Paper #2 – Complex Definition
Draft due February 7. Final due February 9.
Form: This essay should be around 900-1500 words plus a Works Cited page, double-spaced, 12-font, computer-printed. It should include one indented quotation (which may be the definition) and at least four quotations from the assigned readings.
Content: Develop a complex definition of one of these words: Human, Ethnicity, Ethics, Gender, Alien, Life, Cyborg, Time [Spacetime], Freedom, Consciousness, Machine, Soul, or another word which you discuss with Ms. Patton before you begin writing. You may develop your complex definition completely from our class reading. You may use a complex dictionary definition as the foundation of your paper. It is essential to use the readings for our class. Please feel free to illustrate using graphics.
If you are developing your own complex definition, your thesis might look something like this:
“For me, the word consciousness may mean self-awareness, not being asleep, the thought processes resulting from synapses firing within a brain, and what distinguishes human minds from animal minds.”
If you are using a complex dictionary definition as the basis of your essay, early in the essay you should quote the complex definition, and then explain your position on that definition. [You may argue that the definition is inadequate and needs expansion – so you will first discuss what works in the definition and then what is missing from that definition.]
Excellent essays will
Have been edited in class on February 7.
Include survey and interview answers from classmates
Develop around a complex thesis which is connected to the entire essay
Build on well-focused paragraphs
Support points with very specific examples
Use quotations and paraphrases from our reading
Have excellent organization, grammar, spelling, punctuation, and Works Cited
· Intrigue the reader with a title, introduction, and conclusion
Now it gets slightly more interesting:
Another choice for this essay: you may design a game which includes the above directions but in which success at the game is dependent upon multiple ways of reaching an understanding of one of the words above or a word which is OK with the teacher. You still must use quotations and paraphrases from the readings, plus a Works Cited. I don’t need to write examples for this, do I?