Assignments

Writing Assignments See Course Calendar for Intermediate Deadlines || See Course Calendar for Intermediate Deadlines ||
 * ~ Assignment Number ||~ Topic ||~ Length ||~ Final Draft Due ||
 * = 1 || Think of someone you know personally, who seems to know a lot about a certain (maybe offbeat or unusual) subject. Using "The Pitchman" as your inspiration, write a short personal essay describing what it is, or what it would be, like to be that person? Engage the reader: use lots of details to get inside that person's head. Tell stories; use comparisons and analogies and similes to help make your points || 500 words || 11:59 p.m., Saturday, May 28
 * = 2 || Find at least 4 substantial and legitimate reviews of //What the Dog Saw//. These //must// come from the library's online databases like EBSCO or InfoTrac. For the actual paper, synthesize the reviews, i.e., what is the consensus on the book? Analyze the reviewers' positions; what are the major points of praise for reviewers? What do they criticize Gladwell for? Don't merely summarize each review one after the other: see patterns and similarities and differences. Collaboration highly recommended. || 1000 words || 11:59 p.m, Sunday June 5
 * = 3 || One of Gladwell's gifts as a writer is the ability to take an idea that seems to be true--one that nearly everyone accepts as common wisdom or common sense or just intuitively true--and turn it on its head, showing how the common wisdom is often wrong. More and better pictures lead to more correct medical diagnoses, the companies that hire the smartest people will be the most successful, more information leads to better decisions, etc.

Create a **multimedia** essay (i.e., text, audio, images, and video) of your own (using a slide program such as Keynote or Powerpoint) or a YouTube video in which you take a conventional or popular belief and examine it and show that it's not really true after all. Collaboration highly recommended || 5 minutes (4-6 minute video or self-playing slideshow) || 11:59 p.m, Sunday June 12 See Course Calendar for Intermediate Deadlines || See Course Calendar for Intermediate Deadlines || See Course Calendar for Intermediate Deadlines ||
 * = 4 || Find a specific //one-sentence// assertion or claim in one essay in //What the Dog Saw// that seems to you to be striking, or especially meaningful, or especially controversial. Write an essay examining this claim. Why does he say this? What does he use as evidence? Can you think of counter-evidence? How would Gladwell refute that counter-evidence? What position do //you// take on the issue? What evidence can you cite for your position? Collaboration highly recommended || 1000 words || 11:59 p.m, Sunday June 19
 * = 5 || Take a single point that Gladwell makes in //What the Dog Saw// that you have a question about. What is that question? (This is your "Research Question": Use the Research Question Generator to develop and refine this). Using research, answer that question, noting both the complexity of the issue and answering those reasonable people who may disagree with your conclusion. Collaboration highly recommended. || 2000 words, not including Works Cited page || 11:59 p.m, Saturday July 2