Paper 2
This paper is worth a possible 100 points

reimagining the world

Your last couple of weeks of readings were on intentional communities and Google Projects, and you explored, in your discussion projects, some research materials on the topics and some of the key trends in the fields. For this second paper, you are going to build on one of those discussions. Now you are certainly welcome to use entirely new material for the paper (and you actually might if you've discovered some very compelling new and different information since you wrote your discussions, but it is really handy if you can use what you have already done as a starting point and expand on it here.

Directions: Choose one of the following topics and write an essay of three to five pages in length. Papers must be at least three full pages to try to earn a "C"; papers must be at least four full pages to try to earn a higher score.

1. Give an overview of the intentional communities trend. Don’t try to cover all of the options; that would require a book. List as many options as you like in the introduction (to show the range of intentional communities there are). If you prefer, you could, instead, open with a detailed scene of some member of a specific intentional community in the middle of a daily task that helps define that community in a unique way. Imagine, for example, someone doing back breaking stoop labor in a field with L.A. skyscrapers and the 10 Freeway surrounding the fields.

   Following your opening, you will want a couple of paragraphs of background showing some historical examples, the roots of the movement, the growth of intentional communities over time, and why they are appearing in the 21st century. Then limit the main part of your essay to a closer exploration of one or two intentional communities. Clarify the philosophy of the community, what makes them unique, how they operate, how people live on a daily basis. Give lots of detailed examples.

   You must use a minimum of three sources, and you must include at least one direct quote (properly cited) from each of those sources. One of those sources can be the one you used for your DQ if it’s appropriate for your paper. Also add pictures—pictures make your essay clearer and more interesting. But they don’t take the place of words—you still need three to five full pages of text.

2. Give some background on just what Google Projects are. Don't try to cover them all; that would take a book. In your introduction you might mention and briefly describe several of them, showing both the numbers and kinds of diverse projects that Google supports. Another way to handle the opening is to describe a person in the middle of some activity associated with a Google project, or perhaps it's not a person. You might describe a series of uni-tasking mini-bots helping pick a fork off the floor for a person with a disability, for example.

   Then be sure to explain what Google Projects (in general) are, and if you have some background information on what Google's mission is supporting such a wide range of projects in various areas (art, science, politics, ecology, medicine, recreation, etc), that goes here as well.

   Limit the main part of your essay to a closer look at one or two of those projects. Give lots of detailed. concrete examples showing the nature and goal of the project(s); discuss who (or what) the project intends to benefit (and how); also look at what some of the key challenges of the project are. You must use a minimum of three sources, and you must include at least one direct quote (properly cited) from each of those sources. One of those sources can be the one you used for your DQ if it’s appropriate for your paper. Also add pictures—pictures make your essay clearer and more interesting. But they don’t take the place of words—you still need three to five full pages of text.