Write a paper (c. 2-3 pp. or 600-900 words) in which you discuss a passage in which one of the people you have read so far makes a claim to which you can imagine someone (perhaps you) having an objection. In your discussion of this passage, you should do the following:

• briefly describe the claim,

• outline the reasons the author gives for making it (or the reasons you surmise if none are given),

• indicate the reasons why someone might object, and

• discuss the relative strength of the two sides in a way that indicates how someone sympathetic to the original claim might respond to the objection.

I won’t attempt a list of possible topics, but I’ll be happy to help you look for one if nothing comes to mind. The passage you write about will vary in length depending on the topic (and need not be contiguous text), but the sort of claim together with reasons that you could address in a paper this length will probably be on the scale of several sentences or a short paragraph.

Although I’ll be willing to accept your essay on paper, I’d prefer that you send a copy by e-mail (either as an attachment or in the body of a message). My address is helmang@wabash.edu.