Better Way

Better Way   Order Description   Have you ever taken issue with the way something—something important to you—is done, produced, organized, or communicated? Have you thought of a better way? Can you think up an alternative, better principle around which to organize the system within which this practice takes place? .” What would happen if you were to put your better way into practice? Write a paper in which you explain your proposal for changes in a specific practice as an improvement over the existing way of doing things. Keep in mind your audience: who might be open to, and who might resist your proposal? What would it take to convince others to rethink? The “habits of mind” this assignment targets are 1) to look for and recognize organizing principles; 2) to stop conceiving of phenomena only in isolation and learn to understand context—the larger, overarching systems (and sets of complex relationships) of which these phenomena might form a part; and 3) to “test” principles, thinking imaginatively and thoroughly about implications. The major writing goals of this second assignment are 1) to write a concise, coherent, and accurate account of a how a system works; 2) to pose valid critical questions concerning the merits of that system and the principles upon which it operates; and 3) to write a compelling (even if wildly unlikely) account of an alternative principle and the resulting changes it would bring to the system.