Read every word below carefully, more than once, before starting your essay.
Choose one of the following options and respond in a carefully structured and developed essay of 700-1000 words (in the body of the essay, excluding headers, name, date, title, works cited entries, etc.). Raise a central question at the end of your introduction that the rest of the paper strives to answer directly throughout.
For details of the physical formatting of your paper on paper—margins, headers, titles, etc.—see the simple stuff page. For guidelines on quotation and documentation, see the quotes and documentation page. All options require quotations from the readings, so a works cited page is necessary.
I encourage you to seek my help with your paper outside of class. I cannot respond to whole drafts through email, but I will be glad to go over your paper from start to finish with you in person before you submit it for grading. If my office hours don't mesh with your schedule, let me know and we'll make arrangements for other times.
I am neither expecting nor encouraging you to use any sources beyond those assigned as readings for this class. Understand that if you bring in quotes from web sources, you will still need to document citations correctly according to the quotes and documentation page, but they will not count towards quotation requirements for the assignment.
Note that you must submit the final draft in both hard copy (printed on paper) and in digital form uploaded to the Dropbox for this assignment in Brightspace D2L.
Paper proposals: Before you begin writing the essay, construct a topic sentence outline just as we did in the last three writing exercises: begin the outline with the literal question your paper addresses, then give full topic sentences that answer the question directly for each primary point in your paper (i.e. for each body paragraph), just as they will appear in the essay itself, and conclude the outline with the paper's overall thesis, answering the central question directly and combining your essential points from the various topic sentences. See sample topic sentence outlines on my writing tips page and on the paper proposal assignment page.
Options:
1) In "Quality Time, Redefined," Alex Williams suggests that our ever-increasing fixation with technology through portable devices puts barriers between family members so that when couples or families spend time together, they are not truly spending time together. Williams says that "technology has become an alien, and alienating, force in the contemporary home” (97). Write an essay elaborating this viewpoint on technology as "an alien, and alienating force" in the family today, including at least three quotations from Williams's article to support your observations.
2) Several of our recent readings are highly critical of education in the United States, and objective testing indicates that U.S. students are lagging behind those in many European and Asian nations. Identify the primary flaws in our pre-university education and make thoughtful suggestions for improving American education. You may rely on any of our readings to support of your assertions, but your primary points of analysis should present your own thinking on the issue: bring in at least two quotations from the readings to support your views, not to make your primary points for you.
Make every
topic sentence answer the central question directly.
Introduce all
quotes: see nugget 3.
Sweat
the details: use the Golden Rules, Nuggets, Simple Stuff, and Quotes
& Documentation pages and proofread carefully.
Offer
concrete evidence (quotes) in support of each of your major assertions.
Email or see me in the office if you have questions or problems.
Use the Writing Center! I encourage you to see tutors for help with your papers at the Student Success Center (SSC) and/or the Writing Center. We have well-trained certified tutors who can give you plenty of one-on-one attention with any aspect of the writing process. Be sure to take a copy of this assignment with you to any tutoring session, or show your tutor this assignment page on the web.