Instructions

Essay 2 Prompts / Instructions

1. Creel (2020) suggests “[d]ifferentiating these three forms of opacity [functional, structural, and run] and identifying tools by which targeted transparency improvements can be made” is useful for addressing questions surrounding the status of opaque systems with respect to justice in civil society. Elaborate upon this insight by first explaining how transparency / explainability is a type of value alignment problem, then defining the three forms of transparency that Creel (2020) forwards, and then describing how some (or all) of these forms of transparency are helpful in the context of justice by relating Creel’s (2020) abstract definitions to at least one of the concrete examples discussed by Green (2019). [Note: it may be useful to bring some of the readings from Module 3 to bear on your discussion here].
2. Creel (2020) suggests “[d]ifferentiating these three forms of opacity [functional, structural, and run] and identifying tools by which targeted transparency improvements can be made” is useful for addressing questions surrounding the status of opaque systems with respect to trust in science. Elaborate upon this insight by first explaining how transparency / explainability is a type of value alignment problem, then defining the three forms of transparency that Creel (2020) forwards, and then describing how some (or all) of these forms of transparency are helpful in the context of ‘epistemic canons’ of science described by Johnson (Forthcoming), using concrete examples.
3. Johnson (forthcoming) suggests that algorithms are only useful to the extent that they are undeniably value-laden. Explain first what Johnson means when she says that algorithms are undeniably value-laden, and then use at least one concrete example from Green (2019) to explain why the value-ladenness of an algorithm is what makes it useful. Critically discuss this statement by agreeing or disagreeing with Johnson’s main claim that we must reject the value-free ideal of science when thinking about machine learning algorithms, using concrete examples as appropriate.

Your final submission should be around 750 words in total (±10%), excluding references. It should contain a clear and precise thesis statement which takes a stance on a substantive claim, and it should consider and respond to alternatives—i.e., considerations of those who might disagree with your thesis.

When working on your essay, you should take advantage of the skills that you have been cultivating this semester with the short writing assignments. In particular, recall that:

• The four-sentence essay assignments provided the basic structure of an argumentative academic paper.
• The ‘Tweet’ assignments provided practice for identifying and paraphrasing the key points of someone else’s argument.
• The ‘Tweet’ assignments clarified how to structure a thesis statement, and
• The ‘Tweet’ assignments provided an opportunity to practice carefully editing one’s own writing.

You should also take into account any feedback that you received on your first essay.

Your essay submission is subject to the following restrictions.

• You must submit your essay through Brightspace. Emailed submissions will not be accepted.
  • Your essay should be submitted in .docx or .pdf format.
  • Your essay should explicitly state which prompt you are responding to at the top of the first page.
  • Your essay should be double-spaced with standard formatting—i.e., 12 point font, times new roman or similar, at least 1-inch margins, etc.)
  • Any quotations or paraphrases of other people’s ideas must be properly cited.
  • A complete and properly-formatted list of ‘works cited’ should be included at the end of the document.
    • Note 1 : As mentioned above, the ‘works cited’ page does not count toward the word count.
    • Note 2 : A properly-formatted citation for each of the readings for this module is included in the syllabus.
  • You essay should be generally free of typographical and grammatical errors—i.e., you should spend some time editing before you submit.
    • If you lost marks on typographical or grammatical errors on the Tweet assignment(s) you should consider booking an appointment with the writing centre well in advance of the deadline.
  • Extensions may only be granted if they are requested at least 24 hours in advance of the deadline. You will need to submit an SDA to request an extension.
    • TAs cannot grant extensions; you should email the professor.
• You should not include any identifying information anywhere in your submission (either in the file, the file name, or the comments). As with the prior short writing assignments, your essays will be graded anonymously.
  • Note : Including identifying information anywhere in your submission will be sufficient for a 1-mark deduction on the final grade for the assignment.
• As per the syllabus, you must have completed and obtained a final score of 100% on the plagiarism quiz prior to the deadline for the essay.
  • If the plagiarism quiz is not submitted, or if a score of 100% is not obtained, then your essay submission will not be graded. In this case, the ‘submission date’ of your essay will be counted as the submission date of your plagiarism quiz, and the essay will be subject to the late penalty policy outlined in the syllabus (2 full marks (out of 20) per 24-hour period past the deadline).
• The final essay should be submitted before 23:59 Atlantic time on Friday, April 8.
  • Late submissions are subject to late penalties as per the policy detailed on the syllabus (2 marks (out of 20) per 24-hour period past the deadline).
• When the grades for the essay are released, there will be a 48-hour black out period on email communications pertaining to essay grades. Emails pertaining to essay grades sent within 48 hours of the release of grades will not receive a response.
• A rubric for how this essay will be graded has been posted on the course webpage. You should look at it while you are working on your essay so that you understand how your work will be graded.
• A summary of the breakdown of points is given in the table below, but more detail for each category is provided in the rubric.