essay about after reading

Rules of Project 3

Assignment​​: For this assignment you will write a ​thesis-driven, academic essay​ based on the source material on the technology topic provided in this class; this may be any of the ​required​ readings (Twenge, Guernsey, and Turkle) and/or the ​optional​ readings (Heid and Friedman). You will need to use a minimum of ​two​ of these sources (2-3 are fine) and provide an ​opposing view​ (counterargument) and rebuttal​. Because this is an ​academic​ essay, personal examples are not appropriate for this genre. Nonetheless, remember that this is an ​essay​, not a professional scholarly article, which means that your paper should be engaging, thoughtful, and readable rather than overly crammed with information and facts. At the same time, however, your essay should demonstrate that you have read the sources carefully and have gained knowledge and deep insights about the larger concepts. Thus, you need both substantial evidence​ from the sources (studies, examples, and/or expert opinion) and substantial ​analysis​ (thoughtful reasoning and insights explaining your ideas and connections to your thesis) to support your argument. Evidence​​: By “evidence” here I mean ​studies, examples, ​or​ expert opinion​ from the readings. “Expert opinion” is the reasoning or viewpoint of people who are professionals in relevant fields. In our source material, Twenge, Turkle, Guernsey, and Friedman are the professionals; however, Heid is a respected journalist citing credible studies and drawing reasonable conclusions, so you may use his data as evidence. Please also note that providing evidence from two sources means more than inserting two quotations. Quotations are good, but you need to do more: You need to provide enough ​context for each quotation​ so the reader will understand the issue completely, and you will need to ​paraphrase​ some other ideas from the reading (in addition to 2-3 quotations) to make your essay both informative and readable. In addition to evidence from the sources, you may also use ​common knowledge​ examples, but not personal examples. Audience​​: Imagine that you are writing this paper for college students and professors in other classes at UCSB who have not read the texts you’re using and are not experts in the field. Although this is an “academic” audience in the sense that it is composed of students and teachers in a university, it is not a specialized audience of scholars who research and write about the topic relevant to this assignment. Thus, you’ll need to explain the issues fully enough for this audience. Format​​:

At least 1000 words; more is fine. Type and double-space your paper. Use one-inch margins and Times New Roman, 12 point font.