The Assignment:
For Essay #1, you were to have written your own argument inspired by one of the texts that we read for class. For Essay #2 you wrote an argument that incorporated research. For Essay #3, you will be writing a researched cultural analysis. At the center of this analysis will be a “cultural artifact” of your own choosing (though I will give you some options). Your task will be to write an analytical argument about that cultural artifact. Your main claim will be about the artifact or the artifact’s relationship with the culture that surrounds it, or from which it comes. Your research and writing as a process will help you to make such a claim.
Cultural Artifacts
I am using the phrase “cultural artifact” to denote a wide variety of “texts,” from poems and short stories to advertisements, photographs, television shows, blogs, podcasts, films, and videogames (other artifacts could work, too, such as a building or a celebrity, even a specific belief or practice). We will be discussing numerous cultural artifacts in class as examples. I encourage you to come up with your own, but this does not mean that our classroom examples are off limits; rather, you will have to, as always, move beyond our classroom discussions when you write your own paper with your own ideas. I suggest, but do not require, that you clear your cultural artifact with me before writing your paper.
Details and Requirements
For Essay #3, you will need to incorporate at least five different sources. Only one or two of the sources may be explicitly about your cultural artifact. The other sources must support your argument in some other way. For example, if you were writing about Julian Dibbell’s essay “A Rape in Cyberspace,” you might decide to look up some information about sexism, about cybercrimes, about virtual or electronic identities, or about electronic communities. Research around your topic, not just your topic. In addition to your secondary sources, you will also need to quote or describe your primary source extensively – a major part of your evidence will be your interpretation of the cultural artifact itself. Your paper, as always, needs to include a works cited page, heading, title, etc., and it should be at least six pages long (5½, by the way, is not 6). Whatever you choose to write about, you will have to come up with a creative, interesting, original thesis (overall focus, main claim) that is argumentative (makes a plausible case). You may, if you wish, abandon the subject matter from your Essay #2 entirely. Remember that this assignment sheet is just a guide – we will discuss the majority of the material that you need to accomplish your task; read this sheet many times, before, during, and after you write your paper.
Some important questions that might help to focus your paper are:
How does your artifact present itself or how is it re/presented? What sorts of language or imagery dominate the artifact? What is the artifact intended to convey? What might it express despite itself? Who is it intended to reach? Who might it not be intended to reach … but reaches anyway? What purposes does it have – intended and unintended?
What patterns do you see in your artifact? Why are these patterns there? What do they do?
What cultural phenomenon/trend do other critics/experts interpret your chosen artifact as being a part of? Or, how do these cultural experts analyze your chosen artifact as symbol of a field, culture, or society?
What conflicts, values, beliefs, ambitions, fears, etc., in the culture surrounding your artifact are symbolized by it?
What other cultural artifacts are part of the same trend as yours? Or, where and how does your cultural artifact appear? (You may have to situate your artifact historically and juxtapose it with similar artifacts – i.e. movies of the same genre or period.) Does your cultural artifact follow certain rules of genre (which you might define) and does it break any? How/why? To what effect?
What’s your next question? Let your research be guided by open questions, not by closed opinions or preformed conclusions. Do not simply choose evidence that supports your pre-formulated claim; instead, allow your thesis to be shaped by what you read and what you write. Keep asking “so what?”
Think of your texts as having a “conversation” with each another. What might they be talking about? What might the authors/directors/artists be trying to communicate? What cultural trends are the texts making claims about that are not yet “set in stone” by the public?
The overall goals of this paper are to have a complex (not obvious, not conventional) idea and communicate it well and convincingly (with evidence, interpretation, logic).
A Successful Essay WILL:
Present and develop a strong thesis, which is an interpretative claim (NOT merely an opinion or description) about the phenomenon’s or cultural text’s meaning in or impact on culture, creating a structural framework for the paper, which makes a compelling case for its own significance.
Provide evidence and examples which support its assertions (crucial importance and representative examples).
Employ a logical and effective organizational structure of well-developed paragraphs, smooth transitions, and a strong introduction/conclusion.
Demonstrate familiarity with useful ideas and terms from outside sources.
Engage the reader with “zesty” prose, good diction, rhetorically proper mechanics.
Provide a description that is focused to do the work of analysis – NOT simply a description of the phenomenon. (This is not just a “research paper.”)
You must be very careful not to let your “experts” take over the conversation. This is YOUR interpretation of the phenomenon, using outside sources to support YOUR original claim/thesis and ideas. You are NOT merely summarizing what other people have had to say but demonstrating how this phenomenon/cultural text has reflected/constructed/shaped/influenced representations in the culture(s) surrounding it.
Have a title (perhaps even an interesting one) that relates to the main claims and/or interpretations of the paper.
