ENGL 1.

Paper 1: Analysis of an App

Required Length: About 1250 Words

DRAFT STAGE DUE DATE

Draft your idea - Meet me for office hours -
Topic Proposal Due: Mon 9/7 on email thread (150 words)
6pm
First Complete Draft Due: Sunday 9/13 on shared Google Word
document with group, 6pm
(for peer review w. writing group; meet on Thur
9/17)
Final (Graded) Draft Due: Monday 9/21

Assignment Description:
We’ve spent time in class focusing on technology’s profound (though sometimes hidden) effects on
how we think, feel, and behave. For all of the access, information, and connectivity they provide,
various technologies also (as Carr and others have argued) transform the way human memory
works, addict us to their engrossing scrolls, and in some unique cases, remind us of our mortality.

This paper is an opportunity for you to analyze an app with which you regularly interact, and to
make a claim about the ways its features influence and effect human behavior, psychology,
and/or interaction.

As you write, consider how the app’s specific features and functions cause users to behave. Does
the blue dot in the calendar of your meditation or workout app persuade you to meditate or exercise
more often? Does the streak feature in your social networking or language learning app keep you
coming back every day? Does the “skip intro” option in Netflix encourage you to watch yet another
episode? Does the “bet max” button on your video poker app encourage you to play bigger stakes?

Write a thoughtful and well-formulated analytical essay that explains the ways small design details
like these influence and possibly transform the people who use them. Your job is to observe and
make sense of the features we often use so mindlessly. Consider these questions for invention:

 What are your general impressions of the app’s tone and personality? Can you trace these
general impressions back to the specific details that caused them?
 What does the app purport to do? What else does it do that it might be hidden or go
unstated?
 What are the important features and details of your chosen app, and how do these function—
on their own and together?
 Once you’ve identified the significant features of your app and how they are related, push
your observations to implications. Ask yourself “so what?” to push your thinking forward
toward interpretive conclusions.
o What does my observation about the app imply?
 o Why does this observation matter?
o Where does this observation get us?
o How can we begin to theorize the significance of the observation?

Writing Groups
I’ll put you in a small “writing group” of about 4 people. You’ll rely on the members of your group
for peer feedback at several crucial stages of drafting: the topic proposal, the partial draft, and the
full first draft. At each stage, it’s your responsibility to read and provide substantive feedback on
each group member’s writing. We’ll talk together in class about what “substantive” feedback
means, as well as some strategies for providing it.

Draft Stages:

1.) Topic Proposal: In about 150 words, write a proposal about what app you’d like to analyze
for this paper assignment. Include some account of what specific features of the app you will
discuss, and explain why you think this is a good choice for this assignment. You’ll post this
on Course Site and receive feedback from me and from the members of your writing group.
2.) First Full Draft: This is a complete draft of your paper—one that includes an intro, an
overarching analytical claim with reasons, well-organized reader-oriented analytical
paragraphs that clearly articulate the significance of your observations, and a conclusion.
You’ll receive feedback from members of your writing group (in a Zoom meeting on
Thursday Sept 17 class hours). Use this feedback to revise before you submit a final draft of
your paper.
3.) Final Draft: Submit to me on Course Site.