week 13

Hi everyone,
For this week's blog the assignment is to post the concluding paragraph from your research paper. The research paper is due on next Tuesday, April 27th. Please hand in a paper copy of it to me then. On next Thursday (the 29th), I would like to talk with you individually about the topic you would like to write on for essay 3. We began discussing some of the topics that you may choose to do for essay 3 in our last class session. You may work, for example, on the following question, which relates to our class discussion from Thursday, and is found in greater detail on p. 676 of the textbook under the heading "Writing" under question 2: Agree or disagree with the ethical rules that Michael Stephens proposes for the use of digitally manipulated photos. For further options, you also may choose to write essay 3 on one of the topics that was offered as an option for essay two or for the research paper, but that you did NOT choose to write about on those occasions. To refresh your memory about these possibilities, they are given below once again. By next Tuesday, please begin focusing seriously on selecting the topic for essay three.


--the list of topics from the research paper assignment--
(1) p. 376, question 1 under “Writing” (also see pp. 329-334)
What cultural assumptions does androgyny challenge? (Research the reaction to unconventional examples of gender identity in the U.S.)

(2) p. 435, question 2 under “Writing”
Agree or disagree with Gish Jen's claim that we have multiple selves which we perform in different social contexts. (Research theories of performance as a model for personal identity in the work of the sociologist Erving Goffman, for example, or the feminist philosopher Judith Butler.)

(3) p. 389, question 2 under “Writing”
Use specific contemporary or historical evidence to argue for or against the thesis that America is about reinvention and its history is a series of make-overs. (Research specific contemporary or historical evidence which supports your case.)

(4) p. 436, question 1 under “Writing”
Agree or disagree with Gish Jen's statement that "between freedom in theory and freedom in practice" in America "gapes a grand canyon". (Identify and research examples from the struggle for American civil rights such as "the Freedom Riders" or research different opinions about the success or failure of school desegregation in the U.S.)

(5)
Take a position on the extent to which Gish Jen's above statement applies to countries other than the U.S. (Research a specific freedom demonstration and assess its impact in another part of the world in which you are interested, such as the Velvet revolution in Prague, the Solidarity movement in Gdansk Poland, the 1989 candlelight prayer and peace vigils in Leipzig, the 1968 student massacre in Mexico City or the 1968 student protests in Paris.)

(6) p. 429, question 2 under “Writing”
Choose a quality prized by our culture (money, celebrity, natural beauty) and explain why you consider its effects to be generally positive or negative. (With respect to money, for example, research the arguments for and against restricting campaign contributions in national politics in the U.S., in Britain, or in other countries...or research arguments for or against restricting CEO salaries...or conduct research on opinions about whether the salaries of sports, music and movie stars are too high or are justified? What makes them justified? Are there offsetting burdens to celebrity?

(7) pp. 499-506
Argue for a specific image or product that you identify as "an American icon". (Research various definitions of what makes an American icon along with arguments about what constitutes the definitive American icon—the automobile, for example.)

(8) p. 554, question 1 under “Writing”
How does wearing a uniform change behavior? Discuss the nature of uniforms and their impact on those who wear them. (Research the history and rationale for uniforms in, for example, the NYC fire, police, U.S. military services or in case studies of schools that have required uniforms.)

(9) How does one define children's right to privacy? (Search "right to privacy children" and examine the various views.)

(10)pp. 558-563
Explain the nature and appeal of superheroes. (Trace changes in the popularity of one or more superheroes and research possible explanations for those changes.)

(11)Agree or disagree with the critics of the U.S. Patriot Act who contend that this anti-terrorism legislation allows the federal government too much power to collect information on U.S. citizens and compromises citizens' right to privacy.

(12)What is the proper scope of presidential power? Agree or disagree with the doctrine of unitary executive power advocated by former Vice President Dick Cheney and his chief of staff David Addington.

(13)Should the current health insurance reform package that is working its way through Congress contain a public option?

