Hidden America

Overview Jeanne Laskas’ book Hidden America exposes many of the “hidden” people groups in the United States and reveals many reasons why these people remain a mystery to most of the United States. Create an argument that defends your stance on the following: Is the treatment of the people of Hidden America predominantly a product of their own making, or is it imposed on them? Defend your stance with evidence from Laskas’ book (While Laskas presents evidence that some treatment is and some isn’t imposed on these people groups, you must PICK A SIDE for this essay). Extras Your essay will be a minimum of 3 pages (maximum of 4 pages- the Works Cited page is not included in the page range) (It’s a good practice to make each paragraph 5-12 sentences long). Your essay must use evidence from the text to lead into and to support your claims. In order to do this, paraphrase, summarize, and use at least 3 quotes. There is no outside research required for this essay. However, you will need to cite Hidden America in a Works Cited page (MLA format) and by using in-text citations. Avoid the use of “I” and “you” in your essay. Although this first essay covers the first four chapters of Hidden America (“Underworld” through “Traffic”), you can write about any of the remaining chapters if you have read ahead of schedule. Due Dates: Rough Draft: Tuesday, June 11 (on Rough Draft day, I will read over everyone’s drafts and give feedback- even if your draft is not complete, bring what you have.) Final Draft: Thursday, June 13 (you can bring me your final draft or e-mail it to me as an attachment- the final draft must be submitted by 11:59 PM 6/13 to avoid points off for lateness- I take four points off for each late day.) Structure Introduction Format: Attention grabber – start your essay with a bang. Your first sentence should be one that catches your reader’s’ interest. Bridge – explain your attention grabber if necessary, and start narrowing the focus of your paper by telling me the title of the book, the author of the book, and a brief summary of the book. 3. Thesis – in one sentence, state your position regarding the groups in Hidden America and what points you will be using in your paper to support your argument. (For example, “Laskas shows readers that the treatment of the people of Hidden America is imposed on them due to _____________, _______________, and _______________.”) Make sure you don’t get too specific with the information that you include in the brief summary of the reading. Give just enough information so that the audience understands the basics about what the story was discussing. Body Format (how to structure each body paragraph): Topic Sentence – state the main idea of your body paragraph. This idea will be one of your reasons that the people of Hidden America are treated as they are. Context – pretend that your audience has never read the book you are basing your essay off of; provide background information for the evidence that you intend to use to support the topic sentence. Basically, this is like setting up a story before you tell it. Include any information your reader needs in order to follow you. Remember, every time you use information from the reading, you need to cite this info even if it isn’t a quote. Supporting Evidence – include evidence from the reading that supports the topic sentence. This evidence should illustrate the point you are trying to make about the treatment of the people of Hidden America. Remember, once again this info is coming from the book, so cite it! Explanation – explain how the evidence you have included from the reading supports your argument about why these people are treated as they are. Don’t expect the reader to connect any dots; spell everything out for your audience. Closing Sentence – make sure that you conclude your paragraph by reminding the reader of the point of the paragraph. Make sure you include transitions between ideas and organize your ideas in a logical order that is easy to follow. You can find a list of transitions in your textbook on page 142. Conclusion: Restate Thesis – using different wording than what is in your introduction, restate the point of your paper. Restate Main Ideas – using different wording than what is in your body paragraphs, restate the main ideas communicated in your body paragraphs. Final Thought – leave your readers with a final thought about your topic and why it is important. Make sure you are not introducing any new information in your conclusion.