Learning Target: I can evaluate and choose potential topics for research.

Addendum to Social Justice Project assignment

In your introductory paragraph, make a claim that you will argue/attempt to prove in the course of your paper.

For example…

Because of past inequities, most affluent communities are predominantly white and because education in Illinois is funded almost entirely on local property taxes, affluent communities continue to have the best schools because they have the best facilities, etc and can attract and hire more and better teachers.  As a result, the Illinois school funding mechanism creates a form of institutional racism which perpetuates the cycle of poverty among people of color, especially black and Latino communities, historically the most discriminated against. Due in large part to property-taxed based funding for public schools and other factors, subpar educational opportunities in historically poor minority communities perpetuate the cycle of poverty for many African Americans and Latinos in Illinois.

Essentially, write a thesis which claims that a particular group has been oppressed and then prove it.

Tips: Choose a group and a form of oppression which you feel strongly about (or upon further research, begin to feel strongly about). 

Make sure they fit the definition of an oppressed group; the fact that things don’t always work perfectly for them or that some people don’t like them, does not necessarily qualify them as oppressed.  For example, I am a white male, and because of the traditional over-representation of white males (and the under-representation of, for example, females) in some fields (e.g., engineering), women or people of color may be desired for employment so that the work force looks more like the population as a whole and reflects and is informed by world views that go beyond one group’s experience.  That does not make me a member of an oppressed group.

While you do not have to propose a solution, many of the articles you read will propose that if certain things happened, things could get better for that group.   

You may cite one video source

Tags for introducing quotes and paraphrases

Organization: I have decided against headings or subheadings.  It should look like a well-developed essay, with the introduction flowing naturally into the body and the body into the conclusion.

You will have to determine the best way to organize it.  So much depends on what you find in terms of info.  For example, don’t go in with the mindset that it has to be five paragraphs. Let your argument and your information lead you to the best structure to your paper. 

It should be in third person

Five Faces of Oppression full article