Writing Assignment #3 will be a personal research narrative essay, which sometimes is referred to as an “I-Search” paper. For Writing Assignment 3, the topic choice is open and up to the writer. But the focus for this paper needs to be specific. Writing assignment 3 needs to be the same topic as writing assignment 2. Writing assignment 2 feeds into writing assignment 3. The topic needs to be narrow and specific. For example, the following topic is too broad: Obesity in America. A must better and more specific topic is the following: Obesity and the Elderly. -Or- The Closing of Privately Owned Prisons and the Benefits to the Criminal Justice System. Background to this Essay: In many classes in the past, you might have been instructed never to use the word “I” in your writing. However, throughout this class, in both the response essay and the reflective annotated bibliography, you have been instructed that the use of the word “I” was totally acceptable, even encouraged. In this essay, this use of first-person point of view continues. However, for this research paper, the use of the word “I” should be used judiciously, since this paper highlights research and analysis. Please post the Rough Draft in the Assignments Folder. Upon receiving feedback from the instructor, please post the final draft. The final draft for Writing Assignment 3 is April 29th. Courses that fulfill the General Education Requirements (GERs) at UMUC. Ken Macrorie, a professor at Western Michigan University, wrote a textbook in 1980 called The I-Search Paper. In the book, Macrorie criticized traditional research papers that students were often asked to produce in classes. He designed, instead, a type of research paper that asked students to use the first-person point of view (“I”) in their papers, encouraged them to explore topics that were of interest to them, and required that they comment on their research journey in finding sources and information on their topics as much as on any arguments or conclusions they were making on their topics. This writing assignment in WRTG 291 is informed by Macrorie’s approach, although it does not involve all elements of the research process he asked for. In the e-reserves section of our class, you will find a chapter from Linda Bergmann, “Writing a Personal Research Narrative.” Please access that chapter. In that chapter, please read “The Personal Research (‘I Search’) Paper,” starting on page 160. On page 160, Bergmann (2010) writes: Although an I-Search assignment calls for a personal narrative, like most academic writing it is written to communicate to a particular audience, not for the writer alone. Its purpose is to help you discover and communicate the personal and professional
