Prewriting about "artifacts"--In-class computer lab practice.

Choose an object that is familiar or even personally significant. This choice is temporary, and you may change it later when  you begin your actual paper.  Examples:

bicycle    garden hose    Slinky    baseball bat      lipstick      purse   necktie

refrigerator    high heels     pencil    light bulb     plastic flamingo  

1.  Tell a personal story about you and the object ( a memory, impressions the object made on you, how you came to feel about the object as you do.)

2. Speculate about the role the object has in our society. Does it have to do with status, vanity, effective mass-marketing, a real need?  What does the object say about the people who use it?

3. Online, research something about the object: it's history, any discussions or controversies or preferences about the object.  Cut and paste the article onto your document, making sure the url of the website as well as author/title is accessible .

4. If you had to develop this subject into a larger paper, what kind of thesis might you use?

(Probably it is along the lines of “In our __________________ (culture.corporations, schools, homes, garages, purses, etc.)  _________  is used for ___________, but it also ________________(symbolizes/highlights/conflicts with/ represents/falsifies etc.) _______________

(social class/status/income/specific value/power hierarchy etc. etc. etc.”)