The Final Project in this course will be a written, cohesive argument for a specific change in your community or workplace. The Final Project should take the form of a “persuasive essay,” in which you will provide reliable evidence from at least five sources to support the argument for change that you are advocating.

You will also need to reconcile the counter-argument or the audience’s misconception about the topic within the Final Project, as the ability to do so is a key component of a strong argument. Essentially, the Final Project will reflect what you have learned about writing effectively, using research, and creating a logical argument to influence an audience. You may also include relevant visuals to further illustrate key points of your argument; the visuals will need to be appropriate and cited in APA citation format if borrowed from a source.

As long as your topic meets the project requirements listed below, there are no specific restrictions on the topic of your argument for change, unless noted otherwise by your instructor. The topic that you chose early in this course and received feedback from your instructor for further guidance will be the same topic for your Final Project so that your work throughout the course will contribute to your constructing of an argument for change in the Final Project.

Your Final Project will need to meet the following criteria:

·         APA manuscript format for the document, including an appropriately formatted title page and References page

·         A thesis statement at the end of the introduction paragraph

·         Well-developed paragraphs that include evidence from sources to support your argument for a specific change in your community or workplace

·         Five reliable sources should be cited within the text of the project; at least two of the cited sources should be either books/ebooks or periodical articles

·         All cited sources need to have full-citations on a References page (except for any interviews you conduct, which only require in-text citations)

·         Standard American English and a formal tone throughout the writing

·         Visuals are optional, but should be relevant, labeled (including citing the source), and referenced to in the text of the essay (e.g., “As seen in Figure 1….”); do not use clip-art or other visuals that do not clearly illustrate part of your argument

·         After your References page, you will also include a 200-word paragraph reflecting on what you learned about effective writing through this course and Final Project, along with how you can use this information in future personal and professional situations