The effectiveness of Dental Schools in promoting oral health in the surrounding community

Each student must individually on separate pages submit the following
-cover page
-thesis
-outline for the paper (in bullet point format)
-MLA reference page

This page explains some of the major aspects of an paper that are given special attention when the paper is evaluated.
Thesis and Thesis Statement
Probably the most important sentence in a paper is the thesis statement, which is a sentence that conveys the thesis—the main point and purpose of the paper. The thesis is what gives a paper a purpose and a point, and, in a well-focused paper, every part of the paper helps the writer develop and support the thesis in some way.
The thesis should be stated in your introduction as one complete sentence that
1.    identifies the topic of the paper,
2.    states the main points developed in the paper,
3.    clarifies how all of the main points are logically related, and
4.    conveys the purpose of the paper.
In high school, students often are told to begin an introduction with a thesis statement and then to follow this statement with a series of sentences, each sentence presenting one of the main points or claims of the paper. While this approach probably helps students organize their papers spreading a thesis statement over several sentences in the introduction usually is not effective. For one thing, it can lead to an paper that develops several points but does not make meaningful or clear connections among the different ideas.
If you can state all of your main points logically in just one sentence, then all of those points should come together logically in just one paper. When I evaluate an paper, I look specifically for a one-sentence statement of the thesis in the introduction that, again, identifies the topic of the paper, states all of the main points, clarifies how those points are logically related, and conveys the purpose of the paper.
If you are used to using the high school model to present the thesis of a paper, you might wonder what you should do with the rest of your introduction once you start presenting a one-sentence statement of your thesis. Well, an introduction should do two important things: (1) present the thesis statement, and (2) get readers interested in the subject of the paper.
Instead of outlining each stage of an paper with separate sentences in the introduction, you could draw readers into your essay by appealing to their interests at the very beginning of your essay. Why should what you discuss in your paper be important to readers? Why should they care? Answering these questions might help you discover a way to draw readers into your essay effectively. Once you appeal to the interests of your readers, you should then present a clear and focused thesis statement. (And thesis statements most often appear at the ends of introductions, not at the beginnings.)
Coming up with a thesis statement during the early stages of the writing process is difficult. You might instead begin by deciding on three or four related claims or ideas that you think you could prove in your paper. Think in terms of paragraphs: choose claims that you think could be supported and developed well in one body paragraph each. Once you have decided on the three or four main claims and how they are logically related, you can bring them together into a one-two-three sentence thesis statement.
All of the topic sentences in a short paper, when “added” together, should give us the thesis statement for the entire paper. Do the addition for your own papers, and see if you come up with the following:
Topic Sentence 1 +
Topic Sentence 2 +
Topic Sentence 3 =
Thesis Statement
Organization
Effective expository papers generally are well organized and unified, in part because of fairly rigid guidelines that writers follow and that you should try to follow in your papers.
Each body paragraph of your paper should begin with a topic sentence, a statement of the main point of the paragraph. Just as a thesis statement conveys the main point of an entire paper, a topic sentence conveys the main point of a single body paragraph. As illustrated above, a clear and logical relationship should exist between the topic sentences of a paper and the thesis statement.
If the purpose of a paragraph is to persuade readers, the topic sentence should present a claim, or something that you can prove with specific evidence. If you begin paper with a claim, a point to prove, then you know exactly what you will do in the rest of the paper: prove the claim. You also know when to end it: when you think you have convinced readers that your claim is valid and well supported.
If you begin a body paragraph with a fact, though, something that it true by definition, then you have nothing to prove from the beginning of the paragraph, possibly causing you to wander from point to point in the paragraph. The claim at the beginning of a body paragraph is very important: it gives you a point to prove, helping you unify the paragraph and helping you decide when to end one paragraph and begin another.

Support and Development of Ideas
The main difference between a convincing, insightful interpretation or argument and a weak interpretation or argument often is the amount of evidence than a writer uses. “Evidence” refers to specific facts.
Please note that your interpretation or argument will be weak unless it is well supported with specific evidence. This means that, for every claim you present, you need to support it with at least several different pieces of specific evidence. Many times, a paper will present potentially insightful comments, but the comments are not supported or developed with specific evidence. When you come up with an insightful idea, you are most likely basing that idea on some specific facts. To present your information, interpretation or argument well, you need to present your information or interpretation and then support your facts with strong references.
Effective organization is also important. If you begin each body paragraph with a claim, and if you then stay focused on supporting that claim with several pieces of evidence, you should have a well-supported and well-developed interpretation.
In an interpretation or argument, you are trying to explain and prove something about your subject, so you need to use plenty of specific evidence as support. A good approach to supporting an interpretation or argument is dividing your interpretation or argument into a few significant and related claims and then supporting each claim thoroughly in one body paragraph.

