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:

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.