Honors Option

Requirements:

• Due May 4 by Midnight on Canvas
• the equivalent of 1000-1250 words
• the use of three to four outside readings.

To complete the honors requirement for this course, you must complete one of two options: 

OPTION 1: YOUR CHOICE

The first option is to create an assignment of your choosing that matches your interests, while also 1.) incorporating at least three outside readings (assigned by Eileen) and 2.) meeting the equivalent word count.

OPTION 2: SYNTHESIS ESSAY

This assignment asks you to summarize, synthesize, and analyze at least three readings assigned by Eileen. (You can also draw from readings on the course calendar that you haven’t read as part of your “reading response” requirement). Your goal is to put these texts in conversation with each other in order to arrive at some new knowledge or better understanding of an issue related to writing and/or money. But I am not looking for a simple regurgitation of the authors’ ideas: Your voice should be present in this essay, and you should develop an argument that serves as the moderator for the conversation.

The broader questions I’d like you to answer are: What do writing and money have to do with each other? How do they work together in everyday spaces of cultural and social life? You should address these questions through a specific focus, based on the themes we’ve talked about so far this semester including cultural capital, the attention economy, the knowledge economy, writing as labor, precarity, invisible labor, writing for institutions, writing as mediation, authorship, the regulation of writing, the circulation of writing, peer networks, and digital circulation, among other themes.

To guide your investigation, you may want to think about a specific question related to your own life as a starting place, or perhaps a specific incident or event you are familiar with, and then consider how this specific question relates to broader issues that the authors’ ideas can help you analyze.

All the parts of good academic writing should be in this essay: citation, argumentation (including such features as a thesis, intro, and conclusion), paraphrasing, and response. That being said, you also have the option to achieve the assignment goals in another genre or mode such a podcast, video, satire or parody, think piece, position paper, policy report, script, etc. In the end, I’m looking for thoughtful engagement with the course readings, clear analytical writing, nuanced argumentation, and accurate yet purposeful summary and synthesis. This assignment goes beyond simply testing for comprehension of course content—I’m asking you to think creatively about the ways you can combine ideas and create new knowledge, and to be thoughtful about the application of the course theories to daily life.