Below is a description of the final group project requirements.  As discussed in class, I modified some of the assignments in an effort to both 1) allow room  for  us to reflect on the post election climate 2) to reflect the change in the syllabus re the second paper and 3) to stream line project requirements.  These changes have also been made on the “assignments” page.

PROJECT [30 %]

The final project will bring together the three primary learning objective areas:  analysis, argument, and research.   Still an underlying critical thinking/life objectives for this course has been for students to think about the way language structures our idea of freedom, people, and democracy.   I want students to understand writing as a dynamic part of world making as being both a matter of communicating (articulating and listening), but also as a way of thinking, exploring, and experimenting.   The final project will be a group project that ask students to bring their work into an online and public format.  Given the intense climate of this election season and the post election results, I am asking that each group make an argument about some issue they view as important in this post election/transition season.  Groups may use their initial group themes to make that argument or they may decide to alter their focus some what or greatly.  What’s important is that the final project and its components work as one coherent site, with a coherent aim, and an articulate argument.

Drawing from our three primary learning objectives as a writing course (analysis, argument, research), each final project must includes:

1. a full annotated bibliography with introduction.  This annotated bibliography will constitute the bulk of the research your group has done in regards to the argument you’re making.   While I will not dictate how group’s divide the labor, there should be five accurate and correctly formatted bibliographic entries with annotations PER PERSON in  your group (i.e. 20 entries for a group of four and 15 for a group of three).   It is possible that a group might use the annotations individuals used for their social media election guide annotated bibliography.  Just remember that your annotations here will be more thorough, that the sources should all work together to support your project’s argument, and that you need to have 2-3 paragraph introduction to the annotated bibliography.
2. a visual analysis of a campaign ad (note: you may request approval to do an analysis on some other relevant visual media).  Again if one of your group members’  visual analysis post fits well with your project then you might decide to work with that post.  Please note that it will not be enough to cut and paste the visual analysis without any revision or edits.  You should make sure that the analysis clearly introduces the ad, what it’s about, when/where it circulated, its main objectives and main strategies.   Then you should identify three or four specific aspects of the ad to analyze. You should discuss how these elements work individually and together.  You should discuss how they work to/for the main objectives and strategies, but you should also discuss what in excess of the main objectives and strategies they communicate.  You should point out assumptions they make about the viewer, the viewer’s values, and/or the concept or figures presented in the ad (what a leader is?  what freedom is; what a working class victory is? etc.)  I will grade this analysis with more rigor than I assessed the post.  You should make sure the analysis is well organized and thorough and that the grammar is accurate and the language coherent and clear.
3. a group authored “about” section in which you one describe the design and aims of the site.   This “about” section should be the equivalent of 3-5 pages  in a Word document (if it were double spaced with 1 inch margins 12 point Times New Romans font).  In this “about” I am looking for the following:
   1. a clear and logically sound argument about some issue your group finds important for us to think about in this post election/transition moment.
   2. a clear and logically sound articulation of why the issue is important and why your group is taking the particular stance that they are taking
   3. a discussion of one or two relevant examples that help the reader to see/consider your argument and how you’re putting it together.  Note: It’s not a traditional paper because you don’t have to  make all of your  case in this prose.  The whole site will make your  point. The annotated bibliography and its introduction will be a rather explicit place to support your argument with research, but you will also be able to make your argument with your analysis, with the type of media you collect, and how you present that media (i.e. how you juxtapose images or the captions you ad to links to news articles)
   4. a clear articulation of the aims of the web/blog site.  What do you want visitors/readers to do or think when they interact with your site.
   5. a brief discussion of how the visual and navigation layout of the site work to support your argument and the aims you have for those visiting your site.
4. 6-8 relevant pieces of media (at least two pieces of media per person in your group, not including campaign a the visual analysis).  Note for the project it’s only required that you include the media and that it is accurately titled and cited with working links.  However note that offering captions or annotations or drawing arrows or juxtaposing an  image with another image that zooms in  one part of the original might help you to make your point more clearly and for the site to work more cogently as its own thing.  The decision about how to frame, present, and/or analyze these pieces of relevant media is up to your group.
5. a piece of relevant creative work.  “Creative” is a very open category.  It just has to be a creative work authored by at least one person  in your group.   It can be a poem, a visual, a song, a collage, a mock advertisement, etc.

Assessment:

There will be only one grade for the project, but people may receive different grades based on their individual contribution to the project.   Individual grades will be calculated as follows:

• 40% Group Project Grade (will be the same for everyone in the group).
  • 50% completeness (satisfies above requirements)
  • 30% mechanics (clear and accurately cited, thoroughly reviewed for language/grammar).
  • 20% overall quality (works on its own and not just as a project in this class).

• 30% Individual Project Evaluation Grade
  • 50% self-evaluation
  • 50% group evaluation form

• 30% Individual Project Participation
  • 25% timely and thorough completion of all pre-project assignments and check-ins
  • 25% active, reliable, and relevant contribution to all in-class discussion
  • 25% reasonable and respectful out-of-class communication with group*
  • 25% thoughtful and substantive revision/translation of any individually authored piece of academic or creative work you contribute to the project

Annotated Bibliography (Final Project):

As part of your final project, your group will create an annotated bibliography.  Annotated bibliographies are a list of quality sources around a particular research theme/question.  The list includes full and accurate bibliographic entries + a brief description (annotation) about each text and its relevance.

For your project, your bibliography will be organized around your group’s research topic/questions.  You will follow MLA guidelines for formatting the bibliography entries, and your annotations will be 3-5 sentence paragraph (for each text).  Your annotation will describe: what kind of text this source is; what its main goal is; who its audience is; and how it might be particularly useful to the topic and question your group is focusing on. [note: If you review the UNC handout on Annotated Bibliographies, you should think of your annotations  as “combination” annotations with a strong emphasis on the “summary” and “informative” aspect of the annotation.]

In your final project, your group annotated bibliography will have at least 20 solid entries, and it will include a 2-4 paragraph  introduction describing how these texts work together.    While the annotated bibliography is not a research paper, it is a kind of writing that has a purpose and even an angle.  Your introduction will make a case for how your 20 sources work together.  Some questions you might address are:  what kind of research questions do these sources help answer?  What kind of arguments might they help construct?   What kind of debates do they make clear or challenge?   You should have a kind of thesis statement.  You are not writing the research paper, but you should have a proposed thesis statement and research questions in this introduction, and you should tell us generally speaking how the 20 sources will help support that paper.  The individual annotation paragraphs will speak more specifically as to how that particular source might potentially support the paper.

For more on annotated bibliographies, consult the handouts posted on the tool box page.