• Course Overview
• Office Hours
• Library Research Guide
• BC OWL
• Student Writing
• Conference Schedule
• Unit 1
• Unit 2
• Unit 3
  • Exploratory Essay Prompt
  • Sources
  • due Fri Feb 22
  • due Mon Feb 25
  • due Wed Feb 27
  • due Fri March 1
  • due Mon March 11
  • due Wed March 13
  • due Fri March 15
  • due Mon March 18
  • due Wed March 20
  • due Fri March 22
  • due Mon March 25
  • due Wed March 27
  • due Fri March 29
  • due Mon April 1
  • due Wed April 3
• Unit 4
• Final Portfolio

First-Year Writing Seminar, Spring 2019

Lili Porten

Identity in the Information Age

How has the experience of identity (both individual and social) been by impacted by the advent of the information age? How has the digital revolution— the rise of the internet, social media, mobile technology, big data, etc.—altered both the way others see us and the way we see ourselves?

These are some of the questions we’ll address in unit 3 by exploring how information technologies shape the way we experience authenticity, memory, self-determination, intimacy, and freedom of thought.

Together we’ll read articles that touch on various facets of this topic. Then you’ll choose a subtopic to focus on and explore more deeply. You’ll independently research it, consulting a variety of well-chosen sources and exploring different angles on the issue, and then you’ll present what you’ve learned in a 5- to 7-page essay that synthesizes information and ideas from multiple sources in order to introduce and analyze at least three distinct perspectives on the issue.

Skills Focus for Unit 3

Purpose

• Conduct inquiry-based research and write a question-driven essay

Exposition

• Summarize, compare, and contrast sources and perspectives, highlighting both shared elements and key distinctions

Sources

• Learn how to find sources using library databases
• Use rigorous criteria to evaluate sources and choose high quality sources to cite
• Fully and accurately document sources you cite

Organization

• Use topic sentences to keep your own voice & narrative of discovery in the foreground
• Use transitions and key terms to clarify relationships between paragraphs and ideas and to signpost a change in direction or shift in perspective

Sentence Style

• Enhance sentence clarity by highlighting key characters and actions in the story a sentence tells—name characters in grammatical subjects and use verbs to express what those characters do