Write a 1500-word article about why community college students drop out of college and how we can help them stay enrolled using personal examples, information from classmates, and quotes from the texts we read in class (additional research is appreciated but not required). This is not a traditional essay and should not be in typical Intro/Body/Conclusion format. Instead you should think about this as an article that will be included in the article packet next Fall.
General: Choose one reason students drop out and make a recommendation about how they can stay enrolled. As we’ve discussed in class, students drop-out for many reasons, and you do not need to present your issue as the be-all end-all problem.
Your Opening Move should engage your reader and help them see some reality about dropping out. You may want to use statistics or a personal story. Whatever you do, you’ll want to establish Ethos. We will go over examples in class, but keep in mind that this paper does not need to be a “standard academic paper”.
It’s common to arrange your article in a problem/solution sequence. This is certainly encouraged. Your problem paragraphs should address how wide spread the problem is, telling us who suffers from it and what effect it has on their experience as a college student and how it may lead to dropping out.
Once you’ve established your problem, write some solution paragraphs that suggest possible solutions to this problem. Be sure to be clear about what actions students can take to stay enrolled. They are your primary audience.
You may not have a traditional conclusion paragraph for this essay. That’s fine. Worry about proposing good solutions. If you find that you want to wrap up the paper, consider a “call to action” conclusion.
