Paper #1: Edison and Tesla

We will spend the first part of the semester reading about and discussing Thomas Edison and his Direct Current(DC) system of electricity and Nikola Tesla and his ACpolyphase system. For your first paper, you have three options:

  • Option 1: Argue what you believe was Edison’s most important invention;
  • Option 2: Argue what you believe was Tesla’s most important invention; or
  • Option 3: Argue which qualities Edison OR Tesla had that made them successful (or, depending how you see it, unsuccessful) inventors.
    (Note: if you write on option 3, when you revise the paper you can turn this into a comparison of Edison and Tesla as long as you have clearly defined thesis tied to relevant examples/support for each inventor.)

If you choose Option 1 or Option 2, some things you must provide are:

  • An accurate description of the invention and how it worked.
  • How Edison/Tesla developed it (i.e. their methods).
  • A discussion of the need(s) the invention met, the alternatives available at the time, and why Edison's/Tesla’s was (or was not) the best solution to the problem.

Note: you can write about a related group of inventions (Edison’s lower Manhattan proto-utility) or the process of invention (Menlo Park as corporate research lab) rather than one particular device. Also note that you should write about the importance of the invention at the time but you can also emphasize its more long-range importance.

If you choose Option 3, some things you might want to discuss are:

  • How did the qualities you are discussing manifest themselves in the inventor’s life and work?
  • How did the qualities you are discussing contribute to the success (or failure) of specific inventions?
  • Is it possible qualities that were sometimes helpful to the inventor also worked against them?

A 2 page draft (typed in 12 point Times New Roman font and double spaced) is due at the beginning of class on Thurs, Oct 1st for peer review. A 3-4 page revision is due at the beginning of class on Thursday, Oct 8th (in class) or Tues Oct 13th (my office, Robinson A 253 by 4pm). You have the option of revising the paper again after I return it with a grade; this will likely be due in mid-October. LLC Peer tutoring begins Friday Oct 2ndin Piedmont 112/113.You are required to see one of the Engineering and Business/Economics LLC tutors as you write or revise paper #1 (draft due Oct 1st for peer review, 1st revision due Oct 8th/13th, optional revision approximately two weeks after that.

You must cite at least three sources in your paper, one of which must be Jonnes’ Empire of Light. You can also use videos we have watched in class and the resources about Edison or Tesla on the syllabus/blog.Jonnes doesn’t cover everything the inventors 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.

Please remember that a thesis for an argumentative paper must be arguable, interesting, manageable, and specific. As such, theses like, “The light bulb is Edison’s most important invention because it changed the world” isn’t going to work as it is neither interesting nor specific. Do your best to come up with a unique take on the topic, just be sure your thoughts are grounded in the available evidence.

NOTE: The migration of sources to the web and new modes of delivery has complicated the rules on how to cite and necessitated hybrid forms for some Works Cited/References listings. For example, to cite Carlson's lecture, Tesla in New York, which we watched in class today through YouTube but that was delivered at the Universidad Politécnica de Madrid in 2008, follow the model at in Diana Hacker for lectures but add "Web" for the online source. For the On Point interview, Nikola Tesla and Innovation Today that aired on NPR in 2010 and that I recommend you listen to if you are writing on Tesla, follow the Hacker model for radio interview but also add "Web" for online access. And for the 2000 PBS documentary, Tesla Master of Lightning, that we watched parts of in class, follow the model for Radio or Television program but add DVD (or web) depending on how you saw the program.