The Futile Pursuit of Happiness

Q1. Explanations can be dull things. How does Gertner guard against reader apathy in the beginning of his article?

Q2. This explanation has a simple point -that happiness is unpredictable-and a more complex one, which involves the mechanisms and processes of anticipation and realization. Try to sum up, in your own words, the more complex explanation contained in this essay.

Q3. Gertner is actually reporting on the work of other people, whose expla¬nations he is presenting to us, but focuses mainly on Daniel Gilbert and George Loewenstein. He pays some attention to their personal qualities, both physical and mental. Why do you suppose he does this?

Q4. Gertner actually moves back and forth between Gilbert and Loewen-stein in the course of his essay. This is particularly noticeable at the end, when they are represented as concluding two different things about the possible results of their research. How would you describe this differ¬ence? Can you tell what Gertnees own position is?

Q5. Write an essay in which you develop your own response to the conclu-sion of Germer's article. You may wish to agree or disagree with either Gilbert or Loewenstein, but present your own view, using material drawn from your own experience of anticipation and realization of pleasant and painful things.

There are four basic writing skills fundamental to the assignment:

1) Your ability to locate a thesis and its chief supporting evidence and arguments.

2) Your ability to explain the logical connections between the different parts of the original you deem important and how they fit into the essay's overarching argument.

3) Your technical ability to accurately and effectively introduce and incorporate
quotations and paraphrasing. You must be careful not to let any direct language-phrases or sentences-slip into your summary without being quoted.

Along those lines, your summary should remind your reader from time to time, that these are not your ideas or arguments, but those of the author of whatever essay you summarize. Use attributive tags).

4) Your summary should represent, in miniature, the general shape and argumentative logic of the original and should be readable as a coherent and rationally structured essay itself (with an introduction/first sentence that introduces the essay you summarize and its central thesis, a body that explains the supporting evidence, and a conclusion. AVOID THE "LAUNDRY LIST" error. A summary is much more than a random listing of things taken from the original source.