Writing Project 1: American Culture and American Identity--A Textual AnalysisMinimum Length: 1,000 words (not including quoted material)Format: MLAValue: 75 points (15%)For Writing Project 1, you will be required to think deeply about how a "text" taken from American popular culture reflects, depicts, or conveys the American experience/identity to an audience. The primary "text" that you choose mu
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Writing Project 1: American Culture and American Identity--A Textual Analysis
Minimum Length: 1,000 words (not including quoted material)
Format: MLA
Value: 75 points (15%)
For Writing Project 1, you will be required to think deeply about how a "text" taken from American popular culture reflects, depicts, or conveys the American experience/identity to an audience. The primary "text" that you choose must be an example of one of the following genres: an advertisement (TV, print, or billboard ad); an episode of a television show; a comic book character; a dramatic film; a work of art (such as a painting, a sculpture, a multi-media piece, a poster); a music video. Your job will involve interpreting the significance of your chosen primary text, its theme/message, and the implications of what and how your primary text depicts the American experience/identity.
For example, you may want to choose a car commercial that plays upon our desire to achieve the American Dream. Think about how the product, the car itself, represents a status symbol, the use of patriotic music, and key images. If you enjoy comics, you can examine Superman, who interestingly fights for American ideals despite that fact he comes from another planet and that his powers/identity keeps him separate from others. You may want to take a look at a quintessential American image from one of Ansel Adams' photographs or one of Norman Rockwell's paintings. In your analysis you should not rely on general observations of your primary text. Focus on specific examples and details from your primary text in order to fully develop and illustrate your analysis of the text. Due to the writing project's relatively short length, choose no more than one comic book character, one television episode, one advertisement, one work of art, or one music video.
Please scroll down to view everything. An interesting and informative title An introductory paragraph that identifies your primary text and establishes an explicit statement in your introductory paragraph that makes a claim about your text's message and its impact on our understanding of our the American experience/identity An awareness of audience, purpose, and context An appropriate voice, tone, style, and level of formality An analysis of argumentative strategies and/or persuasive appeals present in your primary text Development and support of a compelling idea through relevant and thorough exploration of one (and only one) primary text Development and support that incorporates ideas and evidence from two (and only two) secondary sources An identifiable structure, including introduction, coherent paragraphs, and conclusion Appropriate conventions for structure and paragraphing Appropriate mechanics and format Effective use of syntax, grammar, punctuation, and spelling Proper documentation of primary text and secondary sources At least two direct quotes from primary text (unless the primary text is a painting/sculpture or some other work that does not contain written text) Incorporating information taken from two (and only two) secondary sources At least one direct quote from each secondary source Appropriate textual conventions for incorporating ideas from sources, e.g., introducing and incorporating quotations; quoting, paraphrasing, and summarizing A minimum of 1,000 words (not including quoted material)
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