This page is a placeholder for assignment information until such time as the course is offered again.
The standard course syllabus for Ethics and Technology notes that students desiring to successfully complete the course will need to write four summaries, each two to three pages in length, of articles from the textbook not actually assigned for in-class discussion; each summary needs to deal with a different article. A glance at the course calendar reveals that there is quite a bit of material students are expected to be able to discuss. Fortunately, the textbook is quite large, so there is much material that cannot be discussed in a fourteen week term (of which two weeks are taken up by other kinds of discussion).
Each of the four summaries needs to be formatted as a paper (see "General Paper Formatting Instructions 20110831.pdf" on the "Helpful Information for TCI Students" page for appropriate formatting). In each summary, the following information must appear:
Author and title of the piece being summarized (please note this in text and in a Works Cited entry at the end of the summary)
Statement of the central thesis of the piece
Major points of evidence used to support the central thesis
Discussion of how those major points are deployed to support the thesis (e.g., what audience is being addressed, what register is being used, what tone is being used, what rhetorical devices are being employed, etc.)
Evaluation, based on specific evidence and detail, of how effectively or ineffectively the thesis is supported (i.e., how well does the author make the case for the point being made?)
Evaluation, based on specific evidence and detail, of the appropriateness of the central claim (i.e., is the thesis something that should be supported, however well it is or is not actually supported?)
The assignment will be graded based on 1) appropriateness of rhetoric throughout, 2) completeness of information throughout, 3) adherence to the formatting standards established for the paragraph and essay, and 4) adherence to the conventions of edited academic American English as discussed in the current edition of the MLA style guides throughout. (Please see the Purdue University Online Writing Lab for more information regarding those standards, here; be sure to follow MLA rules.) Each category will be assigned a grade, A+ through 0, and the average of those category grades will be recorded as the total assignment grade.
The assignment must be submitted as an attachment via email to geoffrey.b.elliott@gmail.com prior to the beginning of class on the day the course calendar indicates the assignment is due. Acceptable file formats for the attachment are limited to Rich Text Format (.rtf), Microsoft Word documents (.doc or .docx), and PDF files; no other file formats will be accepted. Typed hard copies may be submitted only with PRIOR approval of the instructor, offered on a case-by-case basis by direct consultation. Handwritten copies are not acceptable in any case. Failure to follow stated submission guidelines will result in the submitted assignment being discarded.
Students are reminded that appropriate citation must be provided for any externally referenced information, and all included information must be justified. That is, any time external information is included, there must be a reason, expressed along with that information, for its inclusion. Such materials must also be appropriately integrated into the student's writing. FAILURE TO ACCOUNT FOR SOURCES IS PLAGIARISM AND WILL BE DEALT WITH HARSHLY.