Instead of taking the third test (on May1), you may write a paper on a topic of your own choice. If you write a paper, it should be approximately 5-6 pages long. It can be on any topic related to course material. Here are some details about this option.

 

1) Proposal: You may write a paper only if your topic has been approved by me. You can get approval by emailing or giving me a proposal. A proposal should be a couple of paragraphs in length. It should make clear the topic of your paper and the specific idea you want to defend. Your proposal must be submitted by Wednesday, April 26 at the beginning of class. I will return proposals with comments on April 28.

 

2) Due Date: Papers are due on Friday, May 5. Papers must be sent to me as attachments to an email message. (I will be out of the country at the time and will not be able look at them if they are put in my mailbox or office.) LATE PAPERS WILL NOT BE ACCEPTED.

 

3) You may not both write a paper and take the final test. If you have an accepted proposal, but you find that the paper isn’t working out, you may take take the test instead of completing the paper. But if you choose to write a paper and do not take the test on May 1, then you better be sure to finish the paper. The implication of this: if you want to write a paper, be sure to work on it enough so that you can decide by May 1 whether you will be able to complete it satisfactorily.

 

4) Papers can be of two general types: critical analyses and constructive proposals. In either case, the paper should begin with a clear and precise statement of the question or issue your paper is addressing. In the case of a critical analysis, your paper will go on to present, explain, and evaluate the answer to your central question that you found in the essay you are analyzing. In most cases, your focus will be some claim or argument in something we read during the semester. In the case of a constructive proposal, in most cases your project will involve defending some new point about some issue that we have discussed. In this case, your paper will go on to present, explain, and defend your own answer to the question with which you began. In all cases, avoid vague, overblown, and excessive language. Just try to state clear questions, present proposed solutions in as clear and precise a way as possible, and discuss and defend answers in a clear, direct manner. If you do a critical analysis, you should have something of significance to say about the view you discuss. A paragraph saying that the author got it right will not suffice. If that’s what you think, then you should write about a different topic. If you do a constructive proposal, then you should consider objections that thoughtful critics might raise against what you’ve said.

 

5) This is not a research paper. That is, the idea is not for you to read a lot of things on your topic and report on what you’ve read. Instead, it is an analytical paper in which you discuss an issue. However, you will probably be writing about a topic we have read about and discussed in class and you should be sure to take into account relevant points that have been discussed in class and presented in the readings.