English 0950 / Spring 2008 / Essay #4