Using Camus' "Create Dangerously" as a model for style and tone and a guideline for structure, make an attempt to address the question "what does it matter who is speaking?.

Camus' talk/essay centers around the questions of what sort of art an artist should produce, the role of the artist in society, and the role of art in society. He looks at the position of the artist and reasons why artists might find themselves being criticized for having produced particular works and then examines some assumptions that lie beneath these criticism to see if those assumptions are correct. Based upon his conclusions in those sections he then goes on to put together his own overall conclusions.

I'm asking you to do the same sort of work in your essay, but rather than considering the piece of art (the text) as the central part, we are thinking about how the public's view of the artist might shape the public's opinion about the text.

Just as Camus ends up looking at the artist and society in his attempt to understand what sort of art an artist should produce, I expect that you may need to think about message, purpose, context, and audience when thinking about the way in which we need to create our own ethos in communication.

Length wise, I expect that most writers would need to write for at least six pages (double spaced, in MLA format) to attempt a satisfying, thoughtful and productive response, and that a focused response would not go much longer than eight pages.

Your readers will all be familiar with the readings from our course, so those readings would be useful for discussing examples of what you mean. You may also use outside examples if you are trying to make a point not covered by one of our class readings, but keep in mind that an outside text might require more explanation and might push your paper longer that you prefer.

All examples that you refer to in your paper or that you use to help shape your own explanations in the paper need to be identified in the paper and included in the works cited.