Engl 101-MT7
Fall 2008
Paper on Tesla's Most Important Inventions
For Mon Oct 20th, write a 4+ page paper (typed and double spaced) on what you consider were Tesla's most important inventions, the methods he used to develop them, and the personal and/or professional qualities that contributed to his successes and/or failures. For each invention, describe the problem it addressed and/or the need it met, the alternatives available at the time (if any), the basic design of the device, and why Tesla's was (or was not) the best solution to the problem. Then make a detailed argument for why the inventions you chose are important. Here you may want to contrast an early and a later invention and compare different kinds of importance (marketability vs. open ended scientific inquiry, for example). Before you write your paper, review the Engineering 107 Hats of the Problem-Solver rubric. Its categories may provide you with a vocabulary you can use to in your account the qualities in Tesla you consider most important for his successes and/or failures. Make sure to cite sources including Jonnes.
If you have signed up for tutoring with Mike Dupuy or I by Fri Oct 17th and then met with one of us to go over a substantial draft (at least 2-3 typed pages), you can hand in the paper by Fri Oct 24th by 5pm in my box on the left of my office door (Enterprise 345). Mike has office hours on Tues, Wed and Thurs. I will also have extended office hours (by appointment only) on Mon, Tues and Wed, Oct 20-22. If you take this option, staple your revision on top of your draft and add a typed note on what you went over in your tutoring session, what you changed, and why.
This is a challenging assignment because it requires you to come up with an argument that allows you to talk about a number of related issues in a coherent way. Many of you will choose to write on one of Tesla’s early inventions, which were successfully built and marketed because of his partnership with George Westinghouse, and one of his later inventions or speculations (remote control, particle beam weapons, radio and high frequency electronics more generally). One way of tying these together in a coherent essay is to contrast inventions from early on (like the AC motor), where Westinghouse’s practicality made up for Tesla’s limitations, and inventions/concepts/speculations from later in his career where Tesla suffered from the absence of a partner like Westinghouse and scattered his work and/or was too far ahead of his time. On this point, some of you want to argue that Tesla’s later inventions were of the greatest importance in spite of his practical difficulties because they stimulated others to continue working in the field on the problems Tesla had identified and opened up new lines of inquiry that later bore fruit.
You need to write in a professionally credible way but explain all technical points so that non-professionals like myself can understand what you are talking about. Coherence, thesis development, paragraph organization/transitions, and effective use of evidence are all key things I will be looking for in your finished essay. To see how your paper should look, check the sample papers in your spiral bound writing handbook on pp. 151-154. The online version of Hacker's Research and Documentation Online is at http://dianahacker.com/resdoc/ For MLA, click on Humanities, Documenting Sources and Sample Papers. For CSE (Biology and other Sciences) click on Sciences, Documenting Sources and Sample Papers. This site is at the top of the list of online Resources on the syllabus along with Diana Hacker’s online exercises.
Jonnes doesn’t cover everything Tesla did and we’ve only read part of the text but you can look up subjects in the index to find other material you can use. Because we are so used to computers and databases we often forget that the book is a sophisticated information management technology with several ways to find things. Pages in Jonnes you should study carefully include 93-97 (AC motor), 106-107 (Tesla and DC), 110 (Tesla and Edison's different methods), 154-160 (Tesla's 1888 AIEE lecture), 162 (patent purchase), 180-182 (Westinghouse engineers and Tesla), and 354-367 (Tesla's later work).
Professor Leaf (Engineering 107) has requested that before you write your paper, you think about how Tesla solved problems. In your later career, employers will be as interested in your ability to solve problems as in what you know. Tesla was much less methodical than Edison and sometimes saw his designs in a kind of vision, as with the AC induction motor. Is this a model you can see following in your own career? What role did Westinghouse play in bringing Tesla's ideas to fruition? Does the Engineering 107 Hats of the Problem-Solver rubric provide the terms through which we can understand their partnership?
In looking at your drafts so far this semester, Mike Dupuy has noticed several common problems. I include his summary here so you all could benefit from his insights.
Thesis: some of your theses do not correlate with the assignment prompt and several parts of the assignment are left unaddressed
Arguments: Several of you have written what amount to biographies and have not set out and developed arguments. Mike and I think this is occurring because your drafts lack strong, coherent theses you set out near the beginning you then consistently develop and support
Punctuation: several of you tend to omit commas after introductory phrasing and when subordinating phrases and need to review Hacker on punctuation (and look over my comments in this area on your last paper)
Organization: Many of you have very long paragraphs and try and tackle too many ideas at once. This makes your writing unclear and your paragraphs lose focus.
Remember that I took notes on problems in you last paper and tied my grammatical corrections to specific pages in Hacker’s Pocket Style Manual. You will need to review Hacker carefully since your grade will reflect whether you improve in the areas I noted. You may therefore want to come to your tutoring session with questions on points of grammar and style as well as thesis development etc. Also remember Mike’s point last week that the expectation some of you have from high school that you should have a one sentence thesis and a five paragraph essay will make the assignment harder.