Expository Writing 101: NW/PC
Susan Nowicki
Assignment #1
Reading: Mary Kaldor, “Beyond Militarism, Arms Races, and Arms Control” (382-399)
Rough Draft: 5 pages
Due Date: Wednesday, September 8
(Bring 3 copies of assignment to class this day.)
Final Draft: 5 pages
Due Date: Monday, September 13
In “Beyond Militarism, Arms Races and Arms Control,” Mary Kaldor challenges that “if September 11 had not happened, the American military-industrial complex might have had to invent it” (389). In the year 2004, the United States as “the last nation state,” (390) asserts still the politics of “might equals right” in terms of its containment policies and military agendas. However, in today’s climate of globalization, Kaldor counters, nations must acknowledge an arching layer of global justice (above and beyond local and international warring factions) if they plan on existence into the next century.
How could the U.S. have responded otherwise to the events of September 11 in terms of its position in the global community and as the world’s “last nation state”? Address the tension between these poles, if any. You can allude to Kaldor’s take on U.S. action in the aftermath of 9/11 as a frame for your work, but your response should then continue beyond.
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Formatting:
- One-inch margins all around
- 12-point font in Times New Roman script
- Double spacing
- Page numbers
- Heading on page 1, single spaced in upper-left corner with:
Your name
My name
Course and Section number
Paper number (rough or final draft)
Date
- Stapled in upper-left corner
Expository Writing 101: NW/PC
Susan Nowicki
Assignment #2
Reading: Eric Schlosser, “Global Realization” (524-549)
Rough Draft: 4 pages [FOR THIS ROUGH DRAFT ASSIGNMENT, PLEASE INDICATE YOUR ESSAY’S THESIS OR PROJECT IN BOLD TYPE.]
Due Date: Wednesday, September 22
(Bring 3 copies of assignment to class this day)
Final Draft: 5 pages
Due Date: Wednesday, September 29
Forms and Symbols
In Eric Schlosser’s “Global Realization,” the journalist highlights the presence of archetypal symbols and architecture throughout the landscape of his study and refers to many of these forms as modern. For example, we read of Plauen’s modern Bauhaus-designed synagogue destroyed in Hitler’s Germany; we learn from anthropologist Yunxiang Yan how the golden arches of McDonald’s symbolize “’Americana and the promise of modernization’” and according to Schlosser, how fast food chains have become “totems of Western economic development…[ultimately representative of] the avant-garde of American franchising” (529). Similarly the World Trade Center, designed by Japanese architect Minoru Yamasaki in the 1970s and destroyed by terrorists on September 11, 2001, was a modern icon representative of the United States powerful and dominating position in the global arena of trade and finance.
As both Schlosser and Kaldor have indicated, America’s globalizing forces, whether militaristic, economic or as symbolized by twin towers and clowns, have spurred emotional responses worldwide with some resulting in the most tragic of circumstances. Reflecting back on the content of both Kaldor’s and Schlosser’s essays, what and how do archetypal symbols or forms work to help or hinder the cause of globalization and international peacekeeping efforts? HOW MIGHT SCHLOSSER AND KALDOR TRADEMARK GLOBALIZATION, ACCORDINGLY?
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Formatting:
- One-inch margins all around
- 12-point font in Times New Roman script
- Double spacing
- Page numbers
- Heading on page 1, single spaced in upper-left corner with:
Your name
My name
Course and Section number
Paper number (rough or final draft)
Date
- Stapled in upper-left corner
Things to review, i.e. never deny “the obvious:” What’s an archetype? What’s a symbol?
How do they function? Are they concrete objects, ideas or both?
Expository Writing 101: NW/PC
Susan Nowicki
Assignment #3
Reading: Amy Chua, “Why They Hate Us: America as a Global Market Dominant Minority,” (handout).
Rough Draft: 4 pages Due Date: Monday, October 4 (Bring 3 copies of draft to class.)
Final Draft: 5 pages
Due Date: Monday, October 11
U.S. Globalization Practices: a Timeline to Terror?
In your reading and critical reflection upon Mary Kaldor’s “Beyond Militarism, Arms Races, and Arms Control;” Eric Schlosser’s “Global Realization” and Amy Chua’s “Why They Hate Us,” a short history of U.S. globalization is suggested. Mary Kaldor’s essay outlines U.S. global practices from a militaristic and diplomatic perspective; Eric Schlosser traces the effects of U.S. economic globalization via the fast food industry and Amy Chua examines a worldwide response to terrorist violence launched in reaction to U.S. global market dominance. This selection of readings appears to set up a historical trajectory detailing the rise of aggressive U.S. global practices and their imminent consequences as realized in the bombing of the World Trade Center on September 11, 2001.
As your essay assignment, briefly outline the history of U.S. globalization practices as articulated by Kaldor, Schlosser and Chua, (no more than 3 paragraphs and without borrowing from the question) and then postulate how the historical record as related by these three authors possibly belies a “straight” path from U.S. globalizing practices to worldwide hate of America. In other words, why might they like us?
***I am interested in gauging your reading comprehension levels here as well as ability to recognize potential loopholes in arguments and alternative interpretative views. The caveat remains, though, that all your investigative reading results in a project wedded to textual evidence and not sidebar opinion!
Formatting:
- One-inch margins all around
- 12-point font in Times New Roman script
- Double spacing
- Text citations in accordance with MLA guidelines
- Page numbers
- Heading on page 1, single spaced in upper-left corner with:
Your name
My name
Course and Section number
Paper number (rough or final draft)
Date
- Stapled in upper-left corner