Paper #1: The Human Conversation, due Feb.5th

NOTE: Blog Response #2 for Monday/Wednesday is in the post BELOW this one...

“I used to have a dream that I was going to grow up and help my family. I was studying hard. Now I don’t even know why I’d want to live in this world” (85).

INTRO: For your first paper, I want you to learn the rudiments of what I call the ‘conversation paper.’ This is a paper where you primarily respond to other writers and use their ideas to re-create a dialogue, or conversation, for your readers. This way, your readers will understand what other people have to say on the subject, and where your own ideas come from, rather than just saying, “I think this,” or “I feel this” without context.

PROMPT: Choose ONE person in Humans who you think needs some good advice based on their interview. Many of the people in this book seem lost, confused, bitter, angry, or disillusioned. What advice would you give them? What are they missing, or not able to see because of their confusion or loss? In addition, I want you to use AT LEAST TWO other people in the book to support your advice. In other words, imagine you’re doing an intervention with the first person, and you’re bringing two other people along to help you talk them off the ledge, so to speak. How do their ideas mesh with your own? And how can you explain and respond to their ideas? Make sure the person you’re writing to understands how YOU interpret this advice, and why you think it could help them.

QUOTING/CITING: When you use one of the speakers in your paper, be sure to introduce them and the chapter the passage comes from. For example, if I was using the gentleman on page 107, I would write:

In an interview from “The Approach,” an older gentleman is talking about the difficulty of caring for his wife who has Alzheimer’s. He says that “sometimes she starts ‘yakking,’ She doesn’t say actual words. And it doesn’t make any sense. But I never tell her to be quiet, because it’s better than nothing at all” (107).

Always provide CONTEXT for a quote so we know who’s speaking and what’s going on in the quotation. Then, after quoting your passage, cite the page number at the end (since you’re only using one book, no need to cite the author’s name).

REQUIREMENTS:

• At least 3 pages, double spaced (but you can do more!)
• Must use at least THREE passages from the book
• Introduce and cite all quotations as shown above, according to MLA guidelines
• Due Friday, February 5^th @ 5pm either by e-mail or in the box on my door (HM 348)