The purpose of this assignment is to help you continue to hone your skills of arguing points in writing, and to provide a creative outlet for understanding your own self in the process of developing your arguments. You will do this via one of the essay topics below. Like the last essay, 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.

In this essay, the themes are roughly urban life, industrialization, labor, power dynamics, or consumerism and spirituality.

Timeline

Monday 3/21	Indicate essay topic choice
Monday 3/28	First Draft Due
Tuesday 3/29 - Wednesday 4/6	Meeting with writing fellow
Monday 4/11	Final draft due

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, and perhaps new passages that you find on your own
• 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"]". Be sure your quotes are relevant to the larger point you're making, and that they are characteristic of the work you are citing!

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.
Bonus Points (+0.5)	Includes an informative and entertaining title

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Essay Topics (Choose One!)

Political Theories And Extracurriculars (courtesy of Rosa Abrahams)

Many group activities act like communities and are governed by rules, norms, and a distribution of power, just like a nation is. Examples could include sports teams, band/choir, a dance group, a frat or sorority, etc. Think about one activity like this of which you are a part. Is it more like a capitalist society (supported by Smith) or a communist society (supported by Marx)? Using both detailed reference to both texts and specific examples taken from your experience on the team, write a persuasive essay in which you argue which theory (Smithian capitalism or Marxist communism) would make a better basis for your team/group, and why. The purpose of the essay is to show your mastery of Smith and Marx by applying them creatively to a real-life situation.

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Labor, Liberty, And Capital in The Internet Age (by Chris Tralie)

Pick one theory we have covered in class on liberty, labor, or capital and put it to test in the Internet age. Does the theory hold up, and is the Internet age simply the newest incarnation of an argument made? Or does the Internet bring about new dynamics that challenge the central theses? For instance, do John Mill's ideas on liberty and discourse hold up on social media? Do Smith's ideas of specialization of labor hold up in the world of automation? Do the bourgeoisie and proletariat classes that Marx describes still span the bulk of society, or are there new significant social classes that have emerged due to (e.g.) Silicon Valley startup dynamics? How do the notions of capital in Marx and Smith map over to the "attention economy" of the Internet, and to individual content creators in the context of large social media platforms?

In addition to careful citations from Mill, Smith, or Marx, you should draw at least one idea from The Social Dilemma. You may also want to consult Cathy O'Neil's Weapons of Math Destruction, which gives many examples of how automation or the perception of automation negatively impacts society (let me know if you would like to borrow a copy of this book). Or you may want to consult Fake AI, a very recent open book on similar topics.

NOTE: One of the aims of this essay is for you to demonstrate a clear understanding of the theories we have studied in class. I expect you to draw on appropriate quotes from these works to support your argument in a deep, nuanced way.

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Poetry Analysis (courtesy of Rosa Abrahams, edited/expanded by Chris Tralie)

Choose ONE of the following poems (you may want to read the text / watch the poem several times)

• "Brand New Ancients" by Kae Tempest
• "Still I Rise" by Maya Angelou
• "Somewhere in America" by LA Team for Brave New Voices Finals
• "I Am A Nasty Woman" by Nina Mariah Donovan
• "Self-Portrait As Exit Wounds" by Ocean Vuong
• "Lost Voices" by Darius Simpson and Scout Bostley
• "The Hill We Climb" by Amanda Gorman
• "Let America Be America Again" by Langston Hughes (click here for a reading by Danez Smith)

Consider what conditions of (American) society the poem is protesting, what techniques the poet uses to engage and persuade their audience, and how those techniques are similar to and different from the poetry we discussed in class. Then, write a persuasive essay that answers the following question: Is the poem effective as protest art? Why or why not? Use comparisons and contrasts with the poetry we worked with in class to help you evaluate the piece. The purpose of the essay is to show your mastery of the poems we studied and to develop your own sense of what would make protest art effective.

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Another Topic

If none of the above suit your fancy, you may choose another topic in which the central themes are urban life, industrialization, labor, power dynamics, or consumerism and spirituality, 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.