Essay #1 – “I Search” Exploratory Essay 1500-2500 words
(15% of your Final Grade)

This paper is designed to teach the writer and the reader something valuable about a chosen topic and about the nature of searching and discovery. As opposed to the standard research paper where a writer usually assumes a detached and objective stance, the “I Search” paper allows you to relate your personal experience engaged with some aspect of a topic, to hunt for facts and opinions firsthand, and to provide a step-by-step record of the search process. It’s part research paper, part personal narrative, part reflection.

• First step: choose a controversial topic broadly pertaining to digital technology, digital media, “the internet,” television, or modern computing technology that truly interests you—specifically some problem or concern you want to be more informed about (use Homework #1 as a launching point). The topic, however, has to be argumentatively rich, meaning that there have to be many different viewpoints on the issue. • Second step: rather than starting with a thesis or claim, you’re going to begin with a question or problem spurred by some personal experience or exploration. Think of yourself like an investigative journalist or social scientist: if you’re writing about online communities, immerse yourself in one; if you’re writing about internet/television/cell phone addiction, deprive yourself for a few days; if you’re investigating some activity, try engaging in that activity; etc. You’re trying to get the heart of a controversy by gaining first-hand experience. • Third step: start researching. As you research, keep track of what you know and what you learn about the topic, how your assumptions change, and how different sources affect your perspective on your personal experiences and other sources. If you take copious notes during this step, these will very easily transform into your body paragraphs. • Fourth step: write. Give a narrative account of your investigation/experiment, and then give an account of your research and your process as you work your way through different sources and viewpoints.

Structurally, your introductory paragraphs should explain, with compelling narrative detail, what you think you know, assume, imagine, and/or feel about a topic as you describe your investigation from step two. These paragraphs should establish the question and topic you are researching, why that question or topic is exigent, and what background information a reader will need to understand before reading about the issue (no prolonged histories of how the computer/internet was invented, please).

Your body paragraphs are meant to test your knowledge, assumptions, or conjectures by researching your topic thoroughly. Consult useful books, magazines, newspapers, films, and library databases for information, and acquire your own informal information from primary sources (e.g., interviews, surveys/polls, field observations, corpus analysis, etc.). The key to this section is that you must write it in narrative form (chronologically, and with specific concrete details) to record the steps of the discovery process, though you can certainly tie this in to your original investigative narrative. Do not feel obligated to tell everything, but highlight the happenings and facts you uncovered that were crucial to your hunt and contributed to and changed your understanding of the topic. Cite your sources.

Your concluding paragraphs should bring your search to an elegant close, possibly by tying your research back to your original investigation. They should compare what you thought you knew, assumed, or imagined with what you actually discovered and offer some personal commentary and/or draw some conclusions (opinions or positions you might take on the issue in the future). In the end, you should be able to express a more informed opinion on the matter that addresses or answers your initial topic question.

If you want help outlining or structuring your essay, see the template below.

You should use >5 sources either by quoting, paraphrasing, or summarizing, using MLA format to cite your sources (no long quotations, please). I will not tell you what sources you can or cannot use, but I will grade you based on how credible your sources are and how credibly they are integrated (so, for example, quoting Wikipedia and providing no attributive tags would not be very credible). You must provide a Works Cited page at the end.

Feel free to discuss your draft with me or any ideas/problems you have before the due date.

Your essay is due on Compass before midnight on Friday, 2/21.

Essay 1 Grading Rubric

Introductory paragraph(s) introduce(s) a specific, well thought-out research/topic question about a complex, controversial, and exigent issue; introduction provides a compelling narrative account of some personal experience or investigation into the topic; introduction explicitly states why you are interested in the topic and what you assume or imagine about the topic; introduction provides relevant, concise background information about the topic/issue you’re exploring.
2 4 6 8 10 12 14 16 18 20

Body paragraphs analyze rhetorical situations of sources, summarize/paraphrase/quote the content well (cf. Research Matters ch. 17), and provide adequate citation material (such as attributive tags) for your sources. (Any drop-in quotes will result in a “1” for this portion.) Cited sources are credible, scholarly, and worthy of inclusion in a professional, academic essay. Body paragraphs explain why you chose the source and why it might be relevant to an argument you might eventually try to make about the topic.
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10

