Essay One Assignment
English 111, Professor Newmark

Due: Wednesday, September 17
Required length: three pages

The most important piece of information I can give you about this essay is that you are NOT supposed to answer a question in this essay, or offer an argument with a thesis, but rather you are supposed to ASK a question and analyze different possible answers based on summaries of different positions.

In this essay you will need to show why the question you are asking is “problematic and significant.” Again, your essay should not answer a question; it should pose one. Your question will be one of the following:

1. Many of the disasters described in the book Inviting Disaster might have been avoided if people in decision-making positions had thought “critically” about the crisis in which they were involved. In your essay, please examine the following question. As we push the “machine frontier,” and as pressures build for the development of “bigger, faster, and stronger” machines, are workers (technicians, engineers, managers) encouraged or discouraged from engaging in patient critical thinking”?

2. It appears that the decreasing number of engineering graduates in America is a cause for concern, as explained in the article “The ‘No-Glory’ Profession.” College graduates with degrees in business appear to receive more “glory” (i.e. money) than graduates with degrees in engineering. Is engineering a “no-glory” profession, as compared to other popular professional career paths? (As you examine this issue, please use some of the critical thinking skills your book Thinking Critically introduces.)

Please be sure to:
• Write three complete pages
• Follow MLA guidelines for format
• Stay away from offering an argument – a thesis – in your essay
• Take a balanced view of the issue, using equal space for both the “yes” and “no” sides
• Discuss why this question is significant and problematic
• Steer clear of the grammar “no-no’s” we discussed in class