The interviews with Collins and Dawkins have each interviewee making a number of claims with limited time to justify each. However, some questions are examined in greater depth, providing the interviewee some opportunity to explain his position. Some of these explanations were more persuasive than others.
Your assignment: Choose a particular statement made by one of the interviewees, along with its justification/explanation, with which you disagree. Explain why the argument presented is not persuasive. Imagine that you are debating this individual, and that you are seeking to rebut the claim or some part of its justification. Note that you cannot choose just any statement with which to disagree -- it must be one where the interviewee had some opportunity to provide an explanation, and yet still left you unpersuaded.
Your paper should be 1 to 2 pages in length, but not more than 2 pages. It must be double-spaced, with at least a 1-inch margins in either side, and use a 12-point font size. If you find that you can present your argument in 1.5 pages, then that is the length that your paper should be -- do not add extra material just to fill 2 pages.
All papers will be submitted electronically. Specifically...
You must save/print your paper as a PDF file. If you don't know how to generate a PDF file, here is software that can help you. Note that it's all free.
Mac users: It's build into OS X. When you try to print, there is a button labelled something like, Save to PDF... Use that button. Similarly, to view PDF files, just open them -- the OS X viewer program will automatically open the file and show it to you.
Windows users: Download and install the CutePDF Writer. Yes, the name is silly, but the utility works exceedingly well. It installs itself as a printer driver; when you elect to print your document, you can choose the CutePDF "printer" and generate a PDF file instead. To view the PDF file, go to the Adobe web site and download and install the Adobe Reader. Note that the Adobe Reader is also available through the College's software repository.
Windows/Office 2007 users: Although the CutePDF Writer will work for you, there is another option. You may download the Office add-in for producing PDF files. Then you should be able to generate them directly from within Office 2007.
You must upload the PDF version of your paper using this assignment's submission web page. You will need to login using your Amherst College username and password to submit your work.