Essay #2

For your second essay, your goal is to convincingly argue for or against a main argument made within any of the four reading assignments below, utilizing between 2-3 academic/scholarly sources to help support your argument:

• “Stoooopid …. why the Google generation isn’t as smart as it thinks”
• “Is Google Making us Stupid?”
• “Breaking Down Borders” in Common Culture
• “Cyberhood vs. Neighborhood” in Common Culture

As discussed in class (and elaborated upon within the class blog), you need to have completed an annotated bibliography for this essay, which includes your intended works cited sources, a paragraph (under each) that describes the resource and some comment on its value or relevance to your argument, and three quotes that you think you might use from each article. Of course, you may or may not end up using each source or the quotes you have selected, but going through this process should help you better organize your argument and your essay draft.

Essay # 2 Drafts are due on Monday, October 20th, in class. Be sure you come into class on Monday with THREE copies of your draft, two for peer reviewers and one for me. I will let you know, on Monday, who to give your drafts to.

This essay will be worth 20% of your overall grade. 5% of your grade will be for your annotated bibliography and draft; 5% for your peer comments (on others’ drafts); and 10% for your final essay. So half your grade for this essay will be the work you do in preparation for the essay, as well as the quality of the feedback you provide to others.

The FINAL Essay #2 will be due on Monday, October 27th. You MUST include all peer reviews (peer reviewers, please be sure to put your name on the drafts you read), including my comments on your draft, and your annotated bibliography. If your final essay is missing any of these components, I will deduct 10% from your final essay grade. If, for some reason, your peer reviewer does not return comments to you, let me know (write a note at the bottom of the last page of your essay), and I will deduct points from that peer reviewer’s final essay grade.

I was more flexible about all this on the first essay, because it was a fairly easy, introductory writing assignment, but I will be collecting all these materials for this and the last essay.