We are now starting the 6th week of our quarter. You should set a couple of main goals for this week:

come up with a topic area for your final paper
do some preliminary research

In the process of doing this preliminary research, you should

explore a range of information sources
look for ways to refine your topic if you think it might be too broad or lacking in focus.

So that you can focus on these goals, we will be switching gears for a couple of weeks. Instead of continuing sequentially through Elements of Argument with chapter 6, this week we'll focus on Chapter 10, "The Argumentative Paper: Planning and Research." Next week, we'll focus on Chapter 11, "The Argumentative Paper: Writing and Documentation."

After these two weeks, we will return to chapters 6-9, completing our tour through Parts One and Two of the textbook, Understanding Argument and Analyzing the Elements.

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Due this week:

Participation in this week's discussion forum.
Your first of three final paper research/writing assignments.
The Writing Improvement Analysis assignment.