Write a paper on the topic below (or on a topic of your own choice if you get the approval of the instructor in advance).   Please pay careful attention to the topic--unless you have arranged to do a different topic, one of the things you will be graded on is how well you deal with the topic specified.

The higher grades will go to papers that exhibit logical thinking, an analytical framework, specific evidence, the ability to inform and communicate, sound organization, and a concise and coherent argument.  Your argument must be backed up with specific factual information from your research, not just based on your own impressions.   I expect you to come to your own conclusions (and so you are certainly allowed to use "I").

Your paper must be based on library research and you may also do research on the web.   If you use web pages for some of your research (some is acceptable, all is in most cases not acceptable) please see http://people.clemson.edu/~pammack/research.htm for information. You must provide footnotes or references to your sources (not just for quotes but also for specific information and arguments) in the text of the paper and provide at the end an overall list of the sources you used to write your paper (not just the ones you cited but all sources that you read that you found useful). You may use any standard format (that is, one that is published or available from a reputable page on the web--see for example  http://www.wisc.edu/writing/Handbook/Documentation.html ).  Be very careful that if you take text from a source you give that source in a reference or footnote--borrowing text without crediting the source is plagiarism and you will be reported for cheating.

An annotated bibliography is due April 4.  This should include a statement of what your paper is about and a list of at least five sources.  For each source you must write a sentence or two telling how this source is useful to researching your topic.  If the source has a particular bias please mention that as well.

Your paper should be about 6-8  double-spaced typed pages (10 to 12 point type) plus a list of sources or bibliography.  It should be printed on 8 1/2 by 11 paper and stapled in the upper left hand corner (no binders please).  The paper is due in class on April 20. Late papers will be penalized one point for each calendar day late.  They may be handed in on non-class days by sending them in Microsoft Word form as an attachment to an e-mail sent to pammack@clemson.edu .

Topic: 

One of the themes in The Golem at Large is the role of public in making decisions about technology.  These may be lay-experts surch as AIDS patients or they may be members of the public who have particular expertise simply as members of the public (see p. 5).   Pick an example of a technological development or controversy, and examine the role of experts with formal training in the field in comparison with that of other interested people.   For example, a good topic would be to look at the controversies over nuclear power in the 10 years before Three Mile Island and compare the influence of experts and the influence of the anti-nuclear movement on what happened.  Draw conclusions about whether technological policy should be left to experts in the field or whether other interest groups and the public as a whole should be involved.

Checklist for a good paper:

1. Have you narrowed you subject enough that you will be able to give specifics, not just a series of generalizations?
2. Does your introduction focus on the assigned topic and give an overview of how you will address that topic?
3. Is your paper organized around an argument that fits the assigned topic, rather than simply telling a story?
4. Is your specific evidence selected to fit your particular argument rather than telling random facts?
5. Have you found specific examples or statistics to prove your points rather than simply asserting them?  Have you pinned the events you discuss down to specific dates and places and shown how things changed over time?
6. Are the sources of specific points acknowledged with references or endnotes, even if paraphrased rather than quoted?
7. Have you considered both the positive and the negative (eg. both the benefits and the harm done by a technology or both sides if it is a controversial issue) if appropriate to your topic?
8. Have you gone into the complexities of how change actually happened (the meat of history) instead of giving an oversimplified overview?
9. Do you have a bibliography set up in a correct form that lists all sources that were useful, not just the ones you quoted?
10. Have you proofread, looking particularly for those mistakes that a spell-checker doesn't catch?  Remember also that the best grammer checkers are right only 80% of the time.