Body paragraphs offer your response to and interpretations of sources, including both “believing” and “doubting” points and dialectic thinking that compares/contrasts the sources. Responses and interpretations show how each source contributes to your understanding about or changes your thinking of the topic; you clearly emerge from an analysis of each source with a new, greater perspective. (If analytical/interpretive portions are not equal to or greater than the length of the summative/contextualizing portions of your text, the highest grade you can get here is a 12.)
2 4 6 8 10 12 14 16 18 20

Concluding section brings your narration to a close by explaining where your thinking now lies, how your understanding of the problem/issue has changed, and how your new knowledge ties back to your personal experiences/investigations. Concluding section offers a potential answer (in the form of an argument) to your original question based upon your thinking and the evidence you’ve seen, explains what limitations prevent your answer from being authoritative, and identifies other specific examples of research you might need to conduct in an argumentative essay on the same topic.
2 4 6 8 10 12 14 16 18 20

Each paragraph is effectively organized around a central idea and transitions smoothly to and from other paragraphs. Ideas within paragraphs build off of and transition between each other and there is a clear sense of organization in your thinking.
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10

Essay shows that you paid some attention to writing style; essay shows variation in sentence length, syntactic structure, paragraph structure, and word choice (especially verb choice).
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10

I, personally, found your interpretations insightful and well thought-out (i.e., you avoided generalizations), I found the line of logic leading up to your conclusions persuasive, and your tone struck me as both compelling and professional (i.e., I wasn’t bored).
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10

Total: _______ / 100

Exploratory Essay Structure

Introduction (2 to 8 ¶s) State some controversial topic and issue question Establish complexity, controversy, and significance of an issue question Provide a narrative account of your personal experiences with the issue Show why you are interested in the question Present relevant background on the issue (Either begin section with issue question or build up to it gradually by the end of the section.)

Body Section 1 (1 to 3 ¶s) Introduce first source and show why you’re beginning with it Provide rhetorical context/information about the source Summarize the source’s content and argument Offer your response to this source, including both believing and doubting points Talk about what this source contributes to your understanding of the question: What did you learn? What value does this source have for you? What is missing from this source that you want to consider? Where do you want to go from here?

Body Section 2 (1 to 3 ¶s) Repeat the above process with new source. Explain why you selected this source (to find an alternative view? pursue a sub-question? find more data? &c.). Respond to source’s ideas in context of other sources. Look for points of agreement/disagreement between this and other sources. Show how reading of prior sources shapes your thinking or leads to more questions/opinions.

Body Section 3 through x (1 to 3 ¶s per section) Repeat the steps above for each major source.

Conclusion (1 to 3 ¶s) Wrap up your intellectual journey and explain where you are now in your thinking and how your understanding has changed. Tie your research and current thinking back to your personal experiences with the topic. Present your current answer to your question based on what you’ve learned so far, or explain why you still can’t answer your questions (providing what research you might want to pursue further to answer it).

Advice: • Try to pick a topic you are interested in but do not have a strong opinion on. • If you do have an opinion, try to seem as unbiased as possible and allow yourself to be swayed by the evidence. • Choose sources with contrasting viewpoints, aims, styles, and evidence so you can get the widest perspective possible. • Begin the first body section with broader, more general genres of argument (like op-eds and blogs) and quickly work your way towards more specific and technical genres (like peer-reviewed studies or scholarly articles) before getting into any primary source research.

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“0-4” means that something was not done at all, that issues were barely addressed, or that errors completely inhibited understanding.
“4-6” means that something was done ineffectively, that there were serious errors, or that issues were addressed superficially.
“7-8” means that something was done at a “basic” or “average” level, that there were few errors and none of those errors interfered with meaning, and that issues were addressed but not fully.
“9-10” means that your writing was executed with the perfect combination of complexity, authority, and grace. It means that there were almost no errors, that I enjoyed reading or was persuaded by your work, and that the paper both meets and exceeds my expectations in the particular criterion.