The meaning and metaphors behind naming
Your purpose is to present an analytical argument about your selected topic that provides supporting evidence from appropriately weighty and credible secondary sources.
Your purpose is NOT to simply report on those sources—they are to be used as support for your own statement.
The audience for this essay is the academic community. It might help to think of your essay as your entry into the ongoing academic conversation about your topic, meaning your finished product should be the kind of secondary source that other people writing research papers would cite.
Because academic writing should be as objective and impersonal as possible, avoid personal statements (“I,” “me,” “my,” etc.) and uses of the second person (“you”).
