Assignment One:

Paraphrase: Working with Carr's The Shallows

Overview

Wikipedia entries are often used as references for information about famous people or historical events, but they also frequently summarize what is known about particular books or works of art that are culturally significant. The following assignment asks you to create a Wikipedia-style entry that is devoted to paraphrasing the argument of one chapter of Nicholas Carr's book The Shallows, which argues that the Internet is "rewiring our brains."

Remember that successful Wikipedia entries are known for adopting a neutral point of view and for citing sources. Your references should cite sources external to Wikipedia, as well as other Wikipedia articles, as the featured articles on the main Wikipedia page do.

You should keep track of all of your sources! We recommend the program Zotero to help.

Your Wikipedia-style entry must paraphrase the chapter that your section leader has assigned, so that you can get the most constructive feedback from your peers possible.

A successful assignment will do the following:

• Paraphrase the claims Carr's book in language that is clear, concise, and grammatically correct in both articles.
• Describe Carr's evidence and sources.
• Abide by Wikipedia's neutral point of view policy
• Incorporate expert information without plagiarism or improper citation.
• Develop your entry with text of 1 1/2 to 2 double-spaced typed pages.
• Do a markedly better job of paraphrasing Carr's arguments than existing Wikipedia entries, such as the one on "Is Google Making Us Stupid?"
• Make a convincing case for the significance of Carr's work and its influence on public opinion, so that Wikipedia's editors would be less likely to delete it on the grounds that your object doesn't meet their notability standard.
• Be promptly submitted to turnitin.com via the UCSD TED site before the deadline.

Looking Ahead

Later assignments will encourage you to advance an original interpretive argument, but description and paraphrase also requires substantial creativity. Doing this assignment will help you succeed on the final exhibition assignment as well, since you will need to describe curatorial objects later in the quarter.