreme court

ONLINE RESOURCES:

Subscription Database page (right click and open in a new window)

EBSCOHost: Points of View (trial for this assignment--Please tell bj if you find it useful)
Gale: Opposing Viewpoint Resource Center
JSTOR
SIRS: Knowledge Source (see Pro vs Con feature on the right side of the page)
Proquest: Historical Newspapers (the NYT goes back to 1851—there are interesting, historic articles on the topic)
netTrekker (for authoritative and accurate sites on the free Web)
Questia
SourceAid Citation Builder (to generate a bibliography—create a new project to keep these citations separate from your history paper. Be careful into which folder you save citations for both projects!)

OTHER USEFUL STUFF:

• Don't neglect to look at the related links and various other links that come up for each search.
• Use "capital punishment" and "death penalty" for searching. Search with and without the quote marks.
• Printing: Always use the Print option on the Web site page when you are printing from these databases. Don't use the print from the File menu. You get a cleaner copy that is easier to read and make notations. And, it uses less toner and paper.
• See Ms. Jansen for passwords for home use.