For the first paper, we practiced emulating one of the central features of academic writing: its narrow, specific, and tight focus. For this second paper, we will keep that level of specificity, but also employ research to connect our claims to the work of other scholars studying the same topic. As with the last paper, you can select any class text as the basis for your analysis, and you are also free to explore other topics of interest to you. The most important thing, again, is not what you write about, but how you write, and by focusing in on a precise detail or aspect of whatever text, film, clip, or other phenomenon you are exploring, you will ensure that your writing keeps this narrow and focused quality.
For this paper, you will again pick a few significant details and focus on explaining their importance. This time, however, you will also add in research to help develop your claims by building them on the views of others. Instead of thinking about research as the process of finding information, we will instead think of it as a process for locating and entering an ongoing scholarly dialogue, conversation, or exchange of ideas. By clearly defining who you are talking to and why you are talking to them, scholarly research helps to focus your writing and to clarify its significance. In addition to finding out facts, academic research helps organize such information into distinct arguments with a defined relationship to one another, thereby clarifying what information is useful and what information is extraneous.
For this assignment, do not think of yourself as simply trying to disprove other scholars or contradict their work. Your claim, rather, should simply situate your topic within an existing conversation, and even when you are exploring a point of disagreement make sure to concede the strengths of other positions and use these strengths to help develop your own views. See disagreement as a way to add specificity and focus to the position you are arguing, not simply as a way to refute or disprove other viewpoints. Be positive and productive: show how the conversations help make sense of what you are studying, and show how your topic contributes and extends existing conversations. Remember the lesson of Monty Python: mere contradiction is not argumentation. Instead, think of yourself as very modestly using the work of others to amplify your claims and help establish why they are significant by clarifying whom you are speaking to and why.
If you are having trouble thinking of a topic, consider using the following prompts to help you, though you are free to write on any topic connected to the course material:
1. Consider how a work of comedy offers a political, social, or moral critique of something. For example, we discussed how the works of Key & Peele create multilayered comedy skits that link relatively minor annoyances with much more serious issues of race, gender, sexuality, disability, and class. Find a piece of research that explores how such issues emerge in works of popular comedy, and use its insights to explore an important issue in the work you are discussing. What does the research allow you to understand about the work of comedy that you did not understand before?
2. Pick a work of comedy and choose a theme, technique, character, or symbol from that work. Then find a piece of research that discusses how a similar theme, etc., functions in comedy. What insights do you gain from your research about the work of comedy you chose? What does the research allow you to understand about the work that you did not understand before?
This paper should be around 1300-1600 words long. It should be typed, double-spaced, in Times New Roman 12 inch font with 1 inch margins. You should include at least 1 peer-reviewed, scholarly article, but you can use as many such articles as are necessary. As long as you include at least one peer-reviewed source, you are also free to use non-peer reviewed sources from quality publications such as those found through the library databases, though this is not a requirement. Bring a rough draft for peer editing Friday, October 11. The paper is due Friday, October 18, by 5pm.
Wednesday, September 25, 2019
Tuesday, September 10, 2019
Essay 1 - Comedy, details, debates
In this initial paper we will practice the first crucial feature of academic writing to master: focus. For the assignment, pick a specific reading from class, or another work that discusses or presents comedy, and locate a significant detail: an element that seems important but whose significance you cannot initially fully explain. In an essay of approximately 1000-1500 words, offer an explicit account of why you think this detail is important. The most important thing for this essay is that you remain focused on the detail and your account of it. Support your claims with concrete features of the work. While you can discuss other relevant aspects of the work, the key is to discuss those other aspects in terms of the main detail.
Your paper should feature a strong, refutable, significant thesis. The thesis should possess all of the components we've discussed in class (clear topic; focusing question; central claim; a connection to and role in a larger debate or conversation; clearly defined key concepts; organized evidence; and a strong sense of significance).You can approach the assignment using either of the two types of comedy analysis we have discussed: dissecting the work as a piece of comedy by using some of the theories we have read; or explaining how comedy itself reveals important truths. Be as specific as you can in posing your questions. Instead of trying to show, for example, which theory of comedy explains why the work is funny, focus on mapping all the features of incongruity theory onto one moment: what are the two ideas contrasted, how are they contrasted, and what does this contrast show? Instead of arguing that a piece of comedy mocks hypocrisy, again, be very focused: map out in explicit terms what the character appears to be, what he or she really is, and what the significance of this deception is.
