Short Paper #1: For your first short paper, choose one of the options below.
1. In "Ode to an Orange" and "The Little Store," Larry Woiwode and Eudora Welty evoke an entire time and place through their memories of a single orange and a small-town store. Using these essays as models, write a description of an important object that represents for you something larger and more personal about family, home, or community.
2. Our culture has historically been fascinated with making the private public. Using the texts
(print or non-print) in your book as a starting point, consider how this fascination with making the private public plays out in other media. What is the effect of publicizing the pleasures and terrors of private experience?
3. In "Shoelaces," Nicholson Baker describes the "major advances" involved in the apparently simple act of learning to tie one's shoelaces. Identify an activity or skill that seems emblematic of your experience as è a college student. Break the activity or skill into a series of "major advances" and describe how/why this activity or skill is significant.
4. Of the house by the railroad, Edward Hirsch writes, "The house must have done something horrible / To the people who once lived here." Popular culture offers many examples of haunted houses or places. Describe how memories or ghosts may haunt a place, or why this cultural icon of the haunted house has such a claim on our imaginations.
5. Consider how closely the neighborhood(s) in which you grow up resemble Green Valley as described by David Guterson. Based upon your own experiences, argue for or against the establishment of planned communities.
Things to Remember:
A. Your paper must be four (4) full pages long. Use one-inch margins all around and a 12point font. Doing so will yield 25-27 lines per page.
B. Use the heading on the sample first page.
C. The following factors will weigh heavily in the final grade of your paper:
1. a compelling lead
2. attention to sensory details
3. reference to the texts in Chapters 1 and 2 of Seeing and Writing
4. descriptive, accurate vocabulary
D. If you have not yet invested in a stapler, now is the time to do so. Your teacher will not read unstapled papers. FYI, staples are better than paper clips.
E. Don't enclose your paper in one of those horrible static cling plastic folders.

ENGLISH 101 -- Expository Writing
Short Paper #2
For your second short paper, choose one of the options below. Whichever option you choose, you
MUST cite the texts from Seeing & Writing and use at least one source from the library in your paper.
1. Select a photograph or series of related photographs that you find personally significant. These can be photographs of people you don’t know or of people you know quite well. The photograph(s) may even be of you. Please attach a photocopy of the photograph(s) to your paper.
Address the following topics:
A.
What situation was occurring at the time?
B.
Who decided to take a photograph and why?
C.
Why is this particular photograph significant?
D.
Does this photograph meet Dorothy Allison’s criteria for art? Why or why not?
Texts from Seeing & Writing :
Dorothy Allison – “This Is Our World”
Susan Sontag – “On Photography”
2. Chapter 3 suggests that the technology of the camera removes us from the experience we are witnessing and can even create an ethical dilemma. Choose three texts (print or non-print ) from
Chapter 3 that might create this sort of dilemma for the photographer. You may also choose a more recent photograph from the newspaper or magazine if you attach a copy to your paper. For each photograph, describe
A.
the distance (physical or emotional) between the subject and the photographer/viewer
B.
the intensity of the situation involved
C.
the ethical dilemma, if any, faced by the photographer/viewer
Texts from Seeing & Writing:
Isabel Allende – “Omayra Sanchez”
Susan Sontag – “On Photography”
3. Now that you’ve been on campus for a while, you may have noticed the existence of certain groups (official or unofficial) here at UNK. Identify at least three such groups and describe how each group constructs a visual image of itself.
Texts from Seeing & Writing:
Judith Ortiz Cofer – “The Story of My Body”
Natalie Kusz – “Ring Leader”
4. Find at least three images of either all female or all male body shapes from current advertising media. Attach a copy of each image to your paper. Analyze the images you find, considering the following factors:
 the size of the body in the frame

