Article Suggestions for Essay #1

"Why E-Reading With Your Kid Can Impede Learning"

"A Focus on Distraction"

Last Child in the Woods by Richard Louv (I have a copy of this text you could borrow; it is also available in the Stewart Library. You will want to focus on a single chapter, not the entire book).

The Shallows: What the Internet is Doing to our Brains by Nicholas Carr

"The Rx for Technology"  (This is the podcast of a Radio West interview of David Strayer by Doug Fabrizio).

"What the Internet is Doing to Our Brains" (Youtube Video)

"Reading Study Shows Remarkable Decline in U.S." (This is the transcript of an interview conducted on NPR. You can either listen to or read the interview.)

"Fiction Reading Increases for Adults"

"Decline of American Reading Culture: Literature’s Struggle in Face of Pop Culture"

"Young Adult Lit Comes of Age"

"Adults Are Devouring Kids' Books For Good Reason"

"The Real Effects of Technology on Your Health"

"Despite Risks, Internet Creeps Onto Car Dashboards"

"How Green is My iPad?"

"Technology Changing How Students Learn, Teachers Say"

"Set Students Free With Technology in Schools"

"The Problem With Technology in Schools"

Essay #1 Assignment Sheet

ESSAY #1

English 1010

Due: Friday, October 4th

So far this semester, we’ve been discussing reading and technology, and their effect on the human brain.  Your assignment is to compose an essay using one of the texts we’ve read and an outside text on reading, technology, and the brain.  Your essay should discuss 1) how one essay’s argument is incomplete, 2) how the second essay helps complete the picture, and 3) how reading these two texts together gives us a better perspective on the issue.

In order to accomplish this, you will need to:

• Discuss what both texts argue
• Explain how one of the texts’ arguments is inadequate or incomplete
• Describe how the other text helps complete the picture
• Explain why considering both texts together is superior to simply considering one of them

A couple of things to note:

• Please avoid personal feelings and beliefs into the essay.  Make sure your opinions are stated as arguments that can be supported by explanations, examples, and quotes from the text.

Formatting considerations:

• Page length: 3-4 pages, double-spaced, 12-point Times New Roman font, 1” margins.
• Name, course number, instructor’s name, and date should appear flush left at the top of the page.
• Title should be centered on the next line below the date.
• Essay should begin on the next line below the title.
• Use MLA format for in-text citations, as discussed in class.

Extra credit options:

• You may take your essay to the Writing Center for an additional 5 points on your essay. You must ask your tutor for a signed slip of paper to verify your tutoring session.
• You may also rewrite your essay for up to 5 extra credit points.  Your rewrite is due one week after you receive your graded essay back from me.

"This is Your Brain on Facebook"

In Pittman's article "This is Your Brain on Facebook," he lists several problems with social networks, and Facebook in particular. Are any of these problems valid concerns, and if so, why?

"Can You Hear Me Now?"

"Can You Hear Me Now?" by Sherry Turkle: Whether or not we agree with Turkle's assessment of the problems with technology, I think she raises some important issues and questions that we need to ask ourselves as we move ahead. What are some of the most significant questions that you think have been raised as we've discussed articles this semester? Have your ideas or habits changed as a result?

"What's the Matter With Kids Today?"

Here is the post for your comments on Amy Goldwasser's "What's the Matter With Kids Today?"

We tend to focus sometimes on the negative effects of technology on kids. What are some positive uses of technology that teens (or young adults) engage in?

And on the other side of the issue, are there negative aspects to these positive uses?

"Growing Up Digital, Wired for Distraction"

Here is the second article of Matt Richtel's that we will be reading, "Growing up Digital, Wired for Distraction." How does this article compare to or complement the other article by Richtel that we read for Friday?

Also, my nephew posted this on Facebook the other day.  I think it's a pretty good illustration of the distractions on the Internet--what do you think?

"Mind Over Mass Media" and "Outdoors and Out of Reach"

Here is Steven Pinker's op-ed article from The New York Times, "Mind Over Mass Media," and here is the link to Matt Richtel's "Outdoors and Out of Reach." These two articles seem to be written from opposing viewpoints. Which one, in your opinion, builds the strongest case in its discussion of technology and the brain?

