Below are more details about your assignments. This information will also be on Canvas when it’s closer to the due date. In case you’re wondering why I have two websites, I’ll tell you. This website is something the world can see, and you should be able to access it anywhere in the world. Sometimes, Canvas doesn’t allow you in, and you have to search for alternative ways to get information about the class. At least with this website, you can see what’s coming up if Canvas isn’t cooperating.
Please don’t e-mail me assignments. Canvas will allow you to turn everything in. If you have trouble, e-mail me, and we’ll see if we can’t fix things.
Participation (Every Class Meeting)
This is not a drill-on-skill type of course. I expect everyone to be involved in class discussions, which are extremely important for critical thinking. You must contribute to class discussions. Twenty percent (20%) of your grade is based on participation.
In-class participation means you are ready to be called on at any time to respond to a question, prompt, and/or suggestion about the course material. Yes, I will call on you in class periodically, so be prepared to demonstrate that you’re reflecting thoughtfully on the readings. Thoughtful reflection doesn’t mean you give THE answer; instead, it means you show awareness for the complexity of our subject by describing your interpretation or asking questions that demonstrate critical thinking (as opposed to certainty). We embrace ambiguity in this course.
Merely showing up will not get you participation credit—you must engage the course materials. If you’re not in class, you can’t receive credit, so your participation grade will be affected. I will note your participation (or lack thereof) daily. Thoughtful participation means that you engage critically in our discussions or ask engaging questions about the subject. Contributions AND questions both count as participation, so, if you’re confused, please ask.
Doing work for another class or distracting other students will lower your participation grade—even to the point of falling below 20% (meaning, you can have a negative participation grade).
Please see me ASAP if you’re concerned about your participation grade because you’re shy or if you don’t understand these requirements. Telling me at the end of November that you didn’t participate because you’re the quiet type or because you didn’t understand what “thoughtful” meant will be too late. The purpose of participation is for students to have control over their own learning and to reinforce critical thinking generally and dialogic exchange of ideas specifically. I am willing to provide a quasi-alternative to supplement a student’s participation grade, but please note that discussion, which allows speakers to exchange ideas, is an extremely important component of critical thinking. One alternative is to do class reflections you post online. Please discuss this alternative with me early in the semester…like today!
Weekly Discussion Posts
Once a week, you will have a prompt on Canvas to reflect upon. You must complete these prompts by Thursdays at 11:00pm–not midnight. Set a reminder because you will not be able to submit late posts. I highly recommend you type these reflections up on a word processor (Microsoft Word, Google Docs, etc.) and then copy and paste the response into Canvas. You don’t want to type directly into Canvas and risk losing your work due to some glitch or timing out error. As you’ll learn from our texts*, machines have minds of their own! There’s no right or wrong answer for these prompts, but I do expect you to be inspired by the course material.
*By “text,” I mean novels, short stories, articles, films, TV shows, or any media.
These post are to be at least 250 words. This assignment is worth 20% of your grade, so please don’t blow this off.
Essay #1–American Culture (Due 9/20)
You will submit this via Canvas.
As you read and watch for class, consider the values that are important for a culture (but we’re thinking of American Culture or cultures mostly in this class). I want you to choose an important cultural phenomenon related to our readings. I give you lots of leeway on how you interpret our texts. All I ask is that you make an argument, and, briefly, describe how it is present or manifests itself in American culture. For example, below is a cultural phenomenon I’ve noticed. I explain a practice and offer observations to prove the practice/behavior is common. Then, I offer suggestions about why this practice is so prevalent:
Cell phones (or mobile communication devices) are nearly ubiquitous in American culture. People seem to be constantly “glued” to these devices. I see (yes, you may have a first-person perspective using ‘I’) people leave their cars with cell phones at their ears; they walk into the grocery store talking on them; they continue to talk as they browse the shelves; and they even poorly multitask by talking on their phones and navigating the self-checkout (or worse, they talk on the phone while someone checks their items out).
Observation of cell phone usage
Below is my analysis of the above phenomenon related to one of our texts, The Matrix:
The Matrix reflects the contemporary phenomenon of ubiquitous cell phone usage in American culture because, metaphorically, being jacked into the matrix is similar to the ability to be constantly connected to others. We have many screens that allow users to be virtually connected to each other or potentially can be all the time.