You may write about a clip we have watched, or about any other thing we have read or watched in class. You may also pick almost anything else of interest to you (run the topic by me if you have any doubts or questions about it). If you are unsure what to write about, then pick something from the class.
Your paper should feature a strong, refutable, significant thesis. The thesis should possess all of the components we've discussed in class (clear topic; focusing question; central claim; a connection to and role in a larger debate or conversation; clearly defined key concepts; organized evidence; and a strong sense of significance).You can approach the assignment using either of the two types of comedy analysis we have discussed: dissecting the work as a piece of comedy by using some of the theories we have read; or explaining how comedy itself reveals important truths. Be as specific as you can in posing your questions. Instead of trying to show, for example, which theory of comedy explains why the work is funny, focus on mapping all the features of incongruity theory onto one moment: what are the two ideas contrasted, how are they contrasted, and what does this contrast show? Instead of arguing that a piece of comedy mocks hypocrisy, again, be very focused: map out in explicit terms what the character appears to be, what he or she really is, and what the significance of this deception is.
You may write about a clip we have watched, or about any other thing we have read or watched in class. You may also pick almost anything else of interest to you (run the topic by me if you have any doubts or questions about it). If you are unsure what to write about, then pick something from the class.
You are only limited in your topic selection by one factor: your paper should have some connection to what we have discussed. Other than that, you are free to pick whatever you want to write about. If you are having a hard time thinking up a topic, consider some of the following prompts.
1. The classic analytical paper: apply concept x to work of art/literature/film y. For this assignment, you want to pick two significant details: one from a work of comedy (or another relevant example) and one from one of the theoretical examples we have read. The trick to this kind of paper is showing not just that you can apply the theory but why this is the best theory to apply. What do we learn by applying this theory as opposed to others? How does it help answer the “so what?” question?
2. Write a short treatise laying out your own theory of comedy. The trick to this kind of paper is showing why your theory helps us understand something the other theories do not explain. Bring in significant details to help do this.
3. Explain some specific event through the lens of comedy theory. Part of answering the question of why studying comedy is significant is showing what we can learn from comedy theory. Can we explain a political or social phenomenon using comedy theory?
As with all college writing, what you write about is less important than how you write about it, and it is this latter skill we are attempting to master. The most important thing for this assignment is to focus in on a very specific feature of the work you are writing about, hone in on a narrow topic and question it suggests, and provide a strong, refutable claim in answer to it. The point of this exercise is to practice framing narrow questions and topics; making significant, specific, refutable, non-trivial claims about them; and supporting those claims with specific bits of textual or detailed evidence.
Have a posible topic picked out for a writing exercise on Friday, September 13th. Bring a rough draft to class for Friday, September 20th. The paper is due Friday, September 27th at 5pm.
2. Write a short treatise laying out your own theory of comedy. The trick to this kind of paper is showing why your theory helps us understand something the other theories do not explain. Bring in significant details to help do this.
3. Explain some specific event through the lens of comedy theory. Part of answering the question of why studying comedy is significant is showing what we can learn from comedy theory. Can we explain a political or social phenomenon using comedy theory?
As with all college writing, what you write about is less important than how you write about it, and it is this latter skill we are attempting to master. The most important thing for this assignment is to focus in on a very specific feature of the work you are writing about, hone in on a narrow topic and question it suggests, and provide a strong, refutable claim in answer to it. The point of this exercise is to practice framing narrow questions and topics; making significant, specific, refutable, non-trivial claims about them; and supporting those claims with specific bits of textual or detailed evidence.
Have a posible topic picked out for a writing exercise on Friday, September 13th. Bring a rough draft to class for Friday, September 20th. The paper is due Friday, September 27th at 5pm.
Thursday, August 29, 2019
Some model blogs
 |
| Why the storm trooper? |
For your blog posts, feel free to follow your interests and passions, even if you see only a tenuous connection to some of the main topics we have discussed so far. All I ask is that the blog posts draw our attention to a piece of writing, a clip, a news article, or even an excerpt from a novel or other longer work, and provide your take on that: why is it significant? What makes it meaningful for you? What do you want others to understand about it? Feel free to interpret comedy in the broadest possible sense: you can blog about not only things that are intentionally meant to be funny, but things that are unintentionally funny, or anything else that presents an interesting incongruity, unexpected detail, or surprising feature that is worth comment.
