L216: LAMP Sophomore Seminar
Business and the Humanities
Topic: The Price of Prosperity
Paper IV: Course Topic Paper
Length: 4–5 pages
Due: Electronic paper attached to email by 5:00 p.m., Friday, 5/2
For some three and a half months we have been critiquing the impact of capitalist/consumerist values on society through our exploration and interpretation of diverse texts. You have also tried your hand several times at writing analytical synthesis papers, which ask you to invent an original thesis that you support with ideas, inferences, and evidence from the various texts we have read and discussed. It is now time to pull together the work of our course and to offer your thoughts on the course topic based on the evidence you have assembled from various sources.
In 4–5 pages, write an essay in which you offer your own thoughts about an aspect of the course topic using at least three of the texts we have explored and interpreted in L216 as evidence to support your claim. You must work with either The Visit or Enemy of the People as one of your texts. The other two texts are completely at your discretion, as long as they have been a part of our class. Of course, you may also refer to “texts” or other cultural productions from outside class, but your main focus should be on the works we have read, discussed, and explored together.
Peer Review option
Since we shall not be undertaking a formal drafting process for this paper, I strongly urge (but do not require) you to get feedback on your first draft from a peer review partner prior to revising your paper for final submission. You should make arrangements for when and how to swap papers with your partner. It might also be useful to instruct your reviewer to look for areas you are not sure about.
Of course, I will gladly take a look at your work before the submission deadline. However, before I will read it, you must have received substantive feedback from a peer reviewer. In other words, if you wish me to give you feedback at the drafting stage, you must engage the peer review process. I will then give your paper a read and review your peer’s comments and add my own.