CIE100: Common Intellectual Experience - Dear Ijeawele Writing Prompt (10 Points)

Assignment Goals

The goals of this assignment are:
  1. To reflect upon the course texts in preparation for thoughtful discussion
  2. To organize thoughts into a concise and cohesive response to a targeted question
  3. To consider multiple viewpoints about ideas

The Assignment

Please read the questions below and answer them in a letter addressed to the author, about as long as a 1-2 paragraph response. Adichie wrote a letter, so you’re writing back. Respond in your own voice and quote the text at least once in support of what you say, choosing the passage whose particular words matter rather than one that simply mentions your subject. Submit your letter through Canvas before the start of class.

This is one of the last prompts that asks only for a claim and a quote. From the Islamic Mystic Poetry response onward you’ll be taking on a counterargument each time, and we’ll work through that move together in the Counterargument and Concession workshop before you have to do it on your own.

Writing back to Adichie in her own form is the default, but you are welcome to use any of the other four genres instead (analytic, letter, dialogue, marginalia+aphorism, or the Four A’s), so long as you still give me a claim and a quote.

If you’re having trouble with the reading, How to Read Hard Texts in CIE will help.

Writing Prompt

  1. Of Adichie’s fifteen suggestions, which do you find most persuasive, and which would you push back on or complicate? Support both choices with quotations, and explain what assumptions about gender, culture, or childhood each suggestion rests upon.

  2. Find one example from your own media environment (an advertisement, an influencer post, a product, a song) that either confirms or complicates Adichie’s claims about how gender expectations are taught. Describe it specifically, and connect it to a passage from the letter. Would Adichie’s advice to Ijeawele need updating for a child growing up with today’s algorithmic media, and if so, what sixteenth suggestion would you add?

Submission

Please submit a word processed or PDF document.

Please refer to the Style Guide for code quality examples and guidelines.