(Adapted from an assignment created by Lizzie Brock)

How do you hope to see American culture and American lifestyles change? How could such change come about? Do the Affluenza authors have the right ideas in their final section of the book? Are there other ways to address the same problems?

Your task in this essay is to choose an organization, project, or person whose activism you find inspiring and research it. See this page of links to organization. You may use any organization except those already described in Affluenza. Then, in your essay, you will compare the organization's work to a particular solution proposed in a chapter of the "Treatments" section of Affluenza.

This assignment will require a lot of critical thinking and questioning on your part about if and how your project responds to the book’s proposals. Thus, the first step is to identify the authors’ recommendations, and make sure you understand them completely. Then you will compare the work of your organization to the list of recommendations. Interviewing, meeting, attending events or volunteering with the group you pick is highly encouraged!

Introduction

• Introduce the organization and the Affluenza chapter you have chosen.
• A thesis that compares your organization's solution to the solution proposed in one chapter of Affluenza.

Body Paragraphs should include the following:

1. Topic sentences that compare your organization and the Affluenza chapter on a particular point that is the focus of the paragraph.
2. Details and examples about your organization introduced, cited, and explained, that prove how the project does or does not fulfill Affluenza’s recommendation.
3. Details from Affluenza to compare these to.
4. Lots of analysis of how your examples prove your point. (PIE)

You may also have one or two paragraphs that focus solely on your organization if there are aspects of your organizations work for which you can't find pointso f comparison in Affluenza. Similarly, you might have a paragraph about an aspect of Affluenza's solution that your organization doesn't address.

Conclusion: Ultimately, how different are your organization and the Affluenza authors' solutions? If they are different, why are they different? Why do you personally find the organization you chose inspiring?

Length:A minimum of 4 pages.

Research: In addition to Affluenza, use at least two textual sources about your organization. Cite them multiple times. Print them out and include them with the final draft.

Citations: You must provide correctly quoted points and evidence from both Affluenza and your outside sources in every body paragraph. 

Grammar and Style: I will grade for: grammar, sentence focus, transitions, and academic style.

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Why are we doing this? We'll be practicing many college writing skills in this essay. It calls on the summary skills you have been working on since you will need to summarize and paraphrase from Affluenza and from readings about your organization. You'll need to use signal phrases to help the reader figure out which ideas are your organization's and which are the Affluenza authors'. You'll also need to use transitions to connect the organization's ideas to the Affluenza authors'. In addition, this essay will introduce a new skill which is common in college essays. You will be comparing and contrasting the similarities and differences of two difference sources addressing a common topic.