Writing Project 2:  “Playing Paco”
 (An Essay Based on Observation)

Click here or here and read carefully Malcolm Gladwell’s essay “The Science of Shopping.”              

Gladwell’s essay profiles Paco Underhill, author and research company CEO, who has been called "a Sherlock Holmes for retailers."  Underhill’s book Why We Buy recounts the results of countless hours spent by Underhill himself and his associates in retail stores in all regions of the country. Underhill's goal is to analyze and explain the habits and motives of the American consumer. It is he who discovers the touch factor, the "butt-brush" factor, and the "boomerang effect."

This assignment requires you to “play Paco” on a very limited basis and  Choose a local retail store or supermarket and visit the store to study the spatial design and test the design strategies that Gladwell describes.  How do these strategies affect customers’ behavior?  Your visit to the store of your choice needs to be a fairly lengthy one.  You cannot gather enough data in a ten minute visit.  Be sure that you take notes as you observe.  Your field research notes will become part of  your portfolio for this assignment.

  You also need to explain to the store manager or someone else in authority what you would like to do and secure permission for your observation.

Once you have completed your field research, write an essay of approximately four pages based on your observations. Your thesis will advance a claim that supports or challenges Underhill's conclusions on the "science of shopping" in Auburn, Alabama.

  I will expect to see the following in your revised essays:

• clearly-defined thesis that goes beyond the obvious to provide  fresh insights
• a consistent focus throughout the essay
• specific examples and details that develop and support the thesis-and make clear the connections between the evidence and the thesis
• ideas that build from each other to support the thesis
• paragraphs that are clear, coherent, and unified
• strong transitions within and between paragraphs
• prose free of distracting errors in grammar, usage, and mechanics

Calendar

Monday, September 22                     Draft 2.1 due
Wednesday, September 24               Workshop: Introductions and
                                                          Conclusions
Monday, September 29                     Draft 2.2 due.  Peer Reviews
                                                          in-class.
Wednesday, October 1                      Conferences
Friday, October 3                              Conferences
Monday, October 6                            Editing Workshop
Friday, October 10                            Writing Project 2 due

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