Connecting my observation to one of our texts
Of course, the above is a start, and you’ll need to use specific quotes, but I would like you to think about (and read about) one of our texts from a cultural perspective. You may also incorporate texts from outside our course assigned material (films, readings, TV shows), but please discuss (and don’t summarize) at least one of our texts.
Prevailing American culture is often seen as Western, Industrial, Democratic, etc. You shouldn’t think of this as “Your view of what the values of American culture should be.” Remember, values aren’t always valued. Racism and sexism are American/Western values. You must describe (make an argument for) why you feel a value is part of this culture. Point to an example outside of the course texts. Although we might all agree that a particular value (e.g., individualism) is an American value, you must offer support for such a claim—you can’t just state it.
I do not expect you to go into a tremendous amount of research for this, but you should relate this to one of our texts (readings, films, TV shows). The above is a guideline, but don’t feel you have to stick to it. I am requiring you to write about one of our texts, but, if you have a different theoretical lens with which you’d like to analyze our texts, please do so. The goal is to show me you’re thinking about the material and can make some kind of cogent argument. ABSOLUTELY DO NOT SUMMARIZE ANY OF OUR TEXTS. If you bring up an outside text, provide some context, BUT DO NOT SUMMARIZE THE PLOT. You are making an argument about how the text works; what is it saying between the lines; how you’re interpreting it?
After you identify and describe the values, you must describe how those values are embodied in the culture at large. For instance, if individualism is a value you discuss, identify where in the culture individualism is promoted. Think of commercials, political expression, educational norms, cultural behaviors, etc. You may use “I” and even bring in personal examples, but you have to defend your reasons for arguing the way you do. Below are the format logistics:
- Typed, double spaced (except heading), 12 pt font
- 1-inch margins all around
- Page numbers (anywhere)
- A title other than “Essay 1“
- At least four (4) pages–beyond the Works Cited/References page
- In-text citations: when you quote–and you will have to for this essay–you must cite where the information came from.
- Works Cited/References page (I don’t care which style–MLA, APA, Chicago, etc.–you use for your paper, but please choose one)
- See Purdue University’s OWL for help with in-text citations and Works Cited/References pages
The Works Cited/References page(s) does not contribute to the 4-page requirement. Also, don’t pad your essay with unnecessary long quotations. When you don’t introduce a quotation, it’s a dead giveaway that you’re throwing it in to boost your essay’s length. That’s not appropriate and will affect the final grade. Additionally, summarizing isn’t appropriate for this essay, and doing so will lower your grade or require you to redo the essay.
If you need more help coming up with a topic, consider the following questions for the traditional cultural studies essay:
- Can you easily identify the American (or just cultural) value?
- Is the value appropriate for the culture?
- Is there a common example that you can refer to in order to help identify the value?
- Is there enough support to claim it’s an American value?
- Can you identify where you explain how the text embodies the value?
- Are the examples appropriate for the value?
- Are the arguments (proof) presented valid…do they make sense?
- Do you have appropriate quotations? Do you have any? You’re supposed to use in-text citations and quote from the class texts to show me you’re reading/watching.
I highly recommend that you start with an outline in order to see the shape of your argument. I do expect these to be grammatically correct, but don’t fixate on grammar and correctness–your ideas are more important. That being said, this is a 3000-level college course, and I’m an English professor, so consider that as you revise. I know you’ve had previous writing classes, so this isn’t your first time writing.
Essay #2–Social Science Fiction (Now Due Friday, 11/17, 11:00pm)
I’m going to let you choose to do another (but longer) essay on American culture and science fiction as you did in Essay #1, but I’m also providing a second option. If you want to do an essay similar to Essay #1, choose texts later in the term (don’t do all the same texts you covered in Essay #1, but you may, of course, reference earlier texts) and follow the guidelines for Essay #1, but, remember, Essay #2 is at least 5 pages.
