Weekly Response 1

Paper must be 5-6 pages in length, minimum, using proper paper format and citations. As stated in class, please do not use the same loose formatting, structure, grammar, etc. you do when posting online; this paper must have all the basic characteristics/elements of a solid college paper - see my criteria for grading papers.

You may choose to focus your essay on any reading or author covered up until October 23rd. However, your paper must further explore that author or writing, going deeper into discussion than you did either in class or on the class blog. You can approach your paper via any number of themes, from any number of perspectives, or compare and contrast narratives, as well.

As requested in class, your paper topic proposals are due to me on the blog or at any point on TUESDAY, OCTOBER 9th! Please be sure to explain:

YOUR TOPIC/FOCUS: what is going to be the focus of your paper? your main argument? your main point? OR, if you are not sure of that yet, how are you intending to approach your paper topic? The best way to begin any paper is by asking a question (such as those I often ask within the blogs). What is it that you want to know more about? Or what particular theme or idea do you want to further explore? Be sure, too, that you draw relevant connections between the literature you have read and are discussing and contemporary cyberculture/s.

For example, if you wrote: "I intend to investigate the reoccuring idea of soma within Brave New World" . . . Well, that's a start, but I would like for you to include as many thoughts, ideas, and/or expectations that you have. Here is a better example: "I would like to explore the way in which this soma may or may not represent some current cyberspace trend. In Brave New World, soma seems to be this drug that people take to keep themselves from feeling upset or from feeling anxiety . . . and this made me think about how cyberspace often offers the same kind of drug-like effect. I would like to find out how the theme of soma in Brave New World mimicks or mirrors some of the effects of cyberspace in our contemporary world." This would be even better, because you are at least talking about a certain theme, subject (could be a person, too) that is interesting to you and immediately conjurs up a connection to cyberspace.

Even though you don't yet know WHAT that connection might be, at least you have an idea of how you'd like to approach your paper, and what topic you think you could write about. And then, of course, if you already have it all worked out (or think you do), then send along a more detailed paper proposal. Whatever you send is what you get feedback on, so the more you send (or rather, the more information you give me about what you are proposing to write about), the better equipped I will be to give you constructive comments about how to approach your paper.