Analyze the aims and tactics of a protest movement that aims (or aimed) to create some kind of social change. The movement you select can be from America or abroad, contemporary or historical. In your paper, uncover the aim of the movement and its tactics, and evaluate the success of the movement. Use the interpretative tools offered by the case studies in This Is an Uprising as a primary source, in addition to other sources you find in your research.
Format the paper and cite sources using MLA format. Length must be at least 2000 words.
Your essay must cite at least 5 varied and credible sources in addition to This is an Uprising.
Variety: journal articles, reports, books, newspaper features and opinion pieces, first-person accounts or interviews…
Go beyond Google: While many good sources are available on the “open internet” (through Google), you are required to also use some sources that come from library databases and/or academic journals.
Tips to prepare your essay:
Finding a topic
Feel free to use this as an occasion to write about a movement that is relevant to your major or of personal importance to you.
That said, it does not have to a movement you agree with.
While you should address goals and tactics, and evaluate the success of the movement, you will also need to narrow your focus to a question particular to your movement. This is your research question.
Spend time honing your research question. This part of the process takes longer than most people think.
The most compelling papers will begin with questions that you genuinely do not know the answer to right away. One good strategy is to explore topics about which you really havenot yet formed an opinion. Alternatively, there may be issues about which you do have a tentative opinion, but feel you lack the data to back your ideas up. Use this as an opportunity to develop your gut reactions into opinions well supported critical thinking.
Writing
As this is a lengthy paper, you cannot complete it at the last minute. Take full advantage of the process assignments in the last weeks of class to move your project forward.
Your organization may be messy at first. Let it be that way. At the start of the writing process, it will be more important to develop material and hone your ideas through writing than it will be to have a coherent outline.
Finally, and crucially, political rhetoric, as we have seen, is often inflated, imprecise, and full of fallacies. Instead of adopting this style of rhetoric, it is doubly important that your essay makes good use of evidence and represents all points of view respectfully and accurately.
