Essay Instructions
Prompt
Ceremony and The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian address many issues that Native Americans must still confront today, including, but not limited to, the following: cycles of poverty perpetuated by the reservation system, the exploitation of natural resources on Native lands, and the reality of racism from both outside and within Native communities. For this essay, you will select a topic that interests you, and then compose a sustained research paper that incorporates the principles of summary/paraphrase and argumentation developed in the first essay and adds outside research . Keep in mind that your topic must be specific to a Native American community or communities, and remember that the novels we have read are only a springboard for thinking about issues facing Native communities; your essay should not reference either of the novels as sources. Instead, your essay must reference at least 5 nonfiction sources.
Possible Topics
Land rights & the exploitation of natural resources (e.g.uranium mining on Southwestern reservations, gold mining in the Black Hills, hunting and fishing rights disputes in the Pacific Northwest, etc.)
Sexual violence against Native women
Mass incarceration and policing of Native Americans
Lack of access to quality K-12 education on reservations
Equity gaps for Native American students in higher education
You may select your own topic, but you must contact me for topic approval. Please note that poverty is too broad a topic for such a short paper.
Let me know which one you pick.
The following topics are not permitted: alcoholism among Native Americans; unemployment on Native American reservations; poverty on Native American reservations; or the Dakota Access Pipeline.
Structure
Your essay should include an introduction (Links to an external site.)Links to an external site. that introduces the topic and ends with a clearly worded, 1-2 sentence thesis statement. (Links to an external site.)Links to an external site. Each supporting paragraph (there should be at least 3) should begin with a strong topic sentence (Links to an external site.)Links to an external site. and should incorporate evidence, including direct quotations from one or more of the assigned articles. Direct quotations should be incorporated using the quotation sandwich method (Links to an external site.)Links to an external site. and proper MLA in-text citations (Links to an external site.)Links to an external site.. The essay should also contain a strong conclusion (Links to an external site.)Links to an external site.. The final page of the document should consist of a Works Cited (Links to an external site.)Links to an external site. page. Tips for formatting electronic sources can be found here (Links to an external site.)Links to an external site..
Formatting Tips
Your document should:
6 full pages in length
Be typed and double-spaced, in Times New Roman font, size 12
Have 1-inch margins
Include a properly formatted heading and a title
A properly formatted Works Cited page (see the sample provided in the instructions document for Essay 2 and review the resources available at the Purdue OWL (Links to an external site.)Links to an external site.).
Your Essay need have a Proposal and Annotated Bibliography
