Writing is always, at least to a certain extent, subjective, growing as it does from a personal motivation, determination, thought, or experience. But even as that is so, writing should also always remain mindful of itself as an object.

Personal motivation

Writing is always, at least to a certain extent, subjective, growing as it does from a personal motivation, determination, thought, or experience. But even as that is so, writing should also always remain mindful of itself as an object. That is, writing should always acknowledge that it serves a purpose and presents itself as an object for fulfilling that purpose. To that end, then, a writer must remember two things: that the form of this object depends upon that purpose and that the purpose of the object is dependent on the audience that will read it. Thus it would be that the writing that at times seems most subjective is also and inevitably the most objective as well.

Personal motivation

And at no time is this more true than when the writing is borne out of the simultaneous acts of careful critical reading, analytical critical thinking, and well-developed and specific critical writing. This assignment is designed is designed to give you practice in achieving that simultaneity. More specifically, this assignment asks you to read, analyze, and write about Mill’s “Of Individuality” in the following way. John Stuart Mill railed against the “yoke of custom” and exhorted his readers to resist “ape-like acts of imitation.” Yet his 19th century concerns are also our own 21st century ones as well.

Personal motivation

That is, the needs for individual freedom, diversity of opinion, and rejection of group-think are ones that most of us understand as necessary for the advancement of both individual self and civilization as a whole. I would like you to consider this idea more fully and specifically here, connecting words/phrases/ideas from Mill’s text to experiences/current events/modes of thought today. Your thesis should be an assertion about how/in what ways Mill’s argument is true today. You want the thesis to be as specific as possible.

Personal motivation

Then, you will choose three specific quotations from “Of Individuality,” put one quotation in one of three body paragraphs, and explain the quotation AND analyze it in terms of its relevance and connection to something in our own society today. In other words, your thesis will claim the way(s) in which Mill’s argument is relevant today; your three body paragraphs will contain a quotation from Mill’s text; and your body paragraphs will both explain the quotation AND discuss how it proves your thesis. You will, of course, also want to include an introduction and conclusion. https://youtu.be/eBSeCp__xhI

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