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SS 150 Formal Essay
Lewis-Clark State College
Fall 2005

DUE DATE: This is a take home exam and it is due in class on December 7. Unexcused late papers will be marked as such and will receive a full grade deduction for every 24 hour period late. Your paper is late if I don't have it in my hand when I ask for it in class. Papers placed under my office door will receive an additional grade deduction. The simplest thing is to have your essay ready to hand in on the day it is due.

ESSAY LENGTH: This essay is worth 20% of your overall grade and will be evaluated as such. The minimum length of your essay is four to six double-spaced, typed pages (approximately 1000-1500 words). There is no maximum page limit. Although there is not a direct connection between the number of pages you write and the grade you earn, the more you write the more chances you give yourself to answer the question you have chosen. Below is a rough guideline to keep in mind as you are writing.

6 pages: you have written 50% more than the absolute minimum amount for the course essay requirement. If your essay is polished & well documented, you have given yourself a chance to cover enough material to earn a 'A' on this essay.
5 pages: you have written 25% more than the absolute minimum amount for the course essay requirement. If your essay is polished & well documented, you have given yourself a chance to cover enough material to earn a 'B' on this essay.
4 pages: you wrote the absolute minimum amount for the course essay requirement. If your essay is polished & well documented, you have given yourself a chance to cover enough material to earn a 'C' on this essay.
No essay of less than four pages will be accepted.

SOURCES: You are expected to utilize all of your class material to develop and support the points in your essay. The more references you make to class readings, lectures, discussions, and videos the better your essay will be documented.

Readings. your essay must make direct reference to the online readings related to the social sciences, Wobblies, 1984, and Brave New World to support your argument.
Videos. Your essay should also include material from at least two of our class videos: Union Maids, American Mullet, Ongka's Big Moka, The Ad and the Ego, and Trading Democracy.
A couple of your weekly newspaper articles should be used to emphasize your points. You may use whatever articles seem the most relevant.

Other Materials such as meaningful maps, images, illustrations, graphs, charts etc… are excellent ways to demonstrate your points visually and show extra effort on your part. They do not count as pages.

When you use a direct quote or material requiring a citation from our online readings, Wobblies, 1984, Brave New World or videos simply (Author's Last Name, Page Number) at the end of the sentence is fine. If you use any outside sources, be sure to provide a bibliography.

DRAFTING ESSAYS: This is a formal essay and I do not expect to see first or second drafts that have been hastily written the night before. On December 1, we will have a required peer editing session. You will turn in your peer edited draft, along with your final draft. You should expect at least a one grade deduction if your essay does not have a peer edited draft submitted with it.

Choose one of the following questions to answer.

?) (Creative writing): creative writing is not my thing. But it might be yours. If you can help me think of some creative writing type questions the utilize our class materials, I'd be glad to hear them.

1. a) (Creative Writing) Write your own short story in the style of Geroge Orwell and Aldoux Huxley about our future and the role at least three of the social sciences (Anthropology, Economics, History, Political Science, Psychology, Sociology) will play in it.

1. b) (Creative Writing): Select one of the characters/historical figures from Wobblies (For example, Bill Haywood, Lucy Parsons, Elizabeth Gurley Flynn etc.) and write a review of 1984 and Brave New World for a IWW publication. In what ways do you think the Wobblies would have been able to relate to 1984 and Brave New World? Conclude your essay with recommendation that IWW readers either take a look at these books or not, and explain.

2. Write an essay that examines the strengths/weaknesses of using the dystopian fiction of 1984 and Brave New World for gaining understanding about the social sciences (Anthropology, Economics, History, Political Science, Psychology, Sociology). Conclude your essay with your recommendations for using these books in a future SS 150 course.

3. Write an essay that evaluates our three main readings (Wobblies, 1984, Brave New World) as tools for gaining understanding about the social sciences (Anthropology, Economics, History, Political Science, Psychology, Sociology). Conclude your essay with your recommendations for using these books in a future SS 150 course.

4. Select 3 of the social sciences (Anthropology, Economics, History, Political Science, Psychology, Sociology) and explain the main features of each using our course materials to support your points. Conclude your essay with a statement concerning which of the social sciences you found to be the most interesting and why.

5. Which book Wobblies, 1984, or Brave New World did you find to be the most relevant for understanding the world around you? Explain.

6. What role did advertising (propaganda, rhetoric, etc.) play in the control of the populace in Brave New World and 1984? Do you think that physical control or mental control has a greater impact? Use examples from Brave New World, 1984, and our other class materials to illustrate your reasoning.

7. In light of our current readings, evaluate the role the state plays in exercising power via at least three of the social sciences (Anthropology, Economics, History, Political Science, Psychology, Sociology). Do you see any signs of state control and or manipulation to acquire/maintain power in contemporary times? Whose critique of the state did you find more relevant Huxley's, Orwell's, or the Wobblies'? Whose solution did you see as the most practical?

8. Define the social sciences using only the materials in class (online readings, 3 books, and five documentaries). Which of these materials did you find to be the strongest? The weakest? Explain. Which social sciences did you find to be the most clearly examined? The least. Explain. Conclude your essay with a recommendation for keeping/removing material from the SS 150 curriculum the next time it is taught.

- Design you own question that utilizes all the required elements, but be sure to discuss your ideas with me before hand so that there are no big surprises for either one of us!