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CF 3333 Clash of Cultures

Essay Assignment -- Summer 2009

I. INSTRUCTIONS

1. Your essay is due at noon on Monday, July 27. Late papers will be accepted, but will be penalized one letter grade for each day after the due date (e.g., B to C). No exceptions to this policy will be granted unless there is a legitimate (documented) excuse. Papers must be handed to your instructor.

2. Your essay should be no more than four pages in length.

3. Please follow the instructions found on the course webpage regarding the format the Essay assignment: (http://faculty.smu.edu/rkemper/cf_3333/cf_3333_summer_2009_essay_assignment_format_guide.htm)

4. Your essay should open with a "thesis paragraph," which presents the major ideas of your analysis; it should close with a summary of that analysis.

5. Define the terms you use. Be sure to explain important terms, concepts, and ideas and to support your major points with specific factual and/or documentary evidence (e.g., citations).

6. In composing this essay you are authorized to make use of Democracy in America, the film version of Hard Times, Adler, Dickens's article in the Sourcebook on the "Lowell Factory System," class handouts, and the appropriate lectures.

II. THE ASSIGNMENT.

1. The general topic for this essay is: Democratic Culture, Equality, and Work.

2. Re-read with care the definitions of civilization, culture, institutions, and society in your SourceBook. Also re-read with care the assignments in Tocqueville and your notes on Hard Times.

3. Then, compose a coherent, well-focused essay in which you:

a) note the links between democratic culture and the institutions of the work place as seen by Tocqueville;

c) discuss Charles Dickens’ portrayal of the older, non democratic, workplace institutions of nineteenth century Britain in his novel Hard Times;