Writing Assignment
One way to work with Lam's and Hayles' texts is to make sense of how they frame the issues in their essays. Think of this as staging a conversation about two ways of representing and analyzing new media. Write an essay that examines how the two writers have framed the issues. This isn't simply "compare and contrast" because you'll want to join that conversation by explaining what you see as the uses and limits of the two perspectives. To do this, you'll need to explain how each writer's framing of the issues sets up the claims they make, the evidence they present, and the implications they draw. It can be helpful to make a table of claims and evidence for Hayles' essay as you have already done for Lam's.
Write a 800-1000-word essay in response to prompt #2 on page 44 in Reading Culture:
Write an essay on the case study question "Are new media rewiring us?" that presents your place in the conversation. To do this, you'll need to explain the current state of discussion by drawing on Lam, Hayles, Turkle, and Gopnik to frame the issues. Your task here is to keep the dialogue going by locating our own thinking in relation to the other writers-extending their ideas and distinguishing your views from theirs.
Development of your ideas in relation to the readings, using ample evidence and support. Analysis and synthesis of the four readings mentioned above, demonstrating evidence that the writer has read and comprehends each of the texts.
The essay has a readable format with a clear organizing pattern, coherence, and cohesiveness. Connections between ideas are clear-writer has skillfully used topic sentences and transitions, for example.
The essay's language is appropriate for an academic paper: writer uses a variety of sentence structures, pays attention to word choice, and carefully edits and proofreads for clarity and conciseness. The essay integrates source material effectively into the paper, using the following:
• Signal phrases
• Paraphrase
• Quotation
• Summary.