For your final research essay, you will examine a destination or going nowhere and form an argument using qualitative analysis. The analysis should examine how travel, movement, tourism, physical or internal stillness impacts your specific destination.

For instance, you could argue that travel or stillness defaces or elevates or catalyzes no change to the locations socio-economic, political, and/or cultural landscape.

You will use the postcolonial, postmodern, or one of the critical lenses as a framework to support your argument [Literary Theory and Schools of Criticism].

Analysis is the breaking down of a subject; you will need to break down your destination and then provide criteria for the examination of your argument.

I have approved everyone’s topic up until Essay 3. If you decide to change your topic completely, please email me with topic, thesis, counterarguments, and solutions.

Points of analysis to consider:

Authority (journalist/philosopher/major), gender, geography, culture, tradition, fashion, food, simulacra (when the item changes or evolves), digital photography, or other points of analysis you feel would be relevant to your topic.
Sources: You will need to locate and make use of at least (but probably more than) twelve research sources in this essay, including at least one book length source; encyclopedia articles are not allowed, and you may count no more than three “[dot]com” internet source among these twelve. If your internet source does not have its own references, bibliography, and/or Works Cited, then it is not a credible academic source. Also, although you are required to use The Art of Travel or The Art of Stillness, those may not be counted as part of your total twelve sources. It is important to emphasize that this is not simply a research report; instead, you are constructing your own argument and drawing upon evidence from various sources to support it.
REQUIRED:

Highlight your thesis statement: maximum 3-4 sentences in your introduction paragraph.
Highlight at least three logical fallacies (error or logic, error of thinking) & 3 weak rhetorical devices.
Highlight each new counterargument.
Your essay should follow MLA citation and MLA Works Cited page.
Any essay turned in without appropriate citations will not receive a grade.
For all assignments, keep turnitin.com quoting matches below 20%. Quoting matches above 30% without a strong thesis = automatic fail.
Do not frankenstein your final project: You will want to make use of the essays produced for the first four essay assignments in constructing this essay, revised to make up a coherent whole and according to the changes in your position discovered in your research. You CANNOT simply copy and paste these essays together for the final version, but revise and reorganize them into a coherent argument, including only those parts consistent with the final essays argument and purpose.
According to our syllabus, a minimum of 12 pages, maximum of 16 pages. From previous classes, students usually need 15-20 pages. I will not dock off points if you go beyond 16 pages as long as all materials are relevant
RUBRIC Score: Definition

90%+: Mastery: The student thoroughly supports his or her thesis with a wide range of effective and relevant concrete detail and organizes said detail thoughtfully and persuasively showing a strong understanding of both how to shape and support an argument. There are few to no errors in the area mentioned in the above SLO.

80%+: Competency: Much of the thesis is supported, but the student failed to either provide enough detailing, commentary, or research to fully round out his or her argument or he or she organized non-ideally. The paper needs more infrastructure to fully stand. There are sporadic errors that occur in the area mentioned above.

70%: Adequacy: The student shows a limited understanding of how to support a thesis. The student misinterprets how best to use proof, commentary, or concrete detail and the essay feels unsupported, and the argumentation is weak. There are significant and consistent errors in the area mentioned above.

0: Severe Deficiency: The student clearly does not understand how to integrate support and shows no signs of effectively doing so. The student lacks command of the focus area. N/A: Not Assessed.