The purpose of this essay assignment is to provide you with an opportunity to deepen your understanding of both consumerism and Theodore Dreiser's novel, Sister Carrie, and simultaneously to hone your critical writing skills.
Start by reading this "prompt" (the question that is intended to stimulate your ideas):
In his essay, "Looking Backward," Don Slater briefly analyzes the continuities and evolution of American consumerism in the last 100 to 150 years. To evaluate his theoretical periodization of American consumerism, let us compare Carrie's consumption of goods at the end of the nineteenth century (Neil Harris's essay, "The Drama of Consumer Desire" might prove helpful) to your own consumption of goods at the beginning of the twenty-first century.To do so, start by listing three to five purchases that you have made in the last year (big or small), and a few items that you seriously have wanted to purchase, but could not afford. (This list is for your own use; you need not submit it.) For each item, think about the reasons you purchased it. Be sure to consider not only the "use value" of the good (the genuine use you expected to get out of it), but also the "exchange value" of the good (the often covert and unexamined benefits you expected to get out of it, like status, which imbued the good with a higher value than simply its utility to you). Do not be satisfied with just the obvious reasons (e.g., "I bought a Harley Davidson motorcycle because I needed transportation for school." Dig. Analyze each purchase or desired purchase. Then, think about whether you see any patterns in the goods that you bought and what you got out of them. Compare those patterns with those of Carrie's purchases, and the ones she had wanted to make but could not (yet) afford.
Now, write a formal, argumentative essay of 1000 to 1250 words (according to the word count tool in Microsoft Word), in MLA format (consult the latest edition of the MLA Handbook), in response to the prompt. To do this, develop a thesis (main argument) that answers the prompt. The rest of the essay will comprise your attempts to convince your reader of the veracity of your thesis. Assume that your audience is a smart, educated person who who has read, but is not an expert on, the Slater and Harris articles and the Dreiser novel. As you write, it might help to think of a smart friend of yours as your audience.
As a formal piece of university writing, your essay should be typed and double-spaced throughout, using a standard font (like Times) in 12-point size, and with margins of one inch all the way around each page. In the top, left-hand corner of the first page, place a heading that includes (using one line per item) your name, the course number (BLS 490E), the date, and my name (Prof. David Goldstein-Shirley). (See item #20 in "Tips for Better Prose"; a link appears below.) Provide a meaningful but brief title for your paper (not "Essay 2" but rather a short hint of your paper's main argument) that is centered just one double space beneath the heading on the first page and in plain type (no underlining, bold, italics, or quotation marks). (See item #22 in "Tips for Better Prose.") Please use just one side of each sheet of paper.
The body of your essay, beginning with an indented paragraph, should start exactly one double space beneath the title. In other words, there should be one blank line between the bottom of your heading and the title, and then one blank line between the title and the first line of your essay's body. Just before you print your final draft to submit to me, do a final word count (in the Tools pull-down menu of Microsoft Word) to make sure you are within the stated word count requirements. (If you are not, then please edit appropriately.)
Please do not use a cover page, footnotes, or a bibliography. If you wish to quote, do so only after reading Becky Reed's document, "Using Direct Quotation" at <http://faculty.washington.edu/davidgs/Quotation.html>. If you paraphrase or quote one of the authors about whom you are writing, you can provide just a page number if it is obvious whom you are citing (such as when you refer to an author in the text of your sentence). Be sure you cite correctly according to MLA format.
Next, because all teachers have their own idiosyncratic preferences for writing, you should review what mine are by re-reading "Tips for Better Prose" at <http://faculty.washington.edu/davidgs/Prose.html>. Re-reading this document is a required part of the assignment. When I return your paper to you, I will provide a tally of common errors, using a list of codes such as "T1," "T2," and so forth, which refer to the numbered items of the "Tips for Better Prose" document. Of course, it would be better for you and for me if you pay close attention to the document so you can avoid some of the mechanical errors that I commonly find in student (and even professional) writing, rather than have them pointed out to you afterward. I recommend printing that document, and, after you finish writing your paper, check the items off one by one to make sure your paper is as mechanically sound as you can make it. Although the mechanics of writing are less important to me than the ideas expressed (which is evidenced in the proportion of your grade allocated to each of these aspects of your essay, as described below), the mechanics inevitably improve the effectiveness of your communication of ideas, which, after all, is your ultimate goal with each piece of writing that you do.
