Paper Essay #1 Assignment:

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. 

As discussed in class, you may choose to focus your essay on any reading we have already covered, as well as our upcoming reading, The Powerbook, by Jeanette Winterson. 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 BY EMAIL at any point on MONDAY, SEPTEMBER 25th! 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? 
•  

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'm thinking along the lines of exploring the way in which this soma may or may not represent some current cyberspace trend. I mean, in BNW, soma is like 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 this same kind of drug-like effect. I don't know exactly, but I just feel like there is a connection I can make there." 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 more I will be able to give you good, solid feedback.