(14)Are U.S. banking laws in need of reform? Paul Volcker,a former Chairman of the Federal Reserve Board, argues that the best way President Obama and the Congress can reform the banks is to reinstate a law called the Glass Steagal Act that was first passed in 1933 then repealed in the late 1990's. Argue for or against Volcker's proposal.

Please note: since essay 3 is not a research paper, if you choose one of these topics for essay 3, you do not need to "research" the topic or gather outside sources in order to write about it for the purposes of essay 3.

-ESSAY TWO TOPICS-
These essay topics are designed to deal with your response to a specific idea or point raised by one or more texts from our textbook, for example:

(1)
Present your own view of how family members relate to one another during the holidays. To support your argument discuss elements of one or two of the following: “The First Thanksgiving” by Sarah Vowell, “Fish Cheeks” by Amy Tan or your own holiday experiences.
(2)
Agree or disagree with the position taken on photography in one or more of the following: Susan Sonntag’s “On Photography,” James Nachtwey’s“Ground Zero,” Babbette Hines’s “Picture Perfect,” N. Scott Momaday’s “The Photograph,” or Ethan Canin’s “Vivian, Fort Barnwell.”
(3)
Explain what makes childhood (or, if you wish, innocence) important for the way of seeing in one or two of the following texts: “The Little Store” by Eudora Welty, “Seeing” by Annie Dillard, “Once More to the Lake” by E.B. White, “Ode to an Orange” by Larry Woiwode, or “Vivian, Fort Barnwell” by Ethan Canin.
(4)
Develop an argument in which you agree or disagree with David Guterson’s criticism of suburbia in “No Place Like Home”.
(5)
Define and explain how memory adds or subtracts to the meaning of things that people see in one or more of the following selections: “Seeing” by Annie Dillard, “Once More to the Lake” by E.B. White, “Ode to an Orange” by Larry Woiwode, “The Little Store” by Eudora Welty, or “Vivian, Fort Barnwell” by Ethan Canin.
(6)
In paragraph nine of “Homeplace,” Scott Russell Sanders writes that “many of the worst abuses” in this hemisphere have come about through “the habit of our industry and commerce…to force identical schemes onto differing locales”. In paragraph nineteen, Sanders gives an example of this practice near where he lives. Think about why Sanders considers the practice to be a form of abuse. (Specifically, what or who does he imply is being abused?) Then, based on your own observations, think of an example in which a franchise or corporation has established the same store floor plan, or same product lines, advertising campaigns or… to do business in local communities that are rather different from one another. Do you agree or disagree with Sanders that this corporate practice is a problem? What difference does it make if businesses approach one community in the same way that they approach another? If there is a leveling effect, in which places lose their authentic character, why is this a bad thing and what are the benefits to communities of having a national chain, if any, that Sanders fails to mention? The point (your thesis) is to agree or disagree with Sanders that the proliferation of national chains is one of “the worst abuses” of industry or commerce.
(7)
Compare and contrast Guterson’s criticism of suburbia to Sanders’s criticism of the corporate practice of selling the same products in stores that look the same in different communities. Are the planning principles, the corporate motives, or the social consequences that each writer criticizes similar or different? What are some of the possible explanations for these similarities or differences? Discuss your own examples of the practices that these writers dislike and use the examples to identify what Guterson and Sanders agree on and what they disagree about. Explain where their points extend one another or are complementary.
(8)
Take a position on the argument about suburbia in David Guterson’s “No Place Like Home” by relating Guterson’s point to the attitude that Billy Collins’s expresses about the names of new residential subdivisions in the poem “The Golden Years”. (The poem is online if you want to search for it. I’ll bring copies to class Thursday).
(9)
Argue for the relative importance or unimportance of things that are invisible (including things that are seen indirectly or indistinctly) for our experience of the visible world. In your argument, be specific about what sort of invisible things you are discussing. To help you be specific about this, refer to and discuss the significance of relevant points and passages from one or two of the following texts: “The Little Store” by Eudora Welty, “Seeing” by Annie Dillard, or “A Matter of Scale” by K.C. Cole.