Write a thesis-driven four- to five-page double-spaced essay in which you address one of the following topics:
| How are the behaviors of people in this novel like the behaviors of sheep
in the novel? (Feel free to examine both the behavior of the
novel's characters, and the behavior of the people in the fads that
Sandra studies.) |
| How is Sandra's developing relationship with Ben like a fad in this
novel? How is it like a chaotic system? What can we conclude
about chaotic dynamics from the details of Sandra's interaction with Ben? |
| Examine the scientific breakthroughs that Sandra is obsessed with in the
novel, and the details of her own scientific breakthrough. How does
chaos and bellwether dynamics help us to understand scientific
breakthrough? Looking at the examples in the novel, is Sandra's a more
appropriate theory for studying paradigm shift than Kuhn's? |
Remember to use examples, and keep your discussion focused on the specifics of the text. For example, if you were writing on the first topic, you would want to look at the way this novel's sheep specifically behave. You shouldn't simply generalize about sheep behavior.
You may bring an outline or, better yet, a draft of your paper to Wednesday's class for peer editing.
Keep your 4- to 5-page double-spaced word processing file. Post your paper as a new discussion with your name as the discussion title in the appropriate web-crossing folder by 5pm on Friday, March 2. (Remember that you need to double return between paragraphs to preserve paragraph formatting.)