Writing Exercise 1

Refer carefully to all "SS" items on the Simple Stuff handout as you complete the assignment below.  Your grade will be determined not on the quality of your writing, but only on your adherence to all of the guidelines for formatting and presentation outlined in the Simple Stuff handout.

Page 1. Type a fully developed paragraph of 150 words or more that could serve as the introduction in an essay in persuasive format presenting an argument over who is the greatest president in U.S. history.  Do observe all the "golden rules."

Note that introductions in the persuasive format should culminate in a literal question at the end of the paragraph—not a thesis statement.  This question should be the simplest, most obvious question that sets up the issue being argued. If you were addressing the issue of capital punishment, for instance, an obvious question to raise would be, "Should the U.S. practice capital punishment?"

Recall also that the introduction should be neutral, so that after reading it your reader should have no idea which side of the issue you would support in the body of the argument.  Review the comments on introductions in the persuasive format handout and see the introduction in the sample essay.

Page 2.  Make a separate "works cited page," with the purely imaginary article below listed as a "work cited."  The works cited page should have the title, Works Cited, centered at the top of the page, and the bibliographic entry should appear as follows (double-spaced, of course):

Burdowski, T. R.  "To Kill or Not to Kill?"  Thoughts from the Braves Dugout.  Tenth edition.  Ed. by Frances C. Rogers and Francisco Cabrera.  New York: Not-Too-Likely Books, 2006.  1257-1310.

Microsoft Word Tip: to make a page break after the paragraph (to start a new page for the works cited page), press the control and enter keys simultaneously at the end of the paragraph.

You may cut and paste the works cited entry from this page into your document, but do make sure the formatting (the font, especially) is consistent with the text of your paragraph: see SSF.

Staple the two pages together and turn them in Wednesday in class.