ESSAY
Dietel-McLaughlin
/
WR
13300
/
Fall
2011
Paper Requirements
Address a topic of interest to you, while also engaging a theme of the course Present a clearly articulated, well-reasoned, focused argument to a specific audience Develop key points with examples, evidence, and analysis
Over the past several weeks, you have developed a variety of important critical thinking and writing skills. Specifically, youve learned how to write with compelling clarity and detail, how to read, summarize, analyze, and synthesize sources, and how to craft an organized, focused, fully supported argument for a specific audience and purpose.
Your research topic should somehow engage the broad themes of our course (digital identity and community). Within that broad theme, your topic should be 1) of interest and importance to you, 2) narrow enough in scope to be adequately discussed in a 10-page paper, and 3) broad enough in scope that you will be able to locate a variety of credible sources.
Anticipate and respond to possible counterarguments Use at least six credible sources Follow MLA format and citation guidelines Be 8-10 pages in length.
DUE:
NOV
11
(by
11:55
p.m.,
via
Sakai.
Save
as
LastFirst_RES.doc)
This essay will draw from Other Requirements all of the skills listed Before turning in your finished essay, you will be asked to complete above and will also orient several smaller tasks along the way. Most importantly, you will be you to the realm of required to turn in a research proposal and exploratory draft independent research. You early in your research process, so that I can get a sense for the will research a controversy direction your work is taking. You will compile an annotated relevant to your interests bibliography to organize your research. You will give a short and our course theme and presentation of your major research findings to your peers. We will will develop an argument for talk more about these smaller projects in class. an audience of your choosing.
Inventing a Topic
There
are
many
strategies
for
finding
a
viable
topic,
but
one
of
the
best
approaches
is
to
begin
asking
questions
about
communities
that
are
of
interest
to
you.
Here
are
some
examples:
Academics/Career:
How
is
your
intended
field
of
study
challenged
by
some
of
the
issues
weve
been
discussing
in
class?
How
are
these
issues
reflected
in
the
experiences
of
Notre
Dame
students?
What
is
the
greatest
ethical
issue
in
digital
marketing?
How
should
that
issue
be
addressed?
What
can
the
medical
community
learn
from
the
popularity
of
online
Web
sources
like
WebMD?
What
do
graduating
Notre
Dame
engineering
students
need
to
know
about
digital
identity?
Hobbies:
How
are
the
issues
weve
been
discussing
relevant
to
those
hobbies?
Social
Concerns/Current
Events:
Whats
in
the
news?
What
about
recent
happenings
on
campus?
Should
Indiana
craft
legislation
forbidding
teachers
and
students
to
interact
on
social
networking
sites?
To
what
extent
do
recent
developments
in
social
media
(e.g.,
Google+,
Facebooks
friend
groups
and
timeline
feature,
etc)
reflect
changing
notions
of
friendship
and
community?
Should Notre Dame student athletes be required to delete their social networking accounts? What social, economic, or psychological factors might be contributing to the brony trend? How does the notion of the tethered self impact religious communities that have historically been slow to adopt new technologies?
Help?
Dr. Erin: edietelm@nd.edu Leslie Morgan (Librarian): lmorgan1@nd.edu The Writing Center: http:/writingcenter.nd.edu