Short Papers

Short Papers

Paper 1: Know Thyself (Due Sept 11)

Write a short (4-page) paper in which you describe how you came to a strong opinion about a debatable issue. You may select any topic. Very important: DO NOT ARGUE THE CONTROVERSIAL POINT! I want a description of how you CAME to have that opinion. I do NOT want a paper with the thesis: “The death penalty is wrong” or “We should bomb Japan again.” I want to see a thesis that identifies the historical, personal and social influences that helped shape your opinion, no matter what that is. Indeed, two people on opposing sides of the issue could write papers that cited the same influences: parents, church, personal expertise in the area, etc.

Paper 2: Know Thy Enemy (Due Oct 2)

Find a published editorial or opinion piece with which you disagree. Write a short (4-page) critical response to the editorial. Your response should have three components: 1) a brief summary of the article and the argument, 2) an analysis of the author’s rhetorical strategies, as well as the strengths and weaknesses of their case, and 3) your argumentative response. You should also turn in A COPY OF THE ORIGINAL ARTICLE.

Extra credit shall be lavished upon anyone who can get his/her response published in part or in its entirety in the magazine/newspaper! Yay!

Paper 3: Know Thy Stuff

This paper represents a step toward writing your final paper. Compile a “review of research.” This is a paper that surveys the state of the debate of your topic. You may address the following questions or any other aspect that you find relevant to your project. Please do not simply answer the following prompts formulaically, as by themselves they make for extremely dull reading. What is the (relevant) history of the argument? What are the various positions and who holds them? What is at stake? What are the implications of the issue according to the various interested parties? What questions need to be resolved? Attach a full, formal bibliography. Your paper should draw on at least 8 sources, a maximum of two Web sources (articles in Pius’s subscription databases do not count as Web sources, but, boy, it would warm this old instructor’s heart to see some print sources in there). (That bib is not included in the page count, by the way. Sorry. And I am not old.)

Paper 4: Know Thy Weird Stuff

This is intended to be a brief argumentative paper that is not related to the final monster paper. Speaking of monsters, they are one of the possible topics (cryptozoology) for this one. Using the skills developed in the first two papers, I want you to thoroughly evaluate any one of the following movements/topics/practitioners. Be fair and show both sides of the argument. Be ye warned: Some of the practices, like acupuncture, may have some legitimate uses (even if it is perhaps a placebo effect), and pseudohistory may mix fact and fiction. It is your job to differentiate between the hooey and reality, making clear which is which.

• Acupuncture
• Alien abduction
• Ancient astronauts / "Aliens built my pyramids and then sunk my Atlantis"
• Angels (The surge in popularity over recent years, I suspect, does not a reflect a surge in the number of angels.)
• Alchemy
• Alternative medicine
• Astrology
• Area 51
• Atlantis
• Bermuda Triangle
• “Back to Nature” movement (you see this in survivalism or “all natural” foods, especially the organic movement)
• Cattle mutilation
• Channeling
• Chiropractic medicine
• Conspiracy theories (pick one: Kennedy, 9/11, Aliens-government diplomacy, any other one you can conjure.)
• Creation science/Intelligent design
• Crop circles
• Cryptozoology
• Deconstruction (Deconstruction, by definition, cannot be defined. Man, I hate deconstruction.)
• Elvis sightings
• ESP
• Exorcism / The exorcism at SLU!
• Electromagnetic fields and their effects on the body
• Faith healing / psychic surgery
• False memories / past life regressions
• Feng shui / Charms/Crystals
• Glossolalia (“Speaking in tongues”)
• Ghost hunting
• Herbalism
• Hoaxes (scientific and religious—from relics to cold fusion)
• Homeopathy
• Hypnosis / Mind control /Therapeutic Hypnosis
• Mass hysteria (The various War of the World Hoaxes, the Tulip Mania, Crusades…even the War on Terror)
• Mediums/psychics/psychic detectives
• Nostradamus / prophesy
• Numerology
• Ouiji boards
• Out-of-body experiences / Near death experiences / astral projection
• Pseudohistory/Holocaust denial
• Recycling (I strongly suspect that this is more complex than you think.)
• Ritual Satanic abuse
• Signs from God / “Matrixing” (the Virgin appearing on a cheeseburger bun, that sort of thing)
• UFOlogy