experiences of the children of immigrants

This assignment requires students to use the ideas from our readings to develop a research project on the experiences of the children of immigrants and college in the United States. Your purpose in Assignment #3 is to devise your own argument about your chosen subject and to support your argument using various sources (and your own ethnographic research if you would like to). This assignment requires you to identify a specific topic on your own and to do library research (and ethnographic research) in developing your argument: you must include direct citations from at least one (1) course reading and at least three (3) sources from the library databases. It is optional to use your own ethnographic research. In your essay, you should formulate a clear and focused thesis and provide a detailed account of your evidence.

 

As mentioned earlier, this assignment is to be driven largely by your own research and thinking. You should be doing library research as you write, not after you’ve completed a first draft. Research and writing are thoroughly connected. Your research process will involve reading, thinking, taking notes, and perusing the databases and other sources until you have figured out what you want to write. Then, as you continue writing, you should go back into the research process again to get new ideas or to find additional sources. Sometimes your argument shifts or changes as you find new sources, and this is a good sign that you are doing research-based writing correctly. Don’t be afraid to change direction in writing the first draft—you can always improve or clarify your draft in your revision process.

 

Remember that, in a short paper like this, you cannot write something meaningful about all aspects of the experiences of the children of immigrants and college in the United States, but you can make a significant argument about one or two issues in connection with this topic.

 

In Essay 3, you need to develop your own argument in connection with the experiences of the children of immigrants and college in the United States. You may pursue any argumentative angle that you would like. You may want to consider some of the topics raised by the authors that we read:

· Parental expectations/influence regarding education, college major, career choice

· Other influences on students’ pursuit of a college degree, choice of major/career

· Connection between parents’ work situation/financial status/work ethic and the choice to pursue a college education Comment by Zahraa Alquraini: I choose this topic

· Differences in educational attainment among different second-generation immigrant populations

· Reasons for a particular second-generation immigrant population’s high (or low) educational attainment

· Obstacles some second-generation individuals experience regarding going to college (such as poor high school education, lack of parental educational attainment, lack of family knowledge about the college application/enrollment process, financial aid, etc.)

 

Other important information:

· Use MLA style (see guidelines/models)

· Use present tense when discussing sources (Baum and Flores explain; Wong et al. observe)

 

Research outline: On Thursday, April 11 or Friday, April 12, you will submit an outline of Essay 3 to me (bring a printed-out copy). I will offer you constructive suggestions regarding your thesis, the development of your argument, and useful source materials. Your outline should be a one- to two-page description of your research paper.

· A working thesis

· An outline of at least three points each of which includes the following:

1) a topic sentence

2) a counterclaim against your point or some aspect of your reasoning

3) bullet points listing evidence you plan to use (examples/expert testimony/arguments from our course readings—listing author and page #; relevant personal examples/experiences; information from your interview; or any other relevant evidence you have located at that point)

4) One library source (all information required in an MLA works cited entry) and a discussion of what argument/material in the source seems useful for your point

· A list of Works Cited

 

Organize your outline clearly. Use headings to identify each part of your proposal:

 

Title:

Thesis:

Point 1: 1) Topic sentence

2) Counterclaim

3) Evidence 1 (course reading: author & page # if it is a reading source)

Evidence 2 (one library source: citation & discussion)

(Evidence 3)

Point 2: 1) Topic sentence

2) Counterclaim

3) Evidence 1 (course reading: author & page # if it is a reading source)

Evidence 2 (one library source: citation & discussion)

(Evidence 3)

Point 3: 1) Topic sentence

2) Counterclaim

3) Evidence 1 (course reading: author & page # if it is a reading source)

Evidence 2 (one library source: citation & discussion)

(Evidence 3)

 

Works Cited (on a separate page)