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, 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 trying to disprove other scholars or contradict their work. Your claim, rather, should simply situate your topic within an existing conversation. 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.
This paper should be 3-4 pages long, typed, double-spaced, in Times New Roman 12 inch font with 1 inch margins. You should include at least 1 scholarly article, but you should use as many as are necessary. You are also free to use non-peer reviewed sources from quality publications such as those found through the library databases, but this is not a requirement. Bring a rough draft for peer editing Friday, October 2 and Friday, October 9. The paper is due Friday, October 16 by the start of class.
Tuesday, September 22, 2015
Tuesday, September 8, 2015
Essay 1 - Comedy is everywhere
The first paper is a deceptively simple assignment: pick a specific reading from class, or other example of comedy, and write an argumentative 2-3 page essay on it. 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).
This is also going to be one of the more difficult papers to write, as it is very open ended, and asks you to provide a compelling take on any topic of your choosing. You may write about the novel we are reading, 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.
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 to support those claims with specific bits of textual or detailed evidence.
Have a posible topic picked out for a writing exercise on Friday, September 11th. Bring a rough draft to class for Friday, September 18th. The paper is due Friday, September 25th.
This is also going to be one of the more difficult papers to write, as it is very open ended, and asks you to provide a compelling take on any topic of your choosing. You may write about the novel we are reading, 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.
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 to support those claims with specific bits of textual or detailed evidence.
Have a posible topic picked out for a writing exercise on Friday, September 11th. Bring a rough draft to class for Friday, September 18th. The paper is due Friday, September 25th.
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