Write an essay (of roughly 2-3 pp. or 600-900 words) on a topic appearing in your reading so far. The point of this paper is to give you a chance to explore further an issue of interest to you and to provide a basis for me to evaluate both your understanding of the material we’ve read and the depth of your thinking about an issue that appears in it.

Your essay should include the following elements:

The first of these should be an exposition of a short passage or of a few related brief passages. The objection could also be an exposition of something in your reading, but it may be an objection you would make or one you can imagine someone making. (That is, you may report an objection or speak for yourself, but it is also fine to present an objection that you can imagine but that is neither you own nor found in the reading.)

Your writing assignments and our discussions are possible sources of ideas for this paper, but don’t feel limited to them. Do be careful to keep whatever topic you choose fairly narrow; this is a short paper and it will be easier to achieve the depth of thought and clarity of writing I will be looking for if you do not attempt to cover too much ground.

Be careful also not to attempt to give an exposition of someone’s views by paraphrasing, or even summarizing in a way that merely follows the order of the text; you do not have enough space in this short paper to do that effectively. Instead think through what is said and design an account of it to suit the topic you are addressing and the space you have available.

You should make clear the specific location of any passage or passages you discuss (using a bibliographic citation, page references, and perhaps brief quotations), and you should do the same for the objection if you have found that in something you read. If you have devised the objection by modifying something you have read, you should cite that source, too, indicating why you are citing it (e.g., by saying something like ‘This argument is suggested by … though it is different from the argument offered there’). The general idea is to enable a reader to locate any textual material you have in mind. It doesn't matter what specific form you use to provide this information, but you should provide enough to enable a reader who knows nothing about this course to locate the textual material you are referring to.

As with your assignments, I’d be happy to accept this on paper, but it is more convenient for me to receive work electronically, as an e-mail attachment (or as the content of an e-mail message)—or uploaded to your “group” on Canvas.