EXPOSITORY WRITING/ENGLISH 101-01/02

English Composition

October 28, 1996

Paper 3

For this paper choose one of the following topics or discuss an alternative with me as soon as possible:

1. Survey at least five people on their attitudes about Oberlin's Honor Code. Ask all five interviewees the same questions. Some examples of questions you might ask are: How conscious of the Honor Code are you while doing your work here? Have you ever known of any case of someone who violated it? Do you think many people take unfair advantage of the Honor Code? What, if any, parts of it need to be reformed, in your opinion?

2. Compare Oberlin's Honor Code to rules about academic honesty and plagiarism at other colleges and universities. Good places to find other school's policies are the college catalogs available in the library or on line via the Internet or information that friends you have at other schools might supply.

3. Examine the way politicians use and present information in their election campaigns. Describe and discuss how one or more politicians use statistics or some other form of information in the current election. For this topic you might examine television ads, campaign leaflets, speeches, or public debates. Compare and contrast political and academic habits of using specific information gained from someone else's research.

4. Imagine a world (and specifically a college within that world) in which documentation of outside sources was not required of writers. What would writing look like in such a world? What would be possible in such a world? What would be impossible? What does imagining such a world suggest about the reasoning behind our Honor Code and standards for documentation?

5. Substitute a paper for another class for this assignment.