Task:
Write a 4 page profile or article in the style of the examples you’ve read. You might, for example, ask people “do you think beauty is a social construct, or is it something that we recognize universally?” or “do the multitude of voices that speak at us from places like Twitter and television change the way that we think?” A specific question will yield the best results. Don’t ask “Is Facebook good or bad”—this will leave far too much open space, and too many scattered possibilities. Better to ask “do self-presentation practices on Facebook filter in the physical world? How so?” This should accomplish three things:
Inform your audience on a topic of your choosing. It can be (but is not limited to) an event, issue, person, or group. Start a conversation with others and present your findings. Think of this as a kind of “problem profile”—an experiment that you conduct to educate your reader.
Use interview sources to help you make a statement about your topic. These quotes are your “evidence.”
Integrate your sources in such a way that you present a cohesive argument about your topic. You’re profiling it for us, but what do you think it means? What does it add up to?
For the topic stay away from social media!
Process:
Don’t do any formal research on this. It’ll just get you off track and take up valuable time. Use people around you as sources. The internet is your worst enemy for this kind of assignment.
Listen to peoples’ conversations. Not in a creepy way, but see what kinds of things people are talking about. What kinds of questions would you have for them? What is the larger debate that they’re participating in?
Explore your interests. There’s a ton of room to roam here—what kind of thing would you like others to know more about? What kinds of questions could you ask that would lead people to talk about the things you’re interested in?
Ask specific questions. You won’t get anywhere without them. You need to “lead the witness,” so to speak. Without carefully crafted questions, you won’t get answers that are useful to your project.
Collect lots of quotes. Better to have more ingredients than you’ll need than too few.
Evaluate your sources. Which ones fit best together? Do they push you in some new direction? What point are they contributing to?
Present a main point pretty explicitly. Don’t keep us guessing.
Grading Criteria:
1) Pursues a main idea/point throughout and has some relevant analysis of this problem; 2) incorporates at least 4 sources as interviews and effectively puts them in dialogue with one another as well as the main inquiry; 3) fills four full pages and adheres to the conventions of MLA format.