I'm always a bit hesitant to provide models, because there's no set formula for writing these posts. The following are just some examples of different things you could do, and you should feel free to ignore them if they are not interesting or appealing, for they are not at all the only way of approaching the subject.
Here is an example of a fun post on a very dry topic--typography--that nonetheless points out the unexpected beauties of a classic film (not exactly comedy, but an attention to the little details, which is often a key feature of comedy).
This post is a smart and silly critique of the unintentional comedy and inanities of popular culture.
Here's an example of a music review of an old album of an old band from my hometown that more or less became The Shins. It's not exactly an analysis of something comedic, but it is an insightful review that points out some interesting and unexpected details in its own way.
Of course, best and worst lists can always be a fun way to do a blog post.
You can go with something light and silly on college life or other close-to-home topics. Hey, it may seem a bit informal, but it actually does a very nice job of closely analyzing the language in the emails, albeit in a goofy way.
And of course, you can always try to elevate the dialogue when it comes to current events.
Finally, you can check out some of the previous student blogs for this course (you can find even more if you look in the archive for this blog).
Here is an example of a fun post on a very dry topic--typography--that nonetheless points out the unexpected beauties of a classic film (not exactly comedy, but an attention to the little details, which is often a key feature of comedy).
This post is a smart and silly critique of the unintentional comedy and inanities of popular culture.
Here's an example of a music review of an old album of an old band from my hometown that more or less became The Shins. It's not exactly an analysis of something comedic, but it is an insightful review that points out some interesting and unexpected details in its own way.
Of course, best and worst lists can always be a fun way to do a blog post.
You can go with something light and silly on college life or other close-to-home topics. Hey, it may seem a bit informal, but it actually does a very nice job of closely analyzing the language in the emails, albeit in a goofy way.
And of course, you can always try to elevate the dialogue when it comes to current events.
Finally, you can check out some of the previous student blogs for this course (you can find even more if you look in the archive for this blog).
Wednesday, August 28, 2019
Lead blogger schedule
September 6: Kimberly (kimberlykiepek.blogspot.com)
Sept 13: John (ComedyPhilo.blogspot.com)
Sept. 20: Jack (JackFBarton.wordpress.com)
Sept. 27: Alex (www.reddit.com/user/ajn0928)
Oct. 4: Anna-Kathleen (captivatingcomedycomments.blogspot.com)
Oct. 11: Lauren (https://laurenpetersonfyw.blogspot.com/)
Oct. 18: McKenna (https://mckennafyw.wordpress.com)
Oct. 25: Elizabeth (elizabethfyw.wordpress.com)
Nov. 1: Mallory (mallorytfyw.blogspot.com/)
Nov. 8: Rebecca (rebeccasblogfyw.wordpress.com/)
Nov. 15: Walker (walkerfyw.blogspot.com)
Nov. 22 (to discuss on Dec. 4): Grace (gmorrellfyw.wordpress.com)
Monday, August 26, 2019
Welcome! Here is our course schedule updated in real time
After the first few weeks, the assignment for each Wednesday also includes reading and responding to the lead blogger, and the assignment for each Friday includes reading and commenting on your peers’ blogs. From time to time I may move readings around or replace them to more closely coincide with the class’s current interests. Watch this blog for these updates. All schedule changes will be posted here. I will only update the Moodle syllabus in the rare event of a course policy change. Although I will try to post an updated version of the schedule online as quickly as possible, you are responsible for all changes announced in class.
Course schedule:
Week 1: Introductions
M: August 26
W 28: Introduction.
Other activities: Start blog
F 30: Watch: Monty Python, Argument Clinic sketch.
Read: “Theories of Humor" and Nancy Sommers, Revision Strategies
Other activities: Start blog, email me the link, and select a date to serve as lead blogger. Post your first blog entry on the best piece of comedy you’ve seen recently (post the link or describe it), and whether you feel the reading helps you understand the work or its ideas.
Week 2 – Superiority, Incongruity, Relief: Theories of the Comic
M Sep. 2: Labor Day. No Class.
