CIE 200-I Essay #1

Using our class discussions as a springboard, you will now return to the readings from this class to carefully consider a question and to craft an essay based one one of the essay topics below. This essay will provide a creative outlet to find your own voice and to express critical thinking skills built around the varied works we've been reading in class. You will also practice the art of argumentation by precisely stating a stance and defending it with evidence in a clear, easy-to-follow manner.

Timeline

Monday 2/7Indicate essay topic choice, as well as 6 quotations that you are considering using in your text
Monday 2/14First Draft Due
Tuesday 2/15-Thursday 2/17Meeting with writing fellow
Monday 2/28Final draft due (also my birthday)

Audience

Ursinus College's academic/intellectual community, including your fellow students, instructors, mentors, etc. You'll want to strike a balance between being thought provoking and exacting, but also accessible to people outside of our class but in our community who may not have read the works you're citing.

Format

  • Approximately 1200-1500 words. You may format your paper any way you want with whatever spacing you want (I personally use Overleaf to craft PDF documents in LaTeX, though most people probably prefer Microsoft Word). But regardless, in addition to the text, you should include
    • Your name
    • The title of the paper (you do not need a title page)
    • The date

Writing Goals

  • Taking a stance with a clear thesis statement and well-organized, easy-to-follow text
  • Lively, distinctive, original voice
  • Appropriate and frequent references to text, including passages we haven't explicitly discussed in class
  • Thoughtful, provocative, creative, nuanced interpretations of your textual references

Other Tips

  • Analysis and interpretation should be two of your main goals here. You should strive to translate what a particular author is saying into your own words in a clear manner and in a way that supports your message. Explore the logical implications of the authors' statements, as well as any ambiguity, hidden assumptions, unexpected consequences, or connections to other texts.
  • You may need to re-read some of the sources you're using many times. This is completely normal! Just make sure you leave yourself time to do it properly
  • Be sure to introduce quotations in a way that flows. For instance, "according to Mills, "[quotation]"" (page #), as opposed to just plopping a sentence in the middle of text without a clear attribution. You may also want to orient that quote in the context of the larger work, such as "after Douglass escaped slavery and got to know other active abolitionists, he honed is perspective on Christianity in America, saying ["quotation"]"

Evaluation

We'll be splitting the paper grade into several categories, where you'll be graded on a 10 point scale on each category. Point assignments can be interpreted as follows

9-10 Exemplary; exceeds the goal; a model example for future students
8 Very good; met the goal fully
7 Met the goal minimally
6 Just barely acceptable, but fell short of the mark and needs improvement
0-5 Unsatisfactory; does not meet goal

Below are the categories to which points are assigned

Category

Goal
Main Idea / Thesis Statement The main idea is clear, concise, debatable, specific, and interesting, and is expressed via a precise thesis statement.
Creativity / Making It Your Own Takes a unique, creative approach with a lively, original voice
Textual references Carefully chosen, frequent, detailed, skillfully integrated references to the texts. Selects several passages that were not discussed in class.
Interpretation of Texts Student shows interpretations of the text that are creative, nuanced, thought provoking, and/or just plain provocative.
Organization Each paragraph has clear topic sentences, the document flows from idea to idea and paragraph to paragraph, and the reader avoids "getting lost"
Sentence Level Sentences should be clear, with varied diction, and edited/polished without grammar and spelling mistakes.
Revisions There is evidence that the student made an earnest, good faith attempt to address comments from me and/or the writing fellow in their final revision.

Essay Topics (Choose One!)

What It Means To Be A Citizen (courtesy of the CIE 2022 Working Group)

Through the readings and our class discussions, we engaged with the concepts of citizenship, human rights, personal freedoms, and societal obligations.

Drawing on at least three of the texts we've read up to now, make an argument for what it means to be a citizen. Then explain the ways in which such a society would function: what are your responsibilities as a citizen? When do you consent to being a citizen, or is your consent presumed? To what extent should personal freedoms be protected over societal obligations, and vice versa? In what cases is it warranted for certain freedoms to be sacrificed for the greater good? What are your obligations to society and your communities?

Suggestions:

  • You might consider the Ursinus open questions: What should matter to me? How should we live together? What will I do?

Frederick Douglass's Vision (courtesy of Rosa Abrahams)

Frederick Douglass envisioned an America free of slavery, in which all Americans have justice, liberty, and independence.

Write a letter to Frederick Douglass to tell him whether or not America today reflects the vision he expressed for our country in the mid-1800's in his autobiography and/or speech, "What To The Slave is The Fourth of July?"

