Advanced Expository Writing
ENGL 249S-02 * Fall 2003
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Advanced Expository Writing |
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This assignment asks you to focus on the impact of technology and the Internet on society generally, and your own life in particular. In most cases, you should write a thesis-driven, focused, carefully considered essay. As usual, the questions provided in the options are only for brainstorming purposes.
Option 1: Subjective: Keep a twenty-four hour diary of your activities. Be minute and detailed. Include everything you do; omit nothing. (The better you do this, the better your paper will be.)
After the day has passed, look back on your diary and try to draw some conclusions about it. How much is technology involved in your daily life? Consider how people two centuries ago (and/or twenty years ago) would have accomplished these same tasks. What activities in your life are absolutely dependent on technology of some sort or another? Do you consider this dependence dangerous, annoying, liberating? Explain your answer thoroughly.
This is a thesis-driven assignment. You must ANALYZE your data (the contents of your diary) to come up with a thesis, then argue for the thesis and support it. Papers that merely recount all the things you did during your day will not get credit (and will be really boring). In other words, this option is actually harder than it might initially sound.
Option 2: Objective: Where the first option asks that you look subjectively at your own experience with technology, this option is designed to encourage you to see that the information you have studied so far this semester has a real impact on the larger world we live in. It is important for this option that you be able to analyze different view points and reach your own conclusion.
We have discussed many issues associated with the burgeoning of technology: security, cloning, biogenetics, Internet addiction, cyberstalking, identity theft, and there are many others. Important aspects of each were introduced, but not pursued in depth. Write an essay in which you argue your perspective as to what is the most significant technological issue facing society today. What are the different moral issues associated with your topic? Do you consider this technology dangerous? Are there any ways to lessen the danger?
This option requires specific, independent research. You MUST use at least three sources (cited properly on a Works Cited page), one of which must be a non-Internet source (this means that regular, traditional library research is required). The better you understand your topic, and present the various viewpoints for and against it [as necessary], the better your essay will be.
Remember, this, again, is a thesis-driven assignment. You must analyze your topic (the results of your research) to come up with a thesis, then argue for the thesis and support it. Papers that merely recount all the ideas associated with your topic will not get credit.
Option 3: Critical: Kirkpatrick Sale in his article Lessons from the Luddites argues that "[t]echnologies are never neutral, and some are hurtful." Do you agree with this statement? Can any technology be considered inherently good or inherently dangerous? Write an argument in which you use specific examples, from Sale's article and other sources as necessary, to debate with Sale.
Option 4: If none of the above options excite you--make up your own! Perhaps you want to develop one of your shorter response papers that doesn't fit into one of the above topics, for example. See me or e-mail me to discuss your own ideas.