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\centerline{MONT 104N -- Modeling the Environment}
\centerline{Second Essay Assignment}
\centerline{{\bf Due:}  No later than 5:00pm on Friday, November 16}
\centerline{November 6, 2018}
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The second essay assignment for the course will be based
on another short essay called {\it Hidden Intellectualism} starting on 
p. 248 of {\it They Say, I Say} (4th edition).  You should start
by reading this carefully and thinking about what Gerald Graff 
is saying about the ways conventional education can miss opportunities
for reaching students who don't always respond to school work but
who might be passionately and thoughtfully engaged with
other things.  

This assignment will be more of an opportunity to reflect on 
what the author is saying and relate that to your 
own experiences up to this point in your education (and maybe 
especially your experiences so far in college).  As you will 
see, it's not an assignment 
related to the mathematical or scientific questions we have been 
considering in class.  

You should structure your essay according to the ``They Say, I Say''
paradigm.  In other words, one possible structure would be to start 
by laying out in detail what Graff is saying and then transition
to your reaction and how you think your own experiences either
do or do not correspond to his main point(s).  Another possible
approach would be to go through the main ideas from his essay
one by one and respond to each of them in turn.  Both ways would
be possible; it's up to you to find what works for what
you want to say.    

Feel free to make this one as personal and informal or 
colloquial as you want.  I want to 
hear what {\it you have to say about this, in your
own voice}.  Please don't make this into some dry, 
academic, content-free, page-filling exercise.  For 
that reason, there is no fixed page quota for your essay.  
Write as much or as little as you want.
The only requirement is that you give a good summary of Graff's
ideas along the way and respond to them in a meaningful way.  

Here are some questions to get you started if you don't know 
what to say:  First, exactly what does Graff mean by ``intellectualism?''
What constitutes the quality of being an ``intellectual'' {\it for him}?
(Please don't use a dictionary definition in your essay!) 
Is being an ``intellectual'' anything you have ever consciously 
considered for yourself?

If you are a varsity athlete, do you see a connection 
between what Graff is claiming about participation in sports or other
``non-intellectual'' activities and what you get out of 
what you do?  Or is he ``all wet'' about the way sports and
other pursuits can be ``intellectualism by other means'' (p. 250).
Would anyone who is not an intellectual already think to say that?
If you are not an athlete and you want to argue that traditional 
strictly academic work (perhaps reading the ``classics'') is more
valuable than any focus on elements of popular culture
or sports, by all means go ahead and do that too.  

Your sentences should be clear, readable, and
not overly wordy.  You should aim for a lively style and the 
writing should be in your own voice.  But please
think twice before using very colloquial ways of saying things.
If they contribute to the point you are trying to make, that is fine.  
But do it for a reason.   
Also, {\it please do not use a thesaurus to find impressive-sounding words} 
when simpler alternatives are available. 
An important lesson to learn for writing in college is that thesauri 
do not capture the {\it nuances in meanings} that underlie good writing.  
If you must use a thesaurus, also look up any words you select in a 
dictionary to make sure they mean exactly what you think they do!

Errors in mechanics (spelling, punctuation, grammar) and usage should 
not annoy the reader (i.e. Prof. Little). Try as much as possible to 
avoid those mistakes.
\bye
