This week, we will be creating the first draft of our academic paper. Remember, this is only a draft, which means that it does not need to be polished. Do not worry about grammar, punctuation, or citation this week. Instead, we will focus on drawing out our argument and our exigency. 

Our reading this week is What is Academic Writing? by Lennie L. Irvin. Though we may have encountered academic writing before, this kind of writing can contain many implicit rules that are not always stated. This essay lays our some of those rules to make them easy to understand and plain. It also gets at the heart of academic writing: expressing a viewpoint that can be argued and offering evidence for your own argument.

Then, we will begin the first draft of our academic paper. But don't worry! You do not need to start with a blank page. Already this semester, you have spent several weeks writing about and thinking about this issue. You have spent time brainstorming, looking at the audience, purpose, and exigency, and doing the research. Now all you have to do is put all of these together to create your argument. 

You might even consider beginning your first draft by copy-pasting the writing you have already done (You have my express permission for this assignment!) that you think is relevant enough to your academic paper. You can take parts of your brainstorm, your proposal, and your annotated bibliography and make a kind of collage of what you already have. Then, instead of starting with a blank page, you have all your ideas in one place and creating this draft is just a matter of shaping what you have already done into a cohesive argument.

Here are some guidelines to make sure you complete the assignment fully. This draft must:

1. Be at least 1500 words

2. Have an overall thesis or argument that adds to the conversation

3. Include information from your academic sources and show why it is relevant

4. Show exigency