Cccs Essaycccs Module Essay Cccs Module Essay Pri

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Cccs Essaycccs Module Essay Cccs Module Essay Pri

CCCS Essay

CCCS Module Essay Primary Reading:

· Ginia Bellafonte’s “Community College Students Face a Long Road to Graduation”

Secondary Readings:

·George Bogg’s “Democracy’s Colleges”

· Nate Johnson’s “Three Policies to Reduce Time to Degree”

Overview: Community colleges have come under increased national scrutiny in recent years. While nearly half of the nation’s college freshmen now attend community college, graduation rates at two-year institutions are often lower than at four-year colleges. Despite this, college students are choosing community colleges in high rates and often plan to transfer to four-year institutions after finishing their coursework at a two-year school.

Essential Questions

  • Why did you decide to attend a community college?
  • Where would you like to transfer after you complete your work at CCBC?
  • Do you agree with any of the points made in the Bellafonte’s essay? Why or why not?

Your essay should touch on each of these issues, ultimately creating a thesis (typically found in the first paragraph of your essay) that states why you are attending CCBC and how the reading for this unit has influenced your opinion of community colleges.

Prompt: Ginia Bellafonte’s New York Times article discusses the difficulties of one community college student, Vladimir de Jesus, and his experience at a two-year college in New York. Your essay should include discussion of why students (like de Jesus, yourself, and other community college students) select community colleges, the experiences students have at the community college, and some of the difficulties students face in transferring to four-year institutions from community colleges. This essay should include an argumentative thesis in your first paragraph. Your thesis statement should discuss your decision to attend CCBC and your response to the Bellafonte reading.

Audience: Write for an audience that is not familiar with the experiences and challenges of community college students

Length: 3-4 pages (750-1000) words

Requirements:

  • Use the Essay Structure resource, along with the strategies from the LUMEN Resource modules to guide your essay structure and organization.
  • Include an original title (not “Unit One Essay” or Bellafonte Essay”)
  • Use MLA Style to format your essay (see “MLA Format” in LUMEN Resource)
  • Compose a thesis statement that expresses your opinion about community college as a student and in response to your research and the assigned reading
  • Use the Bellafonte reading as evidence to support your opinions
  • Summarize de Jesus’s experience
  • Discuss your own experience at CCBC
  • Incorporate additional resources (Boggs, Johnson, research from discussion posts, etc.)
  • Cite all sources using MLA style in-text citations
  • Include an MLA Style Works Cited page (in addition to 3-4 pages of text)