Culture of Liberty Writing Assignment & Final Exam

Please prepare an essay to enter in the Being An American Essay Contest (http://www.billofrightsinstitute.org/Contest).  Not only is this an opportunity to win a little money ($1000), but it is also an opportunity to prepare to be an educated citizen as you enter college.

1. For class, format your essay using MLA guidelines.
2. Your essay should be 750-1000 words in length.  Please indicate the word count in the heading of your paper.
3. Please use the student resource page (http://www.billofrightsinstitute.org/page.aspx?pid=1198) to access the Founding Principles List, the scoring rubric, and daily news headlines link.  To see samples of winning papers from previous contests, please use the following link (http://blog.billofrightsinstitute.org/2011/03/meet-the-being-an-american-essay-contest-winners/).
   
4. In addition to using primary source documents considered in class, you will need to research some of your own.  Please include an MLA formatted Works Cited Page following your essay.
5. Your essay will be graded using two rubrics: the contest rubric which focuses on your ideas and the six traits rubric which focuses on your writing. Please have multiple people review your writing and use their feedback to improve before turning in the assignment. This assignment is worth 200 points.
6. On the day of the final exam, you will be presenting your writing to your peers.  Please prepare to read aloud1-2 of your strongest paragraphs from the essay.
7. Because these essays are being submitted for a contest, they must be flawless in terms of editing.Your essay must be submitted to the contest before the day of your language arts final exam.