Intro:

The title page for your researched essay is also the first page. When turning
in your title page, make sure that you are following MLA guidelines for the first
page. Remember that a separate title page is not what I am looking for.
Format for the title page is on the reverse of this page. You should turn in no
more than one page. This assignment includes both formatting of title page and
content of introductory paragraph.
You will turn in your introductory paragraph to me. It should follow the format
for a first/title page, found on in the MLA handbook. I will be grading your first
paragraph on the basis of the rubric I have used for all composition assignments in
this class to date.
Introduction
The introduction is the broad beginning of the paper that answers three
important questions:
1. What is this?
2. Why am I reading it?
3. What do you want me to do?
You should answer these questions by doing the following:
1. Set the context provide general information about the main idea,
explaining the situation so the reader can make sense of the topic and
the claims you make and support
2. State why the main idea is important tell the reader why s/he should
care and keep reading. Your goal is to create a compelling, clear, and
convincing essay people will want to read and act upon
3. State your thesis/claim compose a sentence or two stating the position
you will support with logos (sound reasoning: induction, deduction),
pathos (balanced emotional appeal), and ethos (author credibility).
If your argument paper is long, you may want to forecast how you will
support your thesis by outlining the structure of your paper, the sources you will

consider, and the opposition to your position. Your forecast could read something
like this:
This is a very general example, but by adding some details on your specific
topic, this forecast will effectively outline the structure of your paper so your
readers can more easily follow your ideas.

Elizabeth L. Angeli
Professor Patricia Sullivan
English 624
14 December 2008
Toward a Recovery of Nineteenth Century Farming Handbooks
In researching texts written about nineteenth century farming, a few authors
have published books about the literature of nineteenth century farming,
particularly agricultural journals, newspapers, pamphlets, and brochures. These
authors often placed the farming literature they were studying into a historical
context by discussing the important events in agriculture of the year in which the
literature was published (see Demaree, for example). However, while these authors
discuss journals, newspapers, pamphlets, and brochures, I could not find much
discussion about another important source of farming knowledge: farming
handbooks. My goal in this paper is to bring this source into the agricultural
literature discussion by connecting three agricultural handbooks from the
nineteenth century with nineteenth century agricultural history.