I have posted an example of a very good essay (written in a 300-level literature course but on a different topic) in the "Course Documents" area of Blackboard at <http://bb.bothell.washington.edu> You may read it if you want to see an example of an essay that I have liked. Note especially how the author lays out a specific argument (thesis) in the opening paragraph, and uses each subsequent paragraph to directly and explicitly support that thesis.
Needless
to say, your work must be entirely original. Using another person's
ideas or words without proper attribution, whether intentional or
accidental, constitutes plagiarism, and will result in a zero on this
assignment. Please re-read "Maintaining Academic Integrity" at
<http://faculty.washington.edu/davidgs/Integrity.html>.
Your essay is due in the Digital Dropbox (click on the "Tools" button in Blackboard at <http://bb.bothell.washington.edu>) no later than 1:15 p.m. on that date.
To submit your paper online, carefully follow these instructions exactly:
- You must have an electronic copy of your paper on the computer that you use to submit the paper electronically. That means the paper needs to be a Microsoft Word document located on your computer's hard drive (if you have Internet access at home or work) or on a floppy disk or Zip disk that can be inserted into a computer on campus. Allow time for that. (If you do not own Microsoft Word, you sometimes can purchase a deeply discounted copy through ASUWB <http://depts.washington.edu/asuwb/> or else use one of the campus computer labs.)
- Name your Word file exactly in this format: LastnameFirstinitialE1. For example, if you name were Susan Husky, your filename would be "HuskySE1" (but without quotation marks). Note that there is no space between the last name and the first initial or between the first initial and the "E1" (which stands for Essay, first version). Your file name cannot have a space in it.
- Log onto the BLS 490E Blackboard area at <http://bb.bothell.washington.edu>.
- Click on the "Tools" button.
- In the "Tools" area, click on the "Digital Drop Box" button.
- Click on the "Send File" button (not the "Add File" button).
- In the box labeled "Title," type your last name (with only the first letter capitalized), then a space, then your first initial (capitalized), then a space, and then the word "Essay1" (capitalized but without the quotation marks). For example: "Husky S Essay1" (but without the quotation marks). Note that for this title, you need to use spaces, unlike the name of your Word document, which cannot have spaces in it. To reiterate: Your file name (document name) cannot have spaces in it, but your document title must have spaces in it.
- Use the "Browse" button to find your computer file that contains your paper. Leave the "Comments" box blank (unless, for some reason, you need to tell me something about your document).
- Press the "Submit" button. You should then arrive at "digital receipt" page. I strongly recommend that you print and save this receipt page.
- After your document is submitted, log out of Blackboard and close the browser window to protect your Blackboard account.
Be sure to allow some time for unforeseen problems with the electronic submission. I recommend trying to post your first submission it at least a day or two early. I use electronic paper submissions because they form an archive that I can use if I need to (e.g., if I misplace a printed copy of an essay).
Within a week, I will evaluate and return essays that I receive by the deadline, which will give you the most time for revision if you choose to revise. I will evaluate and return late essays when I have time. Keep a copy of your completed essay until you receive your essay back from me.
Essay Revision: You will have the opportunity to revise your essay as many times as you wish, until Thursday, February 27. I will do my best to return each evaluated version to you within a week of receiving it. When you submit a revised essay, please also submit (together but not attached) all previous, graded essay versions (the copies with my comments on them). I cannot grade a revision until I receive all of the graded versions of the paper.
After February 27, you can revise one more time for inclusion in your learning portfolio. The version that you include in your learning portfolio will be the final version, and your evaluative (i.e., "final") essay grade will be determined at that time.
Although you will have several opportunities to revise your paper, I expect none of the versions to be a "rough" draft. Your rough drafts are for your own use in developing a version as close to ideal as possible. Please make each submitted version as good as you can.
Criteria for grading essay versions: Please carefully read "Criteria for Assessing Writing" at <http://faculty.washington.edu/davidgs/WritingAssess.html> for an explanation of my assessment criteria. In addition to substantive comments on each draft, I also will designate each draft as "early draft" (E), "middle draft" (M), or "late draft" (L).
Let me emphasize that I expect your best effort in this and every exercise. Your most serious work now will enable me to provide the most helpful comments, which in turn will improve your grade on later assignments. In other words, this assignment helps determine your grade in this course both directly (with the score it earns) and indirectly (with its capacity to teach you how to improve your writing), so it is worth the investment of your time and effort to do the best you can.
Some additional advice:
This page last updated January 3, 2003.
