Although I am giving you some freedom in choosing a topic, you will be very limited by the research available.

Although I am giving you some freedom in choosing a topic, you will be very limited by the research available. You must use the articles in Langauge Awareness and the ALA as your major sources. Many of you have great ideas that will simply not be supported by the information in those sources. If your arguments cannot be directly supported by the research, you will have to switch topics.

The articles are over: freedom of expression, banning books, and banning obscene material, the ALA site is about banned books and common challenges.

If you are trying to write a 5 page essay about t.v. violence, well, there is only about one article that you could use and that isn’t enough. You have to use 3 major sources.

I would highly advise that you read and study the articles in Langauge Awareness, the R-word articles as well, before trying to decide on a thesis statement.bullshit

Goal: compose a 4-5 page MLA thesis-driven argumentative essay and pre-writing steps over the topic of censorship.
Student Objectives: students will demonstrate their understanding of the writing process: brainstorming, narrowing down a topic, developing a working thesis, and drafting. Students will also demonstrate their understanding of methods of organization, rhetoric, and MLA format.

Assignment: The broad topic of this assignment is censorship. The available research is provided in your textbook, Language Awareness, pages 500-520 and the following website:
< http://www.ala.org/bbooks/frequentlychallengedbooks >
You may use other sources, but you are required to use at least 3 of the sources listed above to support your argument and to offer a counter argument.
You will need to narrow your topic down into an argumentative stance on one of the following areas:
•   Should communities, public libraries, or schools have the right to ban materials they do not like?
•   Are language, books, music, etc. harmful to society?
•   Censorship of written material (books, internet, posters on campus, etc.)
•   Censorship of spoken language (music, movies, television, etc.)
This essay is about censorship of literature and language, not art. Any essay about pornography or offensive visual art will not be accepted as meeting the requirements of the assignment.
To Turn In:
•   Choose 1 of the 4 methods of brainstorming from “Writing Packet 1” to narrow your topic down and show your work on notebook paper.
•   To be typed on a single sheet of paper: type out a working thesis statement and a brief discussion of which organizational method you will be using (time, emphatic, space) and why.
•   A typed “Works Cited” page listing the three sources you will be using.
•   A typed 4-5 page MLA formatted draft of the essay.