W 4: Read: Lippitt
Other activities: Write a blog post on which account you find most persuasive, and use another example of comedy to illustrate your claims. Do the theories just describe different types of comedy, or does one get closer to the essence (and why aren’t all examples of incongruity, superiority, or relief funny?)
F Sep. 6: Read: Lippitt
Week 3 – Peer Editing
M 9: Read Lippitt.
W 11: Blog discussion
Other activities: Post your response to the lead blogger’s post for all Wednesday classes. We will usually discuss the lead blog and the piece of comedy it analyzes on Wednesdays. We will also usually discuss some shorter readings to guide our discussion.
F 13: Read McGraw and Warner.
Other activities: Read each other’s posts and leave comments for each Friday class. Fridays we will continue our discussions of your blogs, focusing on your responses to each other. Highlighting the work of classmates during our discussion is an excellent way to participate. We will also use Fridays for activities such as peer editing or discussing an additional reading or a film.
Week 4 – Comedy and Politics
M 16: Read: “Waiting for the Conservative Jon Stewart.”
W 18: Blog discussion
F 20: Bring rough draft for peer editing.
Week 5 – When are We “Just Joking”?
M 23: Read: This Article on Trump’s Humor
W 25: Blog discussion
F 27: Paper 1 due. Writing workshop or possible library day.
Week 6 – Incongruity Theory’s Founding Father
M Sept. 30: Read: Hutcheson, “Thoughts on Laughter”
W 2: Blog discussion
F 4: Writing workshop or other activity TBA.
Week 7 – Great Job
M Oct. 7: Reading/Viewing TBA or Possible library day
W 9: Blog Discussion
F 11: Bring rough draft for peer editing.
Week 8 – All Your Breaks are Belong to Us
M 14: Fall break. No class.
W 16: Blog discussion
F 18: Paper 2 due. Writing workshop or library day.
Week 9 – Genres: Irony and Satire
M 21: Read The Irony of Satire
W 23: Blog discussion
F 25: Writing workshop or other activity TBA.
Week 10 – Comedy and Tragedy
M 28: Read: Zupancic
W 30: Blog discussion
F Nov. 1: Bring rough draft of paper 3.
Week 11 – We Live in a Society
M 4: Read Article on Gang Weed
W 6: Blog discussion
F 8: Paper 3 due. Writing workshop or other activity TBA.
Week 12 – Throwing Your Old Car Battery Into the Ocean
M 11: Read article on Tide Pod Memes and Article on Millennial Humor
W 13: Blog discussion
F 15: Bring Rough Draft of Paper
Week 13 – It’s Free Real Estate
M 18: Read: Article on Meme Warand Article on Memes and Politics
W 20: Blog Discussion
F 22: Bring rough draft of paper.
Week 14 – Wait for it…
M 25: Read: Article on Memes and Dadaism
W 27: Thanksgiving break
F 29: Thanksgiving break
Week 15 – Recovering from Steamed hams
M Dec. 2: Read: Zupancic
W 4: Bring draft.
F Dec. 6: Bring draft.
Week 16 – Press F
M 9: Last class.
W 11: Study day.
F 13: Final exams.
Course schedule:
Week 1: Introductions
M: August 26
W 28: Introduction.
Other activities: Start blog
F 30: Watch: Monty Python, Argument Clinic sketch.
Read: “Theories of Humor" and Nancy Sommers, Revision Strategies
Other activities: Start blog, email me the link, and select a date to serve as lead blogger. Post your first blog entry on the best piece of comedy you’ve seen recently (post the link or describe it), and whether you feel the reading helps you understand the work or its ideas.
Week 2 – Superiority, Incongruity, Relief: Theories of the Comic
M Sep. 2: Labor Day. No Class.
W 4: Read: Lippitt
Other activities: Write a blog post on which account you find most persuasive, and use another example of comedy to illustrate your claims. Do the theories just describe different types of comedy, or does one get closer to the essence (and why aren’t all examples of incongruity, superiority, or relief funny?)
F Sep. 6: Read: Lippitt
Week 3 – Peer Editing
M 9: Read Lippitt.
W 11: Blog discussion
Other activities: Post your response to the lead blogger’s post for all Wednesday classes. We will usually discuss the lead blog and the piece of comedy it analyzes on Wednesdays. We will also usually discuss some shorter readings to guide our discussion.
F 13: Read McGraw and Warner.
