EXPOSITORY WRITING/ENGLISH 101-01/02

English Composition

November 8, 1996

Paper 4

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

1. Pick a topic you're interested in and see how much information you can find out about it by researching it in the following ways:
   • searching OBIS
   • searching the CD-ROM network
   • searching Lexis/Nexis or another search service
   • searching the Internet by using an appropriate search engine available on the library www pages

   Describe and discuss what each of the above searches yielded. How did they compare in amount, usefulness, reliability, accessibility? Are there other means of research you might use for this topic? To what extent did the topic itself determine how useful any of these sources of information were for this project?

2. Consider the following quotation:

   If you're over 40, unless you're looking for a job, you are not going to die as a failure if you haven't used the Internet. People should not be made to feel socially inadequate if they are not wired. The important thing to remember is that this is not a new form of life. It is just a new activity.

   --Esther Dyson, "the most powerful woman in the 'Net-erati,'" according to the New York Times

   Discuss the role(s) you think technology ought to have in higher education. How well do you think you are being prepared to use technology in the future? How well is technology being incorporated in the pedagogy of your classes? How does your exposure to technology at Oberlin compare to what you've heard about what students are learning at other colleges or universities?

3. Create a hypertext document discussing and linking Internet/World Wide Web resources on writing for fellow students. Feel free to use graphics, audio, etc., files and multilayered structure for this project (but keep in mind the possible limitations of the average student reader at Oberlin).

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

Unless you've chosen option 3, this draft should be typed, double-spaced and leaving at least an inch of margin on all sides (no more than an inch in the left and right margins). I will collect it at the beginning of class on Friday, November 15. If you've chosen option 3, I will expect you to turn in a diskette or an URL to me on November 15 that will direct me to a webpage in progress.