First Draft Due September 11 – 3 Full Pages Minimum (bring 4 copies to class)
Second Draft Due September 18 – 4 Full Pages Minimum (bring 4 copies to class)
Final Draft Due September 25 – 4 Full Pages Minimum (bring 1 copy to class)

Sherry Turkle writes that “virtual social life can play a role in… dramas of self-reparation” (274). She suggests that the internet can be a productive place for a person to work out ideas about who he or she wants to become. Turkle has what we might call a “dynamic” conception of identity on the internet in the sense that our conceptions of ourselves change through online interaction. In important ways, Dyson adopts a more “static” picture of anonymity on the “Net”. While there are good things and bad things about online anonymity, Dyson doesn’t really claim that we are transformed through online activity.

Your assignment is to write a four page (minimum) essay in which you explore the relationship between anonymity on the web and identity construction.

Be sure to quote and work with at least two specific passages from each author.

One way you might approach this question would be to begin with Turkle’s use of Erikson’s idea of a “psychosocial moratorium” (274). If the internet functions as an arena for “consequence-free experimentation” (Turkle 274), do individuals risk getting lost and never moving beyond the moratorium? Dyson’s plusses and minuses of anonymity on the “Net” might help you consider additional dimensions to what goes on in the zone of “consequence-free experimentation” (Turkle 274).

All drafts must be typed and double-spaced, with one-inch margins. Do not include a “cover page.” Simply put your name, the date, the assignment and draft number, and title for the essay at the top of the first page. Be sure to include page numbers, a works cited page using MLA citation, and appropriate in-text citation. (The works cited page does not count as a "page" toward the page minimum!)

I request that you also email me a copy of your drafts as an attachment (in either Word or RTF format). This way I will have a backup copy of your work should something happen to your computer, a disk you use for your work, or some other unforeseen catastrophe. This is not mandatory, though it may be in your best interest to do so.