Paper: Constructing communities
As we are learning in class, Americans have defined and built communities in a number of different ways. Our course readings have covered a 300-year period, but we have begun to identify some similarities in American community building across the centuries.
Your challenge:
1. Identify what you believe to be the most important or most interesting/distinctive feature of the ways in which Americans build communities.
2. Highlight points in course texts (and class discussion, if applicable) where Americans have used this feature. Explain and analyze them. What are the similarites in method? Are there subtle differences?
3. Find an example from outside of class—in the news, online, in fiction, on television, in a movie, or in your own life—where Americans have used this method of building community. Analyze it in light of what you found in course materials.
4. In your view, what makes this feature of community building successful, especially if practiced by people living in different decades or centuries? Draw on specific examples.
5. Point out moments in course texts and/or class discussion where Americans have deviated from this way of building community, and analyze the consequences.
Your paper need not be written in this order, but all of these elements should be included somewhere in your paper.
Your argument (thesis) will probably emerge in steps 4 and 5, but you should place your thesis in the first paragraph so your reader knows where you’re headed in the rest of your essay.
Your paper will be graded on the originality of your argument, how well you use examples to support your argument, and the quality of your writing.
Your paper should be 5-7 pages, double-spaced, and in Times or Times New Roman 12-point type.
The paper is due on Monday, August 28.
Your challenge:
1. Identify what you believe to be the most important or most interesting/distinctive feature of the ways in which Americans build communities.
2. Highlight points in course texts (and class discussion, if applicable) where Americans have used this feature. Explain and analyze them. What are the similarites in method? Are there subtle differences?
3. Find an example from outside of class—in the news, online, in fiction, on television, in a movie, or in your own life—where Americans have used this method of building community. Analyze it in light of what you found in course materials.
4. In your view, what makes this feature of community building successful, especially if practiced by people living in different decades or centuries? Draw on specific examples.
5. Point out moments in course texts and/or class discussion where Americans have deviated from this way of building community, and analyze the consequences.
Your paper need not be written in this order, but all of these elements should be included somewhere in your paper.
Your argument (thesis) will probably emerge in steps 4 and 5, but you should place your thesis in the first paragraph so your reader knows where you’re headed in the rest of your essay.
Your paper will be graded on the originality of your argument, how well you use examples to support your argument, and the quality of your writing.
Your paper should be 5-7 pages, double-spaced, and in Times or Times New Roman 12-point type.
The paper is due on Monday, August 28.
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