The second option for Essay #2 is more related to traditional English essay assignments. For this option, I want you to pick a literary device (irony, foreshadowing, metaphor, sarcasm, etc.) and explore that. Now, you can probably combine option 1–focus on American Culture–and this option where you focus on a literary device. That’s fine. Just don’t summarize the texts; instead, explore a theme or literary device. Regardless or what type of essay you choose to do, you must have a reason. You must be able to answer the “so what?” You must explain why you’re trying to convey ideas about these texts. The only way to do that is to make and argument: 1) state a thesis, 2) assert claims, 3) provide evidence for those claims, and 4) explain the significance of your analysis. Therefore, you will avoid summarization because there’s no argument in summarizing.
Because you’ve watched several texts, you may also discuss film techniques, especially ones that increase the dramatic tension of a film or TV show. If you decide to focus on film techniques, you can’t just state that a technique does what you say; you need to argue–provide proof or sound reasoning–that the technique does what you claim.
For instance, the camera angles and lighting used in The Twilight Zone episode “Eye of the Beholder” don’t reveal the faces of the doctors and nurses in the hospital. This makes the audience uncomfortable, heightening the tension of the show. Contemporary filming relies on CGI for special effects, but camera shots are still important. Notice the way Nolan’s filming of vehicles from the side (forward or behind) mimics the way car chases are filmed in movies such as Fast and Furious. Such a technique puts viewers in the driver’s seat so to speak.
SIGNIFICANCE: Such techniques attempt to better immerse viewers into a filmic experience. Historically, theaters provide screens and sound that allow audiences to experience the action as if they were there. New technologies heighten these experiences through greater sound quality and larger screen formats (e.g. IMAX), increasing the audience’s sense of being there. This creates the illusion of being there, which follows Umberto Eco’s argument that “this journey into hyperreality, in search of instances where the American imagination demands the real thing and, to attain it, must fabricate the absolute fake; where the boundaries between game and illusion are blurred” (7-8). These contemporary film techniques provide the feeling of immersion: one is not in danger of being in a car chase or spaceship on an alien world but still feels as if the experience, the fake experience, is more real.
Eco, Umberto. Travels in Hyperreality: Essays, translated by William Weaver. Harcourt, Brace & Company, 1986.
Notice that the above quotation is a long one. More importantly, notice that it wasn’t dropped in without an introduction; also, it didn’t serve as a conclusion but had further analysis. This passage would make more sense in an essay on hyperreality, so, when you reflect on your essay choices, ask if your assertions are explained and if they make sense in regard to your overall essay’s goal.
Below are the format logistics:
- Typed, double spaced (except heading), 12 pt font
- 1-inch margins all around
- Page numbers (anywhere)
- A title other than “Essay 2“
- At least five (5) pages–beyond the Works Cited/References page
- In-text citations: when you quote–and you will have to for this essay–you must cite where the information came from.
- Works Cited/References page (I don’t care which style–MLA, APA, Chicago, etc.–you use for your paper, but please choose one)
- See Purdue University’s OWL for help with in-text citations and Works Cited/References pages
The Works Cited/References page(s) does not contribute to the 5-page requirement. Also, don’t pad your essay with unnecessary long quotations. When you don’t introduce a quotation, it’s a dead giveaway that you’re throwing it in to boost your essay’s length. That’s not appropriate and will affect the final grade. Additionally, summarizing isn’t appropriate for this essay, and doing so will lower your grade or require you to redo the essay.
If you need more help coming up with a topic, consider the following questions for the traditional cultural studies essay:
- What factors of the film, TV Show, or short story support my interpretation?
- Am I interpreting the text in a surface, literal way, or am I reading between the lines and focusing on metaphor.
- Do you have appropriate quotations? Do you have any? You’re supposed to use in-text citations and quote from the class material to show me you’re reading/watching.
I highly recommend that you start with an outline in order to see the shape of your argument. I do expect these to be grammatically correct, but don’t fixate on grammar and correctness–your ideas are more important. That being said, this is a 3000-level college course, and I’m an English professor, so consider that as you revise. I know you’ve had previous writing classes, so this isn’t your first time writing.
Midterm and Final Exams
The exams are based on the readings and class discussions. You should read all the material, take good notes, and participate regularly in class in order to do well on the exams. Both the Midterm and Final Exams will be on Canvas, and we won’t meet as a class. Please see the syllabus for exact dates