Essay Requirements: Recognizable Essay Structure Defines a conspiracy Fact-Checks the conspiracy Asserts a repercussion or significance 1,700-2,500 words You will use effective research and persuasive rhetoric skills to define, evaluate, and judge your chosen conspiracy. Your thesis should make a claim about the validity of the conspiracy (valid or invalid / true or false etc.). You will need to establish the definition or specific version of your chosen conspiracy theory. This definition should be based on research and distilled from the voices promoting and debating the conspiracy. If there is not enough research to establish a definition, you may wish to choose a different conspiracy theory. After a definition is established, you will need to begin fact-checking.  Your goal is to fact-check each element of the definition using the most appropriate sources.  For example, the conspiracy: “Americans never landed on the moon; the US government faked the landing, and the film footage we have was created in a studio with Stanley Kubrick.”  If this were your defined conspiracy theory, you would need to fact check each claim: What proof do we have Americans landed on the moon? What proof do conspiracists cite?  What proof do we have that the US government faked the landing? What proof is there that the US government did not fake the landing?  What proof is there that Kubrick worked with NASA? What proof is there that the moon landing footage was filmed in a studio? Should you cite mostly history books, biographies, news articles, scholarly articles from psychology, radio broadcasts, scientific evidence and facts, etc.? Once your definition has been fact-checked, you will need to add a final element: a repercussion. Your essay should explain to your reader why this conspiracy matters or what kind of impact it is having on the world.