The purpose of this assignment is to engage with a reading of the article “A Mountain of Used Clothes Appeared in Chile’s Desert. Then It Went Up in Flames” and develop your own position in a well-developed, logically arranged academic argument essay. Your essay will have an academic tone but may also use a more journalistic or narrative tone in places. Your argument will depend on the information you collect and create as you piece together elements you extract from the reading.
Your introduction will contain your thesis and a beginning look at how you arrived at that thesis. Move beyond simply stating your topic; show how your topic makes sense and preview the ways in which you will prove it.
Each body paragraph will re-establish the soundness of your argument. Paraphrase smaller units (such as a paragraph or two); summarize the overall meaning of the readings; quote to support your claims (or logical assertions) made as part of your argument. Connect paragraphs cohesively; consider the overall structure of the essay. What is the best order of ideas (paragraphs)? How can you best allow your argument to build and become more convincing with each new paragraph of ideas? To envision this structure and test its efficacy you might: use a flow chart or concept map; make an outline; organize parts by color coding. As you begin to write small sections, consider what might be missing from your argument or what you might be able to delete. Changing words or structures can be helpful in redirecting when you feel stuck.
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