 the part of the body that is dominant
 the context in which the body is pictured
 the lack of or the type of clothing the figure wears
 the product being advertised
What conclusions can you draw from your observations?
Texts from Seeing & Writing:
Retrospect: Building the Male Body (if you’re using male images)
Susan Bordo – “Never Just Pictures” (male or female images)
The Body Shop – “Ruby” (if you’re using female images)
Some interesting web sites you may use in your paper:
1. http://www.kodak.com
The official web site of Kodak; contains links to online photo exhibitions
2. http://www.photographymuseum.com
An online museum with many exhibits about the history of photography
3. http://www.monash.edu.au/health/pamphlets/BodyImage/index.htm
This site from Monash University in Australia provides a “body image” self-test for both men and women.
4. http://www.cindyjackson.com
Cindy Jackson’s web site
5. http://www.landsend.com
Go to “Your Personal Model” to construct a model with your dimensions, skin tone, and hairstyle. You can then see how certain pieces of Lands End clothing look on your model. You can even rotate the images for side and back views.
6. http://www.usa.the-body-shop.com/interactivist/issues-esteem.html
This portion of the official Body Shop web site relates directly to the ad Ruby in Chapter 4.
The site raises issues of body image and self-esteem, especially as they relate to women.
7. http://www.tattoos.com
The site of the e-zine Tattoos, which includes a tattoo gallery, articles, and ads. You might want to click on “New Tattoos.com Hosted Websites” and found more than I ever wanted to know ( for example, nostril screws).

ENGLISH 101 -- Expository Writing
Short Paper #4
Please choose one (1) of the options below for your last short paper. Since this is an argumentative paper, you will need to do the following: 1) identify the issue under consideration; 2) take a position on that issue, that position taking the form of a thesis statement; and 3) support your thesis with textual evidence. Also, you will need to use at least two (2) print texts from Seeing & Writing along with at least one (1) other source outside of Seeing & Writing..
1. Collect a sampling of logos from products in a single category such as cars, food, or fashion.
What image are the logos trying to convey? What consumer “buttons” are the logos trying to push?
Do the logos seem related to the product itself (for example, the Chiquita banana logo for the
Chiquita banana company), or does the power of the logo depend upon the associations the viewer must form between product and logo?
2. Like spoofs? Go to the following web site: <http://adbusters.org /spoofads/index.html>
This site features Adbusters magazine parodies of well-known ads (including those of Benneton, the Gap, and Tommy Hilfiger). Look through the ads in the categories listed on the site. Then locate the “real-life” counterparts of at least three ads. What qualities of the product or of human nature do the parodies target?
3. The American flag is an internationally recognized icon of the United States. Examine the following two web sites that deal with the issue of flag desecration:
1. <http://www.cfa-inc.org>
2. <http://www.esquilax.com/flag>
What images does each site use to support its thesis regarding the desecration of the flag? How does each site make its arguments? Which site do you consider more effective? [Note: Your assignment is not to argue the flag-burning issue itself. So a thesis such as “We need/do not need a constitutional amendment to protect the flag from desecration” is not appropriate. Your assignment is to note how each site makes its case, and to evaluate the overall effectiveness of each site. You will probably find the “Sites for Evaluating Sources” section of your handbook (p. 27) helpful as well.
4. In “The Liberal Arts in an Age of Info-Glut,” Todd Gitlin claims that “students of all stripes arrive at college with shallow and scattered educations, ill-prepared to learn” (464). Consider 3-5 items in your notes over the qualities that a liberal arts education should instill. Is it reasonable to expect high schools to develop such qualities?
5. Michael Rock writes, “Fighting to grab one second from the harried, over-informed consumer, the makers of the mass media have concluded that messages must be instantaneous, offering about the same content level as a fifteen-second television commercial” (470). Tape a 30-minute network news program. How long is each story? How much information is delivered? How many; images are flashed during a standard story? How many maps, computer graphics, or charts are used? Has the USA Today ideal exerted influence on television as well as on print media?

Remember--a recognizable thesis should appear no later than on the first page of your paper. No thesis, no argument, no paper.