English III – Spring Updated March 2015 Required Advance Assignment: Persuasive Essay Select any ONE of the following: The Road – Cormac McCarthy The Bluest Eye – Toni Morrison The Awakening – Kate Chopin The Color Purple – Alice Walker Prior to exam day, complete the following assignment. Bring your finished project to the testing site and turn it in to your test administrator. Develop a persuasive essay based on a researched non‐fiction topic of personal interest to you. Design a quality research project according to the directions below. Your topic should be specific, unique, and of interest to the general public. For additional guidance, read opinion, op‐ed, and editorial essays published in magazines like The New Yorker or newspapers like The Washington Post. Remember to: ‐ Decide on a research topic. ‐ Formulate a major research question to address the topic. ‐ Gather information from a range of relevant print and electronic sources. ‐ Record bibliographic information for all notes and sources using MLA format. ‐ Categorize research information thematically to see the larger constructs inherent in the information. ‐ Narrow or broaden the major research question, if necessary, based on research and investigation. ‐ Distinguish between useful and non‐useful sources (including reliability and validity). ‐ Present research findings in an essay format. ‐ Integrate quotations and citations into the written text using MLA format. Important Note: You will need to refer to these texts in order to complete another part of the exam on exam day, so you must bring them with you. (Hard copies only; no electronic devices permitted.) ‐ The Great Gatsby ‐ Your choice of the following: The Road – Cormac McCarthy The Bluest Eye – Toni Morrison The Awakening – Kate Chopin The Color Purple – Alice Walker .