Clarity
Clarity is always important: if your writing is not clear, your meaning will not reach readers the way you would like it to. According to Grading Criteria for Writing Assignments (a copy of which will be sent by the class rep), “A,” “B,” and “C” papers are clear throughout, meaning that problems with clarity can have a substantial effect on the grade of an paper.
If any parts of your paper or any sentences seem just a little unclear to you, they will be unclear to readers. Review your essay carefully and change any parts of the paper that could cause confusion for readers. Also, take special note of any passages that your classmate (who is proofing your paper) feel are not very clear and reqork it.
Style
“Style” refers to the kinds of words and sentences that you use, but there are many aspects of style you should consider. These aspects of style include conciseness, variety of sentence structure, consistent verb tense, avoidance of the passage voice, and attention to the connotative meanings of words.
Several of the course web pages provide information relevant to style, including the following pages
•
William Strunk, Jr.’s, The Elements of Style is the classic text on the writing style (goggle it online).
Use a Formal writing voice when writing a paper for this course. This means that you should avoid use of the first person (“I,” “me,” “we,” etc.), the use of contractions (“can’t,” “won’t,” etc.), and the use of slang or other informal language. A formal writing voice will make you sound more convincing and more authoritative.
If you use quotations in a paper, integrating those quotations smoothly, logically, and grammatically into your own sentences is important, so make sure that you are familiar with the information on the Integrating Quotations into Sentences in this book. Also take not of these sections of the book:
•    “Words, Words, Words”
•    Using Specific and Concrete Diction
•    Integrating Quotations into Sentences
•    Formal Writing Voice
Mechanics
“Mechanics” refers to the correctness of a paper: complete sentences, correct punctuation, accurate word choice, etc. All of your papers for the course should be free or almost free from errors. Proofread carefully, and consider any constructive comments you receive during peer critiques that relate to the “mechanics” of your writing.
You might use the grammar checker if your word-processing program has one, but grammar checkers are correct only about half of the time. A grammar checker, though, could help you identify parts of the essay that might include errors. You will then need to decide for yourself if the grammar checker is right or wrong.
The elimination of errors from your writing is important.  According to  Grading Criteria for Writing Assignments, “A,” “B,” and “C” essays contain almost no errors. Significant or numerous errors are a characteristic of a “D” or “F” essay.
The specific errors listed in the second table above are explained on the Identifying and Eliminating Common Errors in Writing web page.
You should have a good understanding of what errors to look out for based on the feedback you receive on graded papers, and I would be happy to answer any questions you might have about possible errors or about any other aspects of your essay. You just need to ask!

The Proper Format for Papers
These are guidelines for the formatting papers based on recommendations from the MLA (the Modern Language Association).
?    Fonts: Your essay should be word processed in 12-point Times New Roman fonts.
?    Double space: Your entire essay should be double spaced, with no single spacing anywhere and no extra spacing anywhere. There should not be extra spaces between paragraphs.
?    Heading: In the upper left corner of the first page of your essay, you should type your name, the instructor’s name, your class, and the date, as follows:

Your Name

Faculty

Course name and number

Date
?    Margins: According to the MLA, your essay should have a one-inch margin on the top, bottom, left, and right.
?    Page Numbers: Your last name and the page number should appear in the upper right corner of each page of your essay, including the first page, e.g. Cox 2. Insert your name and the page number as a “header.” Do not type this information where the text of your essay should be.
?    Title: Your essay should include a title. The title should be centered and should appear under the heading information on the first page and above the first line of your essay. The title should be in the same fonts as the rest of your essay, with no quotation marks, no underlining, no italics, and no bold.
?    Indentation: The first line of each paragraph should be indented. According to the MLA, this indentation should be 1/2 inch or five spaces, but pressing [Tab] once should give you the correct indentation.
?    Align Left: The text of your essay should be lined up evenly at the left margin but not at the right margin. In your word processor, choose “Align Left.” Do not choose “Justify.”
?    Your first page should be formatted as follows:

Your paper should have a cover sheet similar to the cover sheet on the syllabus, a table of contents, a reference page using the MLA format and all graphs, figures, etc should be placed in the addendum.  The body of your paper should contain at least ten pages if it is a community service project and at least twelve pages for any other paper. There is no limit to the number of pages.

20 sources are needed, 10 of which will actually be used.   Have 20 sources ready, but its ok if you only reference 10 within your paper.  Sources must have been published within the last four years

This applies to each submission:  one submission per person.

IVCC’s online Style Book, Grading Criteria for Writing Assignments and Randy Rambo, 2013.