Now that youve completed the process of finding and evaluating some initial sources to use in your essay, you should begin organizing your ideas. The main assignment during this unit will be the construction of a detailed outline that will provide you with a foundation for writing your first draft of your essay. Begin by reading the Guidelines for Essay Outline which will provide a general overview of what you must submit for this assignment. The Outline Structure document goes more in-depth into how to organize and build a strong outline. As always, if you need any help or want me to review anything youre working on, please let me know. Now that youve planned your essay with your outline, its time to start writing your first draft. You should begin doing that this week. Your draft wont be due until the end of Unit 5 (which also begins today and runs until July 14), but it is vitally important that you start working on it now. Begin this unit by taking a look at the assigned reading documents below. The first document, A Guide to Organizing and Structuring a Research Essay, will provide an overview of how to build your essay, and it will include information about approaches to scholarly writing. The second document, Notes on Internal Citations, gives information on how youll integrate your sources into your essay and how youll cite those sources according to MLA style. Finally, you should take a look at the In-text Citation Exercise. Read that assignment carefully, fill it out, and make sure to submit it by Sunday July 7 at 11:59 p.m. Do note that the university is closed for the Independence Day holiday on July 4-5, so youre not required to do any work those days. That makes this week slightly shorter than normal, but since the only assignment is the In-text Citation Exercise, you wont have as heavy of a workload. Make sure to complete that assignment by July 7. Finally, youll notice that Unit 5s opening date is also July 1. Units 4 and 5 operate in tandem, and you should immediately move into working on Unit 5 as soon as you finish Unit 4s work. I strongly encourage you to try to complete the In-text Citation Exercise early so that you give yourself more time to work on your rough draft.
