ENG1102 Analyze a conspiracy theory of your choosing

Writing Question

ENG 1102

Topic

For your third paper, you’ll need to analyze a conspiracy theory of your choosing. You can draw on our course readings from this third unit—and from our other units, if those are useful to you—as well as significant research of your own.

You’ll need to teach the reader about the conspiracy theory: how it originated, and how it spread. But you also want to make sure your paper doesn’t simply become a Wikipedia-style explainer. The paper needs to have a point of view and make an argument. It should seek to understand WHY this conspiracy exists/existed. Why would people want to believe it? How does it dovetail with people’s other, existing beliefs? What does it seek to explain, and why might people find that explanation comforting?

Your paper might go in a lot of different directions, based on the conspiracy you choose to research and what you find most interesting from that research. But big picture, what you’re trying to get at is this: what story is this conspiracy telling, and why might that be an appealing story to the people who believe it?

You’re free to write about a conspiracy theory of your choosing, but here are some possibilities to start with:

• The belief that the moon landing was faked
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  Use these course readings
• 
  https://theconversation.com/coronavirus-plandemic-and-the-seven-traits-of-conspiratorial-thinking-138483
• 
  https://www.pbs.org/wgbh/frontline/documentary/united-states-of-conspiracy/