5 Strategies for Extending an Idea

First, find an idea from one of the essays in this unit that gets you interested.  Summarize it in a few sentences to elegantly capture the author's argument.  Then go beyond that idea.  You may wish to use any of the following strategies, but you can work in whatever way you choose.  (Note new idea that I arrived at in blue.)

Make the original idea take into account a new piece of information
Example:  Gender is greatly influenced by societal norms, yet Greenstein ends the essay by suggesting that since men all around the world play rougher with their children perhaps nature plays an important role in gender development as well as nurture. When I think about the fact that men’s role in marriage have changed significantly since the advent of the women’s liberation movement–I’m thinking specifically about how much more equally my brother and some of my male friends’ participate in child-rearing–it seems to me that the argument can be made that despite possible genetic tendencies, the human being seems quite flexible in his/her ability to adopt new roles.

Look at it from another perspective
Example:  Greenstein seems to be concerned about the possibility that trying to change men’s and women’s traditional roles might negatively affect how children grow up. Wolf's perspective is quite different.  She believes that changes in men's and women's roles are related to larger political issues.  If boys are encouraged to play with less masculine dolls (not GI Joe), Wolf would probably see this as a good thing because it would show that men are becoming less preoccupied with holding onto their macho image, more willing to share power and real decision-making with women.  I'd argue for what I see as Wolf's position. 

Change it to account for an exception
Example:  Swardson suggests that this new computer age is a pretty nasty one, in which those who have money are insensitive to their workers; the whole system seems to be designed to keep people in their place. Yet I know some companies that really treat all their employees with considerable respect, even the factory employees. Such a company is Gore, which produces Goretex, a waterproof, wind-resistant, breathable fabric for jackets, boots, and other items. Although I wouldn’t deny that many companies operate the way Swardson says, the Gore exception makes me think that wealth and the new economy by themselves don’t determine how capitalism works.

Answer a question that the author only poses or partially answers
Example:  Telander winds up saying that all parties bear some responsibility in the deaths of young inner city youths, but he implicitly seems to suggest that some parties (such as the companies) are more responsible than others. I would develop an idea based on the principle that those with more power have greater responsibility than those with less power. Using this principle, the drug dealers are less responsible than companies like Nike, who have the capacity to reflect on the situation and create ads that make their product less attractive to drug dealers? The drug dealers, on the other hand, while having a bad influence on city youth, have no capacity to reflect on and change their behavior.

Apply it to a new situation
Example:  When I think about how Telander tries to be even-handed in his blaming of people from companies down to the individual killers, I wonder about how his thinking would apply to the problem of anorexia. Here too you have a society-wide problem that has actors on all levels. Just yesterday we were discussing the extent to which the individual and the media were responsible for the problem of women’s eating disorders. Telander’s approach would be not to blame the media and not to blame the individual women but to say let’s work together to solve the problem. But I have a problem with that, because young women are in a far more vulnerable position than the media, ad-makers, movie directors, etc. People in a position of power have the responsibility to handle it well.