Category: Prewriting

Use Barclay’s Formula to compose lengthy paragraphs in response to the following prompts. Minimum word count per response: 250 words.

1. Sherry Turkle examines the impact of phones on our relationships with one another. Revisit “The Limits of Friendship.” How does Konnikova both confirm and complicate Turkle’s views on relationships in the digital age?
2. Explain what Turkle fears about the flight from conversation in terms of the human development of emerging adults. What role does “conversation” play in our ability to act as adults in social, work or classroom settings? Include ideas from Henig’s work on adulthood and emerging adulthood in your response.

Expectations:

• Use Barclay’s Formula to structure your paragraphs.
• Include the So What? and Who Cares? moves in both responses.
• Use voice markers, pivot words, and signal verbs.

Respond in lengthy paragraphs to the prompts below. Be sure to use what you’ve learned about integrating your ideas with those of others in your responses.

Remember, pre-writing not only deepens your understanding of the reading, it generates ideas, words, and connections that contribute to your formal paper.

1. Turkle insists that she’s “not anti-technology;” she’s “pro-conversation” (25). Summarize Turkle’s argument about how the presence of phones in social, work, or classroom setting impacts the kinds of conversations people have in those settings. Then, explain what she thinks people lose when they don’t have the kinds of conversations she values.
2. Describe your own use of phones in social, work, and/or classroom settings. Explain how your experiences and the experiences of people you know confirm or complicate Turkle’s claims.
3. How do the college students Turkle interviews feel about the “weird little pressure” they experience to check their phones frequently (31)? In what ways does you own experience confirm or complicate Turkle’s view?

Expectations:

• Use the fundamental They Say/I Say structure in your paragraphs
• Insert a naysayer into at least one response.
• Incorporate voice markers in your paragraphs.

Respond in 3 lengthy paragraphs to the prompt below.

First, summarize Henig’s view, then use your own experience and quotes from Henig and Konnikova to frame your responses using Yes, No, or Okay, But and naysayer templates.

Prompt:

According to Henig, one of the elements of emerging adulthood is a focus on exploring one’s passions and life goals.

In what ways might social media and the internet facilitate these goals?

In your response, include and respond to the view to a naysayer who argues that social media sites like Instagram distract emerging adults (and others) from pursuit of their own unique passions and goals by serving them images of “influencers” whose sites seem designed to sell products and lifestyles to them.

In this pre-writing activity, we’ll begin to make connections between what Henig (and Arnett) says about emerging adults and what Konnikova says about the limits of friendship.

Respond in lengthy paragraphs to each of the following prompts. Use what you’ve learned so far about summarizing, quoting, and responding to integrate your ideas with those of Henig and Konnikova.

To help you better structure your responses, use Barclay’s Formula for working with two or more sources.

• Is there a generational component to the ability to connect in a digital age? By generational component, I mean differences between generations who reached adulthood before the emergence of always-on portable internet and those who reached after? How might emerging adults challenge the conventional understanding of the Dunbar number? Synthesize what you learned reading Henig and Konnikova to create your own answer to these questions.
• Considering what Henig says in paragraphs 3, 7, and 8 about the real-world living conditions and psychological drives of emerging adults and what Konnikova says about the utility of “weak ties” in paragraph 6 of her article, how might friendships maintained through social media actually fulfill important needs for emerging adults? Be sure to summarize the relevant ideas from each writer before building on their work.

Expectations:

1. Incorporate at least one quote from Henig and one quote from Konnikova in each response
2. Use the Barclay’s Formula structure
3. Incorporate at least one “Okay, But” moment in one of your paragraphs

Activities like this one are designed to help you improve your understanding of the readings and generate ideas to write about in your formal papers.

This activity contributes directly to your Writing Process grade (10%) and your Active Reading grade (10%) and indirectly to your paper grade (9%), but you can also demonstrate MLA citation skills, control of Sentence-level Error skills, and Integrating Your Ideas with Those of Other Writers skills.

Respond in lengthy paragraphs to each of the following prompts. With the exception of question 4, use the They Say/I Say structures you’ve learned to incorporate key concepts and brief quotations from Henig in your responses. 

