Essay help

Theme: Digital Technology in Our Lives Research Essay 2 Guided Research Writing / Fall 2016

Introduction to Assignment: We have been exploring the theme of digital technology in our lives, which is related to our earlier theme of academic integrity and our own experiences in this class. During our written and spoken discussions, many ideas have arisen, including how much new technology has changed human’s lives and possibly our brains, opinions and research on multitasking, the benefits and drawbacks of using new technology, the typical panicked response throughout history when a new kind of technology is created, and ways to reduce the negative effects of technology in everyday life. Assignment Requirements: For this assignment, you will write a 3 to 4 page essay (typed and double-spaced) that answers one of the following questions:

1. How can new technologies such as the Internet be used most effectively? In other words, how can we minimize their negative effects and enhance their positive effects?

2. When the written language began to be widely used in Greece in the fourth century B.C.,

Socrates, a philosopher of the time, opposed it, saying that writing was a lot less flexible than oral language and also that it would have a negative effect on our mind, destroying our ability to memorize. What are some similar objections to the development of new technology?

3. How have new technologies such as the Internet affected education?

To successfully complete this assignment, you group must support your thesis with a variety of evidence from at least three of our sources.

• An Assignment that Prevents Plagiarism (Weimer)

• Digital Nation (Dretzin) • Does the Internet Make You Dumber (Carr) • Generation Plagiarism? (Gabriel) • Mind over Mass Media (Pinker)

• Harvard to Adopt Student Honesty Pledge (Coughlan)

• Survey: Many Students Say Cheating’s OK (Slobogin)

• Top Ten Reasons Students Plagiarize & What You Can Do about It (Cleary)

Due Dates: Below is a sketch of the required steps in the writing process. Final paper grades may be reduced 5 points for every late or missing assignment. More detailed instructions for each will be given in “Weekly Assignments” on D2L or in class. Assignment Due Date and Time Submission Method Rough Outline Monday, Nov. 21, 8AM Submit to D2L dropbox Detailed Outline or notes on possible evidence for each point

Wednesday, Nov. 23, beginning of class

Bring paper to class

First Draft Friday, Nov. 25, 8AM Submit to D2L dropbox Peer review Do during class Wed, Nov. 30 Bring paper to class Final draft Monday, Dec. 5, 8AM Submit to D2L dropbox

This research essay will be graded on the following:

How well have you developed your thesis? • Does your paper answer the research question in a focused and interesting way? • Are your main supporting points / claims general enough to be supported by evidence from different

sources?

How well have you organized your paper? • Is there a clear logic to the structure of the paper? • Do you clearly explain the logical connections between the ideas and between the paragraphs? • Does your paper have a strong introduction? • Does your paper have a strong conclusion?

How well have you developed and organized your body paragraphs?

• Do your body paragraphs stay focused on the main supporting point / claim you are trying to make? • Do you clearly guide your reader to understand when an idea is a main supporting point and when it

is a subpoint? • Do you develop your body paragraphs by giving examples, explaining why things matter, showing

different views, explaining causes and effects, and explaining what things mean? • Do you develop your paragraphs rather than repeat ideas again and again? • Do you use evidence from the required sources to support your claims?

How well have you chosen evidence from the sources?

• Is each piece of evidence directly related to the point / claim it is supposed to support? • Do you use a variety of evidence? • Do your choices of evidence show that you read the sources carefully and understood them? • Do you use evidence from enough of the required sources? • Is most of your evidence documented?

How well have you integrated the evidence?

• Do you clearly explain the connections between the evidence and the points / claims you are making? • Do you accurately paraphrase most of the evidence? • When you quote (which should be rare), do you accurately quote the original sentence(s) and use

quotation marks? • Do you use a variety of ways to to clearly introduce and cite evidence? • Do you cite all documented evidence in your essay?

How clear and accurate is your grammar, vocabulary, spelling, and punctuation?

• Can your reader easily understand what you mean? • Do you show the complex relationships between ideas? • Do you explain ideas without using more words than are necessary to make them clear? • Do you use a variety of vocabulary and phrases?

How well does your paper to fit the context, audience, and purpose of the assignment? • Do you express ideas in a way that is appropriate for this kind of academic paper? • Do you correctly cite all the documented evidence using APA citation style in the text and in a

reference page? • Do you have a title page and reference page? • Do all the pages of your paper meet the APA requirements for spacing, margins, etc? • Do you provide enough explanation and background information about the topic instead of assuming

that the reader has been in the class or read those sources?