Title : A place to live
This semester you have argued with statements of fact and you have advanced value claims. The final project asks you to use both facts and values in combination to transport your reader from one place (here and now) to another (your life in the future). Specifically, your task is to take us to the place–a town or city–that you wish to live in the future. In your essay, you will lay out your reasons for choosing that place. Some of your reasons will be personal. Explaining your reasons will require some personal information (nothing secret, just general biographical information). You will also provide some information about the place itself, which will require you to do some research and include references. Along with the personal and general information that you will provide, you’ll also explain the features and qualities that attract you to your chosen place. Specifically, you must convince us that the place offers you the best chance of achieving the life you want. To do that, you’ll first need to decide your priorities and explain your vision of the good life. Which of the following do you value the most? The least? How do you rank all the others?
1) Personal health
2) Family
3) Career
4) Adventure
5) Wealth or economic security
6) Civic engagement
7) Faith and spirituality
8) The natural world
9) The arts
10) Heritage and history
11) Scientific and technological advancements
12) Community
13) Freedom
14) A hobby or pursuit
15) A personal commitment or promise
Once you decide your top priorities, then you must consider what form each of the above could take. For instance, if you value personal health above all else, you might wish to live in a place known for its pristine air and water. Or perhaps you would choose a place that allows you to bicycle everywhere. Or maybe you chose a place that guarantees medical coverage. If you value community above all else, you might choose a place designed to encourage neighborly relations, or you might chose the place where you already know the most people.
You must have four main reasons for choosing a place. One of your reasons must be that the place lacks something you wish to avoid, that you dislike, or else has very little of something you prefer not to live around. If you hate cold weather, for instance, it will be difficult to convince us that you should move to Minnesota.
Remember, you must convince us that your chosen town or city is best suited to the life you envision. This last part is tricky because it’s easy to confuse “familiar” with “best.” It’s also easy for Californians to believe that the universe begins and ends in California. To ensure that you consider places beyond those you already know, this assignment requires you to provide empirical evidence to support your case. It’s not enough to claim that a place has the qualities and features that you want. The place has to have better, more notable, or more significant versions of those qualities and features than other places.
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