Writing assignments

Writing assignment #5

Both Lessig in Free culture and Bollier in Viral spiral make some very broad empirical claims, relying for supporting detail and confirmation on the sources they cite in their notes. So far, our in-class discussions haven't gone much beyond the texts. We haven't really tested the support or looked at the writings of other authors who deal with similar issues, to see whether they agree or disagree with Lessig and Bollier and whether they take the ideas that we've dealt with in different, equally interesting directions.

Identify and cite a broad but potentially controversial thesis that you have encountered in your reading for this course -- either in Free culture or Viral spiral, or in some other work that you've consulted. Explain how the author supports and justifies the thesis. Look up the articles, books, and Web sites that the author cites when presenting the thesis and explain what the cited works say and whether and how they really support the thesis. Then, treating the thesis as a research topic, look independently for confirmation or refutation of it and reach a reasoned assessment of your own, taking into account the arguments raised in the additional sources that you discover. If your find that the thesis is partly true and partly false, or that it is true only when interpreted in a particular way, restate it more accurately. Finally, explain the implications and consequences of the thesis as you now understand it.

On Tuesday, November 17, submit a statement of the topic that you have chosen for this assignment (one paragraph should be sufficient) and an initial outline describing your approach. During the next three weeks, you can submit as many drafts as you like, and you should submit a new one every time you feel that you have made substantial progress on the paper. Submit the first of these drafts on Thursday, November 19; this first draft does not have to be complete, but it should provide a clear framework for amplification and revision. The finished paper will be due at the last meeting of the class, on December 10.

Supplementary citation exercise (due November 5)

1. An article in the current (October 2009) issue of the Journal of memory and language deals with the effects of visual feedback on speakers of American Sign Language. It describes two experiments, and the authors (Karen Emmorey, Rain Bosworth, and Tanya Karljic) discuss the results of each experiment separately, then end the paper with a long "General discussion." Find the "Discussion" section for the second experiment and submit a block quotation of the passage running from the beginning of that "Discussion" section through the second sentence of the second paragraph of that section. Add an in-line citation, in APA style, and provide a "Works Cited" entry for the article, also in APA style.

2. One of the chapters of Martin Gardner's book Wheels, Life, and other mathematical amusements is entitled "The knotted molecule, and other problems," and consists of ten short problems in recreational mathematics, one of which is called "Starting a chess game." Submit a block quotation reproducing that problem, adding an in-line citation in MLA style. Also provide a "Works Cited" entry for the book, in MLA style.

3. Chapter 14 of Bruce Schneier's 2000 book Secrets and lies: Digital security in a networked world contains a section, "Tamper resistance," that deals with manufacturers' attempts to secure hardware devices by making it difficult for users to take them apart or study their workings. Submit a block quotation of the third paragraph of this section. Add an in-line citation, in Chicago author-date style, and provide a "Works Cited" entry for the book, also in Chicago author-date style.

Writing assignment #4 (due October 15)

Compare and contrast the effects of the BSD license and the GNU General Public License on the goals of the free-software movement and its rate of progress. Cite specific passages that either advance these goals or constrain or obstruct them.

One asymmetry between these two licenses is that a programmer who adapts and improves a program originally released under a BSD license can release her improved version under the GPL, while a programmer who adapts and improves a program originally released under the GPL cannot release her improved version under a BSD license without the permission of the original copyright holder. What are the effects of this asymmetry on the direction and progress of free software?

Writing assignment #3 (due October 1)

In the Afterword of Free culture, Lessig describes some cases of "rebuilding freedoms previously presumed" -- institutions like the Free Software Foundation and the Public Library of Science, formed with the purpose of "actively protecting what before had been passively guaranteed."

Think of another case in which some freedom previously presumed and passively guaranteed is currently disappearing or being seriously threatened. (It need not be a freedom associated either with free culture or with free software.) Then propose a way for the people who are losing this freedom to actively protect it, and describe the role that current technology would play in implementing your proposal.

Writing assignment #2 (due September 17)

Two eleven-year-old girls visit their doting grandmother, who has planned a craft project for them: She has bought two plain white T-shirts in the girls' sizes and a selection of puff paints, and she has used a felt-tip pen to make freehand line drawings of the girls' favorite characters from Disney movies on them -- Jasmine on one, Ariel the Mermaid on the other. The project is to paint the fabric, filling in the outline and adding other decorations. The girls then keep the shirts that they have painted.

The original images of Jasmine and Ariel are, of course, copyrighted by the Walt Disney Company. Applying the guidelines from the fair use section of the federal copyright law, judge whether the grandmother would be justified in asserting that her use of the copyrighted images is a fair use or whether it was an infringement of Disney's copyright. What else about the situation would you find it useful to know in order to arrive at a more definitive answer?

Writing assignment #1 (due September 8)

In the last year, each of you has written at least a few things that you have allowed certain other people to read -- posts at social-networking sites like Facebook, MySpace, or Grinnell Plans, perhaps; homework papers and essays for your high-school courses; the application essay that you submitted to Grinnell; recently, perhaps, an e-mail to your family or high-school friends describing your initial experiences at Grinnell.

Choose one such piece of written work. (I'd be most interested in one that displays your creativity, wit, or insight, but any one that you're willing to talk about is okay.) If it's short (three paragraphs or less), reproduce it; if it's long, summarize it briefly. Describe its intended purpose, the occasion for which you wrote it, and the audience that you had in mind when you wrote it. Then find out (or make your best effort to find out) who has actually read it. To do this thoroughly, you'll also need to find out who has made copies of it, since copiers may have transmitted the text to other readers, who may also have made further copies, and so on.

Next, determine whether that work is copyrighted and, if so, who holds the copyright. Also, find out whether there is anyone who could get access to a copy of it and read it without your permission, and whether there is anyone who could legally copy it or even publish it without your permission (naming you as the author, of course -- we're not talking about plagiarism here).

You may find that it's difficult or impossible to determine the answers to some of these questions. If so, describe the obstacles you encounter and explain the nature of the difficulties.

Finally, include any reflections or conclusions that you draw from the results of your investigation, particularly in relation to Lessig's discussions of copyright and piracy.