COMPARE TWO ARTICLES ASSIGNMENT DESCRIPTION INTRODUCTION Style Lesson 3 offers advice about the use of subjects and verbs. You have read two articles about the relationship between suicide and social media. “Status: Suicidal” was written for a popular but educated audience. “Historic Twitter Mining” was written for an audience of professional scholars. THE TASK With explicit reference to Style, consider the ways in which the two articles about suicide and social media use subjects and verbs. You will discover similarities and differences. Develop an interesting thesis about them. Present your findings in a short, argumentative essay (500-750 words). Support your thesis with specific evidence. You may use direct quotations. Be sure you understand the assignment. You have not been asked to write about social media or suicide. You have been asked to write about subjects and verbs. Examine the two articles the way a biologist would examine two specimens of mouse. Do not attempt to account for every subject and verb. Look for general trends. If a particular example seems interesting, feel free to discuss it. Do not assume that your reader is Mr. Carney. Write for an audience of educated strangers who are interested in style. Demonstrate your practical understanding of Style by writing with subjects and verbs that usually match the logical characters and actions of your sentences. As always, work independently. DOCUMENTATION AND FORMATTING Format the essay according to the guidelines described in the Publication Manual of the American Psychological Association, 7th edition. These include the consistent use of 1-inch margins, page numbers, double-spaced text, and a 12-point serif font such as Times New Roman. The first page of your document should be an APA-style title page. Refer to the document called “How to Format Your Essay,” which is pinned to the top of our class Moodle page. Cite your sources according to APA guidelines and include an APA-style references section. Purdue OWL thoroughly summarizes the APA guidelines and includes a sample paper. Be sure to follow the guidelines designed for student papers, not professional papers. A link to OWL is pinned to the top of our course Moodle page. Reference information about Style is available on Page 2 of the class syllabus. Cite your sources by name. It might be convenient for you to identify them as “Source A” and “Source B,” but doing so might confuse your reader. REVIEW If you are unsure of your ability to write an essay, you might wish to review the following tutorial documents, which have been pinned to the top of the class Moodle page: “A Good Essay” “Sample Essay” “Sample Essay (Annotated)” ARTICLES AND OTHER DETERMINERS As the class syllabus indicates, your ability to use articles and other determiners is being assessed throughout the semester. Each missing or incorrectly used article or other determiner will result in a 1% deduction from the grade for this assignment (to a maximum of 5%).
