Description

Length: 1,200-1,800 words (roughly 4 to 6 pages, not counting the Works Cited page).

Your next significant writing assignment in this class requires you to select, engage critically, and analyze one or two popular works (film, song, TV episode) on a common topic (e.g. “sacrifice,” “work,” “deception,” “justice,” “knowledge”) decided upon by the class.

The introduction should identify the topic and its relevant historical and cultural context, the text(s) you analyze, and your thesis—a small and unexpected claim worth making. The next paragraph should summarize the text(s) and incorporate evidence in the form of quotes to substantiate your summary. The bulk of the paper should develop the specifically analytical (and perhaps comparative) argument offered in your thesis, including careful evidence to support your claims.

Analysis means many different things, so stay focused on demonstrating how the common topic is represented in the text(s). Finally, given the careful detail and specific, supported analysis of your essay, you have earned the right in your conclusion to offer conjecture, make more general claims, suggest what the broader implications of your analysis might be. This essay should be directed to actual and implied audiences, both your fellow students and professor as well as an imagined audience you are trying to teach with your experience or interpretation and impress with your style of description and explanation. You must craft the essay to make it meaningful and appealing to others.

Format

Standard MLA formatting rules apply. Remember that there is a sample research paper--in MLA style--on pages 468 to 476 of the Norton Field Guide to Writing. The annotations on that paper include a great deal of important information about formatting and layout. Any paper you write in MLA style needs to look like this sample paper.

Evaluation

Your topic proposal (1 pt), initial two pages (2 pts), and draft (2 pts) will be evaluated based on the effort and engagement they demonstrate. Your revision (15 pts) will be evaluated according to the following criteria:

• Process : The essay goes through stages of development, including a topic proposal, introductory pages, complete first draft, and a polished final revision.
• Quality of Thought and Clarity of Purpose : The essay effectively describes and analyzes a popular work and attends to context.
• Organization : The essay is organized effectively and includes smooth transitions between sections and paragraphs. Paragraphs are clearly focused on one idea relevant to the essay's thesis; the ideas within the paragraph are clearly related and smoothly linked, and the main point of the paragraph is supported by examples and details.
• Use of Language : Clarity of expression: the writing has been carefully proofread and adheres to standard conventions of grammar and punctuation; the essay presents an appropriate tone and precise diction.
• Research : The essay effectively and appropriately cites relevant sources using quotes that are accurately introduced, cited, and analyzed. The in-text citation and the list of works are in MLA style.

Starting with Questions

(Taken from Chapter 21 of the Norton Field Guide to Writing, pages 211-214)

• How can it be defined?
• How can it be described?
• How can it be explained?
• What can it be compared with?
• What may have caused it? What might be its effects?
• How can it be classified?
• How can it be analyzed?
• How can it be interpreted?
• What expectations does it raise?
• What are the different positions on it?
• What are your own feelings about it?
• Are there other ways to think about it?