ESSAY QUESTION:
In A Canticle for Leibowitz, Walter Miller suggests that the desire to re-create paradise is a reason why science and technology ultimately ruin environments and societies. Do you agree or disagree with him? Defend your answer by critically responding to the course materials
ESSAY INSTRUCTIONS:
Essays should be substantial pieces of analysis. They should not simply report, summarize, or review course materials (although you ought to draw from class presentations, discussion and readings). Essays should demonstrate thoughtful reflection, evaluation, and should embody a critical and conceptual argument in which various angles of the question are explored in fairness and at length. (For further help in this regard, consult either the Weston, Vaughn or Feinberg texts on reserve for you in the St. Joe’s library. Additionally, the University offers various services to assist with academic writing, including the Centre for Writers and the Student Success Centre.)
Your essay may not exceed 1200 words. Typically, that means four pages of text at 250-300 words per page. Provide a word count at the end of your essay. Excess will be severely penalized: I will not read more than four pages (1200 words) of typed text, properly formatted (not including title page or references).
Use whitish letter-size paper, 12-point font, full double-spacing (nothing less!), 1" margins and a simple typeface (Times New Roman is all you need).
Number your pages, but not your title page. Page one should be the first page of your text body.
Citations: – For a paper this length, you should not need to consult many sources beyond the course materials.
The big idea in your paper. – All (text-based) references must be to scholarly publications with page numbers. That is, a hard-copy publication of the work must exist somewhere on Earth and you must reference it and not the http address, even if you accessed it online. This excludes wikipedia and the like, but not e-journals published exclusively online.
– All references must conform to Chicago footnoting style, as is standard in the humanities. – Turabian’s manual (a truncation of the Chicago Manual of Style) is in the reference stacks of any
library on campus. – If you still have trouble with footnotes, consult a librarian.
– Footnotes should not contain anything other than cited sources. You do not have space for quoting text or discussing stuff in your footnotes.
If you still find that you have so many footnotes that you cannot squeeze 250 words onto each page, I will permit you to use endnotes. But this really shouldn’t be necessary.
ESSAY SUGGESTIONS:Do not use flashy language or unnecessarily big words. Just be as forthright as you know how. This is an argumentative essay, not a piece of journalism or literary criticism. No empty rhetoric! Your reader is looking for rational content, and not much else.
You may use the first-person in your essay. In fact, this will make it easier to distinguish your own positions from those you will be surveying. However, be on guard: using the first person (especially “I believe”) is no replacement for actually substantiating your beliefs. Ensure that every time you make a first person statement, you continue on to explain why or for what reasons (i.e., “because”) you believe or think as you do. The same duty to provide rational explanation holds also for your treatment of other authors, of course.
I highly recommend that you make an outline before you write your essay, and that you follow your outline closely during writing. This will help you to follow your own train of thought. It is especially helpful to break the question, and thus the answer, into manageable and ordered chunks, and then to plan how much time & space will be devoted to each chunk.
Make sure you know what your conclusion is before you start writing your final draft. Make sure you state it very clearly at the end of your essay (be blunt). Typically, your conclusion should comprise only a single sentence.
Do not bring in new points or arguments into your concluding paragraph. The support for your position should be established before you wrap up. End your essay with a summary only.
Your introductory “paragraph” can be a single sentence in an essay this short. Just tell me what you are going to do in the essay; don’t try to be catchy.
Much of your essay (the exact proportion will vary) will consist of “analysis” – that is, a clear explanation of the positions and/or concepts you are examining in the essay.
The rest of the essay will thus consist of “the point” of doing your analysis at all – that is, the actual comparison or assessment. On the basis of your analyses, therefore, you will proceed to establish your conclusion by presenting your own argumentation.
The basic rule of good argumentation: show, don’t tell.
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