Early in your letter you should include a clear and compelling thesis statement. The remainder of your letter should present evidence that supports your thesis. You should include evidence from all of Douglass's works that we have studied.

The Limits of Freedom (courtesy of Talia Argondezzi)

Frederick Douglass risked his life to gain freedom from enslavement, explaining that he "should prefer death to hopeless bondage" (60). John Stuart Mill argues that people should be free to do whatever they want, as long as it causes no harm to others. Although they both value freedom very highly, their definitions of freedom (freedom from what?) Liberty (liberty to do what?) differ significantly, influenced by the life experiences and social positioning that gave each other power or denied them of it.

Using quotations from and analysis of The Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass and Mill's On Liberty as the basis of your argument, answer the question: Should freedom be our highest value as a society? If yes, why, and if not, why not (in other words, what values matter more, and why; in what situations should freedom be sacrificed in favor of another value)?

Suggestions:

  • It might be particularly interesting to examine the social dynamics of the pandemic in the US through this lens. How would Mills or Douglass have reacted to the stances of different political parties in this country towards the pandemic?

The Limits of Individual Rights (inspired by Talia Argondezzi)

The Westboro Baptist Church has gained notoriety for its strong anti-gay stance and for the controversial methods employed by church members to spread their message. The Church believes that the deaths of American service members are a punishment from God for a nation that condones homosexuality. Among other things, members of this church have used the right to free speech to spread their message by picketing the funerals of American service members, waving flags with statements like "Thank God for dead soldiers" and "Pray for more dead soldiers" (see, for example, Five incendiary Westboro Baptist Church funeral protests (usatoday.com) and Funeral Picketing Is Free Speech, Court Rules - The New York Times (nytimes.com)). These protests may be hurtful to funeral attendees and inflict great pain on those already experiencing grief.

Using quotations from and analysis of Mill's On Liberty and one of the articles above, answer the question: Under what circumstances (if any) should individual rights be restricted for the common good?

Suggestions:

  • Sadly, these tactics are not limited to the Westboro Baptist church, and as recently as last spring Ursinus College itself came into contact with a very similar group on Main Street. But if you want to use examples like these beyond the Westboro Baptist Church, you should find other reliable outside sources about the organization in question to use as evidence, and cite them in your paper.

Create Your Own Op-Ed (courtesy of Abby Kluchin)

Locate 4-6 Op-Eds that have been published in the last three months in a major print or online newspaper about a topic that matters to you; for example, healthcare policy, immigration, abortion, voting rights, economic policy, etc. Read them carefully to get a sense of both the major arguments and debates surrounding the topic, and the format and genre of an Op-Ed more generally.

Then, drawing directly on a key concept or passage from one of the readings we've done so far, write an Op-Ed in which you persuasively argue your view on the topic you chose. Douglass's Narrative, the Declaration of Independence or any of the other speeches from the American Voices Common Event might be especially relevant for this option. In addition to at least a brief reference to the CIE text, you may also quote from any of the Op-Eds you read.

Suggestions:

  • You may want to have a look at the Op-Ed submission guidelines for the Philadelphia Inquirer for an example near and dear to us at Ursinus.
  • For this option, I will be looking particularly closely to how well informed you are on your topic, based on the Op-Eds you carefully read. At the bottom of the paper, include a "Works Cited" that gives a bibliographic entry for the Op-Eds you cited, and include a "Works Consulted" that gives a bibliographical entry for each Op-Ed you read but did not cite.

Sentiments Addressed? (by Chris Tralie, in collaboration with Ivy Foster)

The Declaration of Sentiments was presented at the Seneca Falls Convention in 1848 as a parallel to the Declaration of Independence for the incipient women's rights movement in our country. We have certainly made a lot of progress since a time when women weren't even supposed to speak in public, let alone vote. But it's worth doing a nuanced re-examination of these sentiments in the modern day.

Examine the extent to which the concerns expressed in the "Declaration of Sentiments" have or have not been addressed in modern day American society. Gather 5-6 news articles from the past 3 months to support your position. The articles should be from varied and reputable sources. In addition to a Works Cited section including all of these articles, include a "Works Consulted" that gives a bibliographical entry for each article you read but did not cite.

Suggestions:

  • To keep paper concise, you should probably focus on just a few sentiments that relate to each other and to delve deeply into them.
  • We may have to work with the library to get access to articles behind paywalls.

Another Topic

If none of the above suit your fancy, you may choose another topic in which the central themes are liberty, labor, or the "American voice," as long as you are able to build off of our required readings somehow, and as long as you get it approved by me beforehand.