What is Social Injustice?
Social injustice refers to someone's rights being violated by another.
Genocide, child labor, suppression of women or religious groups are just
a few examples.
You will pick some injustice that is going on in the world today. You
will explain what is happening, why it is an injustice, and give a possible
solution (your own or someone else's).
Step One: Pick a topic
The injustice should be going on at this time (no papers on the Holocaust).
It should not be something in America. Some possible topics to choose
from (but you are not limited to):
- Invisible Children
- Sharia Law/Role of women in the Middle East
- Child Labor Exploitation/Sweat Shops
- Child Soldiers/ Uganda
- Birth Control Laws in China
- India – Caste System
- Human Trafficking - Asian Countries
- Human trafficking - European Countries
- North Korea - Pursuit of military over needs of citizens
- Quality of Life in Africa
- Genocide in Dafur
- Genocide in Democratic Republic of Congo
- Genocide in Sudan
- Genocide in Syria
- Genocide in Somalia
- Genocide in Myanmar (Burma)
- Homosexuality laws in Russia
- Sweatshops in China
- Religious suppression in various countries
- Slavery in South Asia
- Police Brutality in South Africa
Some sites that might be helpful in finding a topic:
Step Two: Do some research
You will need to find information from at least five different sources.
You will get a bonus if you have at least three different types of sources.
Our library has some great books on many of these subjects. They also
have several books on these subjects available in eBook format. You
can access them by clicking
here. You username is your lunch number (PowerSchool number) and
your password is your last name.
Need help doing the MLA of your source cards? Use your MLA
Bliss Sheet.
Deadlines for note cards:
3/12 - (Wednesday) - blank cards (two sets)
3/13 - (Thursday) - 10 note cards
3/14 - (Friday) - 20 note cards
3/17 - (Monday) - 35 note cards
3/18 - (Tuesday) - bring in all note cards for slugging
You will need approximately 10 notecards x the number of pages required
for your paper. Then add about 15 to it because many of the first cards
will not work well into your paper.
What do you need?
source cards - these
cards will have the MLA of your source. You will write a letter at the
top of this card (a different letter for each source). This is called
a source code. You need to have at least six sources. It is helpful
to have these cards look different from your notecards.
notecards - these cards
will have one piece of information or one quote. In the top right hand
corner, put the same letter that you have on the source card for that
source. This way you will know where this note came from later. If your
source has a page number (book, magazine, database, etc.) then you must
put the page number of that source under the source code.This handout
shows you what it looks like.
time - expect it to take
around one hour to get ten notecards. This, of course, depends on several
variables, but it is a good standard to use.
Step Three: Organize your cards
Take your note cards and separate them from your source cards. We are
now going to slug your cards. This means that you are going to divide
your cards up by like category. I suggest trying the following categories:
- Who/Where - W/W
- What - What
- Why - Why
- Solutions - S
- Other - O
Once you have them in divided piles, put a slug on the upper left hand
corner. The slug will be the category. You may wish to abbreviate the
slug by using the letters in italics beside the category list above.
Once you have all cards slugged, then take your What and Who/Where
categories and put those cards in order of how you plan to present them
in the paper. This will probably be your first block of information
in your paper. Then do the same with the Why cards.
Next, the solutions. That will be the last part of your paper. You probably
will not use the Other category, but don't throw those cards away just
yet. They may come in handy.
Now what? Well, look at your cards. Do you have enough in each category
to write a section of your paper with? If not, you have more research
to do. If so, you are ready to move to Step Four.
Step Four: Write your paper
You will need to have an introduction
and a conclusion. You will need to explain what the social injustice
is, who is victimized, and who is the oppressor. Tell where it happens
and why it happens. You will then give a solution or solutions for fixing
this problem. The solutions can be your own or ones you found in your
research.Make sure you cite your sources properly using MLA
in-text.
Choose either Open Office or Google Drive. There are benefits to both.
- If you choose Open Office, you will have access to your paper even
if you do not have access to the Internet. However, you are limited
to only your computer. I suggest that you download Dropbox
and store your paper there. Then you can pull it up on any computer
(but then you'll have to have the Internet!).
- If you choose Google Drive, then you can access it on any computer
that has Internet and I can read it while you type it and make comments
to help you.
You will also need to create a works
cited page that has all your sources listed in MLA format.
Deadlines for rough drafts:
3/21 (Friday) - one page typed (3 handwritten)
3/24 (Tuesday) - two pages typed (6 handwritten)
3/25 (Wednesday) - works cited page typed rough
draft
How do I write:
The INTRODUCTION
This paragraph exists for two purposes:
- to make me want to read your paper (and no, just being an English
teacher does NOT make me want to spend my time at home reading high
school papers.), and
- to set up yoru paper and tell your reader what it is going to be about.
Let's look at these two things. How do you grab my attention? Well,
since attaching $100 bills to your paper is unethical, let's try an
approach that actually relies on your writing skills. First you need
a "hook" to catch my attention. Consider using these techniques:
Open with some unusual detail - (Movies
like The Avengers and Man of Steel exist today because a man named Frederick
Wertham convinced everyone that comic books cause little kids to act
violently.)
Open with a strong statement - (A book
about censoring comics books written in the 1950s is the reason that
comic book companies were able to sell $475 million worth of comics
in North America in 2011.)
Open with a quotation - (Frederick Wertham
once said, "In comic books life is worth nothing; there is no dignity
of a human being."
Open with an anecdote - (I once threw away
a comic book I had bought with allowance money because I was ashamed.
My father thought I had wasted my money something worthless. That same
comic book is now selling for $456.00.)
Open with a question - ("How does
Wonder Woman find her invisible plane?")
Your thesis statement should be somewhere in your introduction. Where?
Well, that is up to you. You will probably find it easier (and quite
effective) to make it your last sentence. Start broad, get narrower,
then hit the reader with your thesis.
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Let the Computer Proofread Your Paper!
You can go to this site and let the computer walk you
through how to best revise your paper. Obviously, it does not understand
your content, but it does understand your writing style. Go through
all the steps and then have it shoot me an e-mail. I'll throw in a bonus
grade for that.
The site is: http://www.sascurriculumpathways.com/portal/Launch?id=1242&bhcp=1
Proofread It Yourself / Get Someone to Proofread for You
When proofreading, look for the word "very." You can write
better than that. Get rid of all of them in your paper and consider using
these words instead (clickt he chart to make it bigger):
Paper Specs
You paper needs to be 3 typed pages long. It can end anywhere
on the third page. The paper must be typed and the font must be the
default font for the program you are using (do NOT enlarge the font
- it is obvious to see and I will deduct points).
You will include a title page. You will NOT put the title
on the first page of the paper (I know, you want to write the title
big and hit enter a few times to make the paper longer).
You will include a works cited page.
Handouts
Quotes
The introduction and conclusion handout tells you how to use a quote
to frame these paragraphs. But where can you get a good quote? You may
use one of these sites. Make sure that you know who said the quote (unless
it is a proverb).
The Signo 207 Uni Ball
Quite possibly the finest red pen ever made. Well worth the full five
points.
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