Formal Paper One Assignment

Title: Who We Are in the 21st Century


First draft due: Sept. 3
Second draft due: Sept. 22

Objectives: to develop a personal perspective; to use persuasive language; to analyze argument; definition

Audience: the instructors and students in your Gateway class

Task:  At the end of Chapter III in The Saturated Self, Kenneth Gergen argues that:

So we find a profound sea change taking place in the character of social life during the twentieth century. Through an array of newly emerging technoligies the world of relationships becomes increasingly saturated. We engage in greater numbers of relationships, in a greater variety of forms, and with greater intensities than ever before. With the multiplication of relationships also comes a transformation of the social capacities of the individual--both in knowing how and knowing that. The relatively coherent and unified sense of self inherent in a traditional culture gives way to manifold and competing potentials. A muliphrenic condition emerges in which one swims in ever-shifting, concatenating, and contentious currents of being. One bears the burden of an increasing array of oughts, of self-doubts and irrationalities. The possibility for committed romanticism or strong and single-minded modernism recedes, and the way is opened for the postmodern being.

Your job is to agree with, disagree with, or qualify this argument OR PART OF THIS ARGUMENT. By "qualify" I mean agree or disagree with parts of the argument, or redefine key elements of the argument. It is not enough, however, to simply agree or disagree with this paragraph. You have to unpack the argument, and understand what Gergen means by words like " multiphrenic" or  "oughts."  The rest of the chapter, provided in class, should help here. I will also put Gergen's book on reserve. You'll have to examine each assumption (the unwritten claims behind the argument) and each premise/claim (the assertions which are the preliminary steps towards his conclusion), and evaluate the validity, in your opinion, of each assumption and claim.

Points:  75

Length: 3-4 pages or more

Commentary: For every formal paper, a one-page commentary on the process you went through as you completed the first draft is required. This commentary is NOT included in the page length requirement.

Criteria:  [as we agreed upon in class; most important marked with an asterisk]
thesis
*opinion/position
clarity
*examples from text
personal examples/evidence
sentence structure
word choice
grammar
organization
*voice (active vs. passive)/person (first, third)
tone/persona