GNED 102

Dr. Bickford

Paper Three Assignment

The Self and Community

Due Date: 3/26

 

Our next unit deals with the self and community.  As you read these articles, think about the role different communities have played in your own life and the ways in which you have interacted with these communities.  Does being part of a community always mean there’s an outgroup to your ingroup?  Ask yourself how many “communities” you belong to and what they are.  Of whom are they comprised?  How has each shaped you?  What do you owe to each?  To what extent have you shaped these communities? 

 

With these ideas as a starting point, choose one of the topics suggested below and develop a unified (clear, opinionated thesis) and coherent (clear connections among the parts) paper of 3-5 pages (double spaced, 12 point font) in which you clearly take a stand on one side or the other.  Be sure to offer valid arguments not only for your side but also against the main points for the other side.  This means you have to look objectively at both sides of the issue before you begin.  Your argument should be mature and logical (little emotion and no unsupported opinions), and your supporting evidence should be convincing—many specific examples and details.  Include ideas, either quoted or paraphrased, from at least THREE (preferably more) of our reading assignments.  You may also wish to find your own outside sources; if so, please make a copy of them to turn in with your paper.  Be sure to quote, summarize, and paraphrase according to MLA standards and formatting.

 

 

Suggested topics:

  1. How is prejudice formed and maintained in society?  What should be done about it?
  2. Which is more important, the community or the individual?  Why?  How are you defining “important”? 
  3. What do we owe to the communities that have shaped us?  What do they owe to us?
  4. What are some things that alienate us from the community?  From each other?  Are all of these things bad?
  5. In your experience, does ingroup bias result primarily from perceiving that one’s own group is good or primarily form perceiving that other groups (outgroups) are bad?
  6. Are men and women really that different?  How?  Why?  How are you defining “different”?
  7. Are different races really that different?  How?  Why?  What’s “different”? 
  8. Should we try to maintain the differences between races or to collapse them?  Why?