Other activities: Read each other’s posts and leave comments for each Friday class. Fridays we will continue our discussions of your blogs, focusing on your responses to each other. Highlighting the work of classmates during our discussion is an excellent way to participate. We will also use Fridays for activities such as peer editing or discussing an additional reading or a film.
Week 4 – Comedy and Politics
M 16: Read: “Waiting for the Conservative Jon Stewart.”
W 18: Blog discussion
F 20: Bring rough draft for peer editing.
Week 5 – When are We “Just Joking”?
M 23: Read: This Article on Trump’s Humor
W 25: Blog discussion
F 27: Paper 1 due. Writing workshop or possible library day.
Week 6 – Incongruity Theory’s Founding Father
M Sept. 30: Read: Hutcheson, “Thoughts on Laughter”
W 2: Blog discussion
F 4: Writing workshop or other activity TBA.
Week 7 – Great Job
M Oct. 7: Reading/Viewing TBA or Possible library day
W 9: Blog Discussion
F 11: Bring rough draft for peer editing.
Week 8 – All Your Breaks are Belong to Us
M 14: Fall break. No class.
W 16: Blog discussion
F 18: Paper 2 due. Writing workshop or library day.
Week 9 – Genres: Irony and Satire
M 21: Read The Irony of Satire
W 23: Blog discussion
F 25: Writing workshop or other activity TBA.
Week 10 – Comedy and Tragedy
M 28: Read: Zupancic
W 30: Blog discussion
F Nov. 1: Bring rough draft of paper 3.
Week 11 – We Live in a Society
M 4: Read Article on Gang Weed
W 6: Blog discussion
F 8: Paper 3 due. Writing workshop or other activity TBA.
Week 12 – Throwing Your Old Car Battery Into the Ocean
M 11: Read article on Tide Pod Memes and Article on Millennial Humor
W 13: Blog discussion
F 15: Bring Rough Draft of Paper
Week 13 – It’s Free Real Estate
M 18: Read: Article on Meme Warand Article on Memes and Politics
W 20: Blog Discussion
F 22: Bring rough draft of paper.
Week 14 – Wait for it…
M 25: Read: Article on Memes and Dadaism
W 27: Thanksgiving break
F 29: Thanksgiving break
Week 15 – Recovering from Steamed hams
M Dec. 2: Read: Zupancic
W 4: Bring draft.
F Dec. 6: Bring draft.
Week 16 – Press F
M 9: Last class.
W 11: Study day.
F 13: Final exams.
Monday, November 26, 2018
Training wheel phrase exercise
Here's the link to the exercise. Use this as a way to get started on your final paper if you are having problems. Even if you are not, it's not a bad idea to use some or all of the techniques this suggests.
Thursday, November 8, 2018
Essay 4 - Term Paper
The final paper will be a more developed, somewhat longer paper that builds on all the skills we have practiced so far: focusing on a narrowly defined topic, locating and entering a conversation, and supporting a strong claim. For this final paper, we will be increasing the number of peer-reviewed sources to five (5). The purpose of this added research will be to allow you to more fully develop the conversation you are joining, and to allow you to more authoritatively address the relationships between your sources and your position within the conversation.
For paper four, you might think of yourself as in a similar position to that of a journalist who is investigating a specialized issue and attempting to translate it into terms understandable by the general public. Talking to experts and reading their work will not only help you first grasp and understand the terms of the conversation, but it will allow you to clarify what you think is most important about the issue for your own readers, and to do so with authority. Comparing and contrasting the different scholarly views will let you clarify assumptions that one scholar relies on but that another scholar either disagrees with or articulates in a different form.
Once again, you are free to write on any topic that is related to our course materials and discussions over the semester. If you are feeling stuck, remember that we have discussed two major types of papers so far: those that apply theories and research to specific pieces of comedy, and those that analyze an issue in comedy theory. You can focus on either of these or produce some combination of the two. The most important thing, regardless of topic, is to focus the majority of your paper (70-80%) on explaining/justifying your central claim and analyzing your evidence.
The final paper should be 2000-2500 words long (not including works cited page) in Times New Roman, 12 point font, with 1 inch margins. If you want to have a chance to submit an early draft for a grade and full comments, you will need to submit it by Monday, November 26. The final paper is due Tuesday, December 11, by midnight.
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