To Cool It Or Not to Cool It

Friday, May 21 from 1 to 3 PM in Cyberia, Arts Extension 265

Assignment:  In his book Cool It, Bjorn Lomborg takes on the colossal question of how best the human race can use its resources to promote the best possible future for us and for the planet. He criticizes those who call on us to focus our energy and money on slowing down global warming and provides an alternate proposal.  Your task in this essay is to agree or disagree with him.  You will defend or critique Bjorn Lomborg’s proposal for responding to the threat of global warming.  Your paper should do the following:

• Show a clear understanding of Lomborg’s proposal.  Some summary of his argument will be necessary either at the beginning or scattered throughout.
• Use at least one source that criticizes Lomborg and show an understanding of the most important common objections made to his argument.
• Make your position clear in a thesis statement.
• Draw on your understanding of ethos, fallacies, claims, reasons, and warrants, and definition, causal analysis, evaluation, and proposal arguments, based on our study of Rhetoric this semester. 
• Show MLA format (no Works Cited required).

As you know, this will be an in-class essay, but you are encouraged to prepare and bring your prewriting materials. However, you may not bring anything with more than two sentences in a row that end up in your essay. You will turn in any materials you use on the test. Also, you will not have internet access or any form of access to electronic data during the exam. Internet will be turned off.  At the end, though, you can email yourself a copy of the exam. 

Bring the following to the exam:

• Cool It
• Printed copies of any additional sources you plan to use such as critiques of Lomborg or other class reading material.
• Your outline (topic sentences, thesis, and quotations or other supporting details)
• Your notes (no 3 sentences in a row that end up in the essay)
• A print card with change on it in order to print the exam at the end.  We don’t have extra in stock in Cyberia, so pick one up at the Rosenberg library or arrange to use a friend’s.
• A dictionary (optional)
• Rules for Writers (optional)

I encourage you to prepare for this exam as thoroughly as possible by revising your outline, by visiting the Writing Lab, and, if you are nervous about in-class writing, by practicing writing out the essay under time pressure at home. (You just can't bring that practice essay with you to the real exam.)  You can also visit Cyberia to familiarize yourself with the computers.

Grammar, word choice, and formatting do count for in-class essays (though not quite as much as for out of class essays). Do your best in the time you have. Good luck! See me with questions.