Assignment I

Assignment I: Rhetorical Analysis and Close Reading

1,800-2,100 words / ~ 6-7 double-spaced pages | 15% of course grade

Due Dates:

  • 400-word preview kit due 2/13
    • Write about your works to explain what they are and why you chose them.
  • 1,000-word proposal/draft due 2/20 (post it as a Page—not a Post—to your site)
    • Think of this as an essay draft, but feel free to break form and talk openly about what you’re trying to do when you’re having trouble doing it. You could, for example, use meta-brackets: [what I’m trying to do here is suggest that…]
  • Peer review due 2/25 (comment on their Page and complete cover sheet)
  • Final draft due March 4—post it as another Page (leave the earlier draft up)

Description:

Your first assignment will be a formal, analytical paper on two contemporary creative works (of two different genres—one work must be written) that address your topic.

 

Discuss how the works address a current social zeitgeist—and what commentaries each or both makes. Choose complementary works—ones you find value in contrasting and/or drawing out likenesses between. Consider this first assignment to be research towards your groups eventual creative endeavor—the cultural product you will pitch. Here you are beginning to ask how other cultural works have addressed similar subject matter—essentially scouting your competition, and figuring out how you’re going to make something different, or what you might want to borrow and adapt.

Genres: fiction book (maybe one chapter), short story, poem(s) by a single author, play, film, TV show, song, game or videogame, visual artwork, architectural work/design, or something else you suggest (just run it by me first)

You should examine the work’s form as well as its content. Consider rhetoric, genre, trope, motif, symbolism, metaphor, structure, character, voice, etc.—whatever applies to your works—and discuss the ways each artifact utilizes these elements to convey itself.

Your essay should have a clear central focus and claim, established early in the paper, and unfold in a series of logically connected paragraphs that continuously develop your argument. It should have a clear introduction and conclusion. The introduction should hook your reader and orient them in the context of your whole argument. Your conclusion should wrap up your argument and leave the reader with something thought-provoking. Your body paragraphs should make ample use of vivid detail and description from your chosen work as evidence for your argument. Body paragraphs should expand and enrich components of your argument but should not stray off topic altogether. You don’t have to do any research for this paper, but if you choose to do so and you want to use additional sources, you should use proper citation format.

It is perfectly fine to choose a work you’ve already read, seen, or otherwise experienced (and depending on your schedule, it might be necessary). However, I strongly encourage you to choose a work you’ve encountered outside of the context of school, and I discourage you from using works you were assigned to consume and/or write about in high school. Canned, clichéd essays about standard high school reading material are not acceptable. The drafting process will be our shared opportunity to make sure you’re not inadvertently heading in that direction.

Grading Criteria

You’ll earn 4 points (of 15) of your grade on this assignment based on process:

  1. Submit all writing, including planning and draft deadlines, on time.
  2. Meet minimum length requirements for each deadline in full.
  3. Directly analyze two pieces of media on topic.
  4. Complete and attend peer review.

You will not be able to recover the above points with revision.

You’ll earn 6 points (of 15) of your grade based on quality of writing:

  1. Address a claim or central set of claims about what commentary/ies the works make.
  2. Make clear and concretely supported claims of analysis in discussion of artifact 1.
  3. Make clear and concretely supported claims of analysis in discussion of artifact 2.
  4. Organize the essay effectively to suit your intents and facilitate insight.
  5. Apply specific, topical rhetorical/analytical ways of seeing to your artifacts.
  6. Write in a manner that is generally clear, makes logical points, and is written in an appropriately professional (that does not mean inflated or intentionally boring—your voice welcome) tone.

You will be able to recover these points with revision.

You’ll earn 5 points (of 15) your grade based on portfolio revision:

After I read the final draft of your assignment, I will give you summarized feedback with three holistic revision tasks. You’ll earn the remainder of your grade on the assignment by attending to those tasks—and writing a cover letter that explains how you did. Revision tasks will be based on the essay meeting adequate standards of organization, purpose, support, voice and style, and mechanics.

You will be able to earn the above points with revision.