First essay assignment

On the digital communications technology revolution.
Length: 3 1/2 to 4 double-spaced, typewritten and stapled pages
Due: to be decided

In class we’ve been examining various arguments about and examples of the “digital communications revolution.” We’ve looked at texts in our textbook, read things on the web and talked about them in class.

The first assignment is a place for your to bring some focus to our discussion and put your own thoughts into written form. For this assignment I would like you to write an essay reflecting on one aspect of “change(s)” brought about by the rapid proliferation of microchip technologies and the advent of technology-enabled communication media. Pick one social aspect of this change, give examples, summarize what you know about it, and then discuss your own experiences.

Very simple.

But also potentially difficult since I am asking you to conceptualize: you need to sort through all your notes and class material and decide how various things can be categorized as “topics.” Then you have to decide whether or not these topics could be labled “social effects/consequences of digital communications technology.” Then you have to break this down even further into subtopics and organize them into an essay.

Where to start?

One way would be to think about your essay in terms of its parts. It must have a beginning, middle and an end. It must cover three things: 1) general arguments about “the third technological revolution” 2) the specifically social aspect of this change that you’re focusing on, and 3) your experiences and practices as a “netizen.”

The thinking and planning parts will probably take as long as the writing part---that’s good, that’s what I intend. I want this assignment to be an actual opportunity for students to work with ideas.That’s why I’m not putting on due date on this yet. I want to talk in class about the “planning stages” of the paper: summarize our discussions, work on breaking this into separate topics and so on. But you should start your preliminary thinking now and try to figure out what it is that you want to focus your paper on.

NB: Remember that all essays must be titled. A title is one of the elements which distinguishes a piece of formal writing from an informal series of notes. Your title should reflect something pertinent to your discussion. "Paper One," "Essay," "Digital Communications Technology," and the like are not adequate essay titles.