1. What is emerging adulthood?
   • Henig defines and develops the concept in multiple locations in the essay. You’ll need to pull materials together from different parts of the essay to answer this question well. Be sure to attribute ideas to the people they belong to, not just to Henig. You will likely need to name Jeffrey Jensen Arnett and other psychologists in your answer.
2. What are the key milestones that indicate someone has reached adulthood? Use these to develop your own definition of adulthood.
3. How have cultural and economic changes in society shaped the lives of emerging adults? What might be the economic impact of recognizing emerging adulthood as a life-stage that needs to be accommodated by society?
4. What do you expect your life will be like in your twenties?

Respond in lengthy paragraphs to each of the following prompts. Use what you’ve learned about the arts of summarizing and quoting to give Konnikova’s ideas a fair but critical hearing.

You’ll use the same basic structure in each of your responses.

First, use the arts of summarizing and quoting to convey her view to a reader who hasn’t read the article. Your reader should be able to understand her view without having to read the article.

Next, help your reader understand the sources of her views and why her views are worth taking seriously, whether you agree with them or not. You may need to provide your reader with information from earlier in the article to help them understand that her views are based in her careful consideration of ideas, facts, and viewpoints.

Then, having given her ideas a fair hearing, use the “They Say/I Say” templates from “Entering the Conversation” to respond to her views. Remember, the They Say/I Say exchange should happen more than once in each response and be focused around related ideas, deepening your reader’s understanding with each exchange.

1. In paragraph 7, Konnikova points to the importance of shared experiences for friendship. Convey and consider her view and respond.
2. In paragraphs 9-11, Konnikova reports on Dunbar’s research on the role of touch in social bonding in order to suggest that virtual connections may not bond people in friendship as effectively as in person connections. Convey and consider her view and respond.
3. In the last paragraph of her essay, Konnikova worries that “some social skills may not develop as effectively when so many interactions exist online” (para. 13). Convey and consider her view and respond.

In order not to lose work from an unexpected glitch, don’t compose your answers in the Leave a Reply box below this post. Instead, compose and save your answers in a word processor or Google Docs and then copy-and-paste your responses into the Leave a Reply box.

Respond in lengthy paragraphs to each of the following prompts. Use the They Say/I Say structures from “Entering the Conversation” to incorporate key concepts and brief quotations from Konnikova in your responses. Be sure to use signal phrases and parenthetical citations (referencing paragraph numbers) whenever you quote or paraphrase another writer’s words.

Also, imagine what Konnikova might say in response to one of your points and incorporate that into at least one of your responses, using phrases like “Konnikova might agree that ________” or “Konnikova would counter that _______” to signal that you’re speculating about her response.

1. Does the Dunbar number remain relevant in the digital age?
2. How do technologies such as email, social media sites, and mobile phones enable us to sustain relationships?
3. What is lost and gained when we use technology to do so?
4. How does your own experience confirm or complicate Konnikova’s argument?

In order not to lose work from an unexpected glitch, don’t compose your answers in the Leave a Reply box below this post. Instead, compose and save your answers in a word processor or Google Docs and then copy-and-paste your responses into the Leave a Reply box.

Activities like this one contribute to your Writing Process grade (10%) and your Active Reading Process grade (10%)

Respond in lengthy paragraphs to each of the following prompts. Incorporate key concepts and brief quotations from Konnikova in your responses. Be sure to use signal phrases and parenthetical citations (referencing paragraph numbers) whenever you quote or paraphrase another writer’s words.

In order not to lose work from an unexpected glitch, don’t compose your answers in the Leave a Reply box below this post. Instead, compose and save your answers in a word processor or Google Docs and then copy-and-paste your responses into the Leave a Reply box.

1. As you read, mark passages where Konnikova defines the Dunbar number and the rule of three. Then explain these terms in your own words, referencing specific passages from Konnikova to support your response.
2. What do you think makes a good friend? List the qualities of close friendship. As you read, consider the effect of social media on friendship.
3. What’s the role of biology in social organization? Examine closely those places where Konnikova draws from the research of Robin Dunbar and others. Does biology determine society? (PRO TIP: Click on the link to read the definition of determine.)
4. Examine your list of friends on the social media site you use most. How many of them are “real” friends? Try applying the rule of three to your list of friends. Does your analysis of your friendship group confirm or challenge Konnikova’s argument? How?

Confused about how to submit your pre-writing homework? Watch this video.