Making Judgments about Technology

Unit I:  Introduction to Course

Unit II, Exploratory Essay:  Initiating an Inquiry into Technology

Generic Goal:  Students will consider an issue based on their reading, as well as their own experiences. The purpose of this assignment is to encourage students to think about an issue, to integrate their own experiences with their reading, and to develop an idea about that issue. To do this they must evidence the ability to think critically about texts, to link ideas found in outside sources together and with their own ideas, and to incorporate material from one of the unit essays to support and/or connect with their ideas .

Primary task: To identify a technology that presents an intriguing question, one that students can investigate in a variety of ways for the entire semester. The essay will serve to pose their question, through personal observations and stories and through consideration of one of the essays.  Two of the following Presence of Others essays on science and technology:  Rifkin, Oppenheimer, J. Q. Wilson, Samuelson.

Requirements:
Read at least two essays in the unit
Paper: 2-3 pages, with 12 pt. font (at least 500 words)
Mode of arrangement:  Process analysis.
Stylistic concept:  Purpose and audience.
Research concepts:  Incorporation of quotations; in-text citations and Works Cited (MLA format).
Grammar concepts:  To be determined after seeing first draft.

The purpose of this sequence is to provide the structure for a semester-long inquiry into technology.  Every essay builds--or has the potential to build--to the final essay.  Students do have the capacity to consider a question over an extended period of time, and the quality of their writing--and of their engagement with the course--can improve significantly as a result.

The purpose of the first essay is primarily to prompt the students to connect their own experience and observations to a question related to technology, initiating a process of investment in the subject.  A shortened version of this essay may serve as the introduction to the research essay.

Unit III, Analytical Essay I:  The Role of the Media in Relating to Technology

Generic goal:  Students will examine a visual text, interpret its meaning, and develop an argument in which their ideas about the image are developed by serious examination of ideas about images in one or more of the essays they have read. The purpose of this assignment is to further develop students' analytical skills by considering different types of texts in conjunction.

Primary task: To analyze an image (or set of related images) connected to the technology they’ve chosen, using one of the essays in the images section of The Presence of Others as models.  Presence of Others essays on images:  Plato, Updike, Churchill, Gates.

Requirements for Analytical Essay I:
Paper: 2-3 pages (500-750 words)
Mode of arrangement:  Division and classification
Stylistic concept:   Figurative language
Research concept:  Note taking; further practice in all previous techniques
Grammar concepts:  To be determined after reading first drafts

Students enjoy talking and writing about images.  Here they get a chance to think about the image that their technology has in the U.S.

Unit IV, Analytical Essay II:  Critiquing an Argument on Morality

Generic goal: Students will closely analyze a text, consider the relationship between what is said (the argument being made/ the thesis) and how it is said (rhetorical strategy, tone and stance, audience, language), evaluate the value of the ideas, and develop an argument about the relationship of content to form based on this judgment. The purpose of this assignment is for students to further develop their reading and analytical skills and to construct an argument based on their observations.

Primary task: To critique one of the essays on morality using a framework they establish either by using the perspective of another essay or by using a perspective they develop on their own. (Students must examine Carter, Gilligan, etc, for framework they establish; e.g., Carter does it through anecdote and being hypothetical; Gilligan through analysis of interviews; Shalit through comparison of two eras.)  Presence of Others essays on morality:  Carter, Gilligan, Shalit, E. O. Wilson, Shoumatoff..

Requirements for Analytical Essay II:
Paper: 2-3 pages (500-750 words)
Mode of arrangement:  Comparison/contrast
Stylistic concept:  Bias in language
Research concept: Paraphrasing and summarizing; further practice in all previous techniques
Grammar concepts:  To be determined after reading first draft

Unit V, Persuasive Essay:  The Role of Ethics in Assessing Technology

Generic goal: Students will write a paper taking a position on an issue, with the focus on developing a persuasive argument. They must use at least two of the text essays to support their position. The purpose of this assignment is to develop students' ability to construct a convincing argument and use textual material in support of that argument. Part of this process should include the consideration of a perspective (or perspectives) different from the student’s own.

Primary task: To apply an essay from the moralities unit, most likely the one that they critiqued in Unit IV, to their technology issue.  Most likely moral issues to apply to technology will have to do with gender, culture, and the nature of ethics..  For example, gender may influence one's perception about the isolating effect of computers.  One's culture can be affected by industrialization and modernization.  Presence of Others essays on values:  Shoumatoff, Gilligan, E. O. Wilson, Carter; also possibly Sullivan and Turkle.  In addition they will need reread an essay from the technology unit and incorporate its perspective.

Requirements for Persuasive Essay:
Paper: 3-5 pages (750-1250 words)
Mode of arrangement: Definition
Stylistic concept:  Tone and stance
Research concept: Analyzing and evaluating web sites; further practice in all previous techniques
Grammar concepts:  To be determined after reading first draft

Unit VI, Research Essay:  Taking an Informed, Nuanced Position on One Aspect of Technology

Generic goal:  Students will develop a researched argument paper, going beyond the text essays and finding at least two or three outside sources of different types to connect with their position. They will be required to acknowledge and evaluate differing opinions in their essay. The purpose of this assignment is to prepare students for the type of research writing they will be expected to do in their classes, using outside sources and the full range of research writing techniques.

Primary task:  To integrate much of the thinking students have done surrounding their inquiry into technology in an essay that revisits at least one of the essays from the previous units and that incorporates material from sources they have discovered on their own. Specifically, a superior essay will make a judgment about an aspect of technology that (1) relies on analysis of technology's image, (2) their critique of the basis of morality, and (3) their own sources. Presence of Others essays on technology:  Students will revisit the essay they looked at in Unit II and possibly Shelley and Martin.

Requirements for Research Essay:
Paper: 3-5 pages (750-1250 words)
Mode of arrangement:  Cause and effect
Stylistic concept:  Logical fallacies
Research concept:  Further practice in all previous techniques
Grammar concepts:  To be determined after reading the first draft