You can post comments on both articles below.

"The ABCs of E-Reading"

Here is the link for "The ABCs of E-Reading" by Fowler and Baca.  How many of you own Kindles or read e-books on your iPod or tablet? How do you prefer to experience books, now that so many options are available?

Also, to supplement our discussion about e-readers, here is a New York Times article that compares the environmental impact of books vs. E-readers. It's not an assigned reading, but it's an interesting text to compare to the one by Fowler and Baca:
"How Green is My iPad?" by Daniel Coleman and Gregory Norris

And finally, this graphic sums up how I feel about real books! Is anyone else as nerdy as I am??

"The Power of Young Adult Fiction"

For Friday's assignment, we will be reading "The Power of Young Adult Fiction" from The New York Times' Room for Debate forum.  In this forum, you will find a short introduction to the issue and then links to different authors' commentary on the issue.  There are seven different authors, so make sure to click on each one and read each article, or click on the links here:

Patricia McCormick
Joel Stein
Emma Allison
Sharon G. Flake
Lev Grossman
Matt De la Pena
Beth Yoke

Each of these authors has a unique perspective on young adult fiction.  Which author did you find most interesting or compelling? Why?

And finally, just for fun, here is a little e-card for Joel Stein :)

"Does Great Literature Make Us Better?"

Here is the link to Gregory Currie's article, "Does Great Literature Make Us Better?" What do you make of this article? What kind of conclusions (if any) does Currie come to? How does this article speak to Annie Murphy Paul's article "Your Brain on Fiction" ?

If you have time, it is very interesting to read the comments at the end of articles in The New York Times--sometimes they are as insightful as (or more insightful than) the article itself.  Here are a few comments I really enjoyed:

"I'm twenty- one years of age, and major in literature at university. I liken the questions Professor Currie poses to the course assessments handed to students at the conclusion of each semester. I dread these handouts, and like my peers, seldom take them seriously. Pencil in hand, I struggle to fit the breadth and nuance of the semester into the tidy, bureaucratic grading bubbles:
'On a scale of 1 to 10, how much have you learned in this course?'

I hesitate to answer these questions, because they seem so contrary to the ideas at the heart of literary discourse. In the classroom we are taught to do “re” work—rethink, reconsider, reweigh, retrace—essentially, go back to the beginning and start all over again. Do I think any differently about temptations of the flesh now that I have read Faust? Probably not. Am I more equipped to resist material pleasures in my own life? No. I am as confused and conflicted as ever before.
'So, did you learn anything at all then this semester?' my father will ask confusedly, as I eagerly summarzie the semester.

If he had given me a bubble sheet, quite frankly, I would have answered “no.” Because that bubble sheet’s conception of learning, as measured by numbers, statistics—quantitative, inert objective tools of measurement—cannot adequately capture the visceral, pulsating, exhilarating feeling of being alive, as great writers so oft capture."

And another great one:

"This is a fascinating question, and I'm glad that it's getting consideration in the Times. But you're asking one question here and answering another. You ask "Does reading (generally) make us better people?" and then answer "Does reading create more empathy by acquainting us with situations we haven't experienced?" Of course, reading (generally) does make us better people even if it's only to give us a language to talk about things we hadn't known about before. But literature itself has been working on the latter question for hundreds of years. I understand this is a philosophy column, but I immediately don't expect to hear very new and interesting things from someone who is talking about a field outside of his own. Martha Nussbaum's "Love's Knowledge" is hardly the exemplar of this particular inquiry, considering that it's out of date, is more about Nussbaum's frustrations with the limits of her own field, and a discussion of how much she loves books rather than their ethical merits. It's hardly an example of a rigorous literary study. It might be influential, but it's cited more often as something to argue against rather than as support for a new argument. Other ethical criticism (Booth, George Levine, Altieri, Hale, J. Hillis Miller, etc.) would be much better places to start. Better to think about literature on its own terms (rather than psychology's), especially when you're asking a question that novels themselves still haven't worked out. "