31 Aug Topic, Research Question, Thesis, Sources
For your final essay, you will critically evaluate the new media application or technology of your choosing. Your evaluation should consider an aspect of this new media technology that somehow affects human life, whether this effect is a drawback, a benefit, or something else. Dont forget to consider for whom (or what), why, and how.
Your subject matter and approach will change depending on your major and interests. Please feel free to draw on scholarship in your major.
Because of the open-endedness of the prompt, we will be working on this project in two stages. For the midterm, you will develop a research question; locate, and summarize 3 secondary sources; and write a tentative thesis statement. This research should help get you started with your final.
- In a minimum of 250 words, please describe the new media technology or application that you are going to research. Explain the specific qualities, cultural and technological, that interest you and why.
- Write a research question that addresses your new media technology, explains the specific qualities that you intend to research, and describes their effects on human life.
- Cite and summarize 3 secondary sources. For each source, write 2-3 sentences which summarize the source and explain how it relates to your papers topic. Be concise, your goal is to briefly note the thesis, claim, or central focus of the secondary resource and its relevance.
- Write a tentative thesis, or claim, which answers your research question.
- In 2-3 sentences, describe the possible counterarguments to your thesis. (You will need to refute these in your final paper.)
