Essay 3: Exploring the Relationship Between Race and Success

Essay 3 at a Glance _        
In Essay 3, we are using the concepts presented in texts to help us formulate an argument about another concept or ideas. We will continue to work on carefully reading and understanding the texts, but this time, we’ll be choosing strong specific examples to illustrate the connections we make from a text that can help us develop and illustrate an argument.                  

Main Goals for Essay 3    
?    Focus your essay with a strong thesis statement that makes a claim about the relationship between race and success and provide reasons for that claim (your “because” statement). 
?    Provide effective and developed support for your claim by summarizing the ideas from the texts (and from previous assignments) as appropriate
?    Critically analyze the ideas in the text to make a claim about the relationship between race and success, and explain this analysis to readers.
?    Create organized paragraphs that focus on one main point and divide your argument into manageable chunks for your readers Texts for Essay 3
?    “Black Like Them” by Malcom Gladwell
?    “Horatio Alger” by Harlon L. Dalton
?    “The Whole United States is Southern”
?    “How to Tame A Wild Tounge” by Gloria Anzaldúa
?    Make sure to use all four required texts, but you don’t have to use the documentary if you don’t want to use it. 
?    Research that is approved by me.   

Essay 3 Prompt For this assignment, you will argue the extent to which you believe race influences one's ability to be successful. Using the articles about race, as well as thinking about Anzaldúa’s story, construct an argument about how you think race can help or inhibit (or possibly both) someone’s ability to take the steps needed for advancement.  In order to construct your argument, you will need to determine what factors influence success (internal and external), and then argue about what role someone’s race plays on their ability to achieve their goals. In other words, are there additional obstacles people of different races face on their way to being successful, and do these obstacles prevent them from achieving success?  You will use the information in the article we read to support your argument and point of view.  

Your essay should:
?    Include a strong thesis claim and reasons in support of this claim
?    Include details, examples, and quotations from the texts to help you develop your argument.
?    Talk about complexities—for example, you might think about Anzaldúa’a grittiness, explain how her family helped him to become gritty. Make sure you use specific examples to help you support your ideas. 
?    Use your critical voice to explain WHY you’ve reached your conclusions about the relationship between race and success.
?    Be written in 3rd person only 

You should write your essay for people who are NOT in this class and are not familiar with the readings. This means you need to summarize key ideas, define any terms that might be unfamiliar, and choose short quotations from the readings to help your reader get a sense of what the authors are talking about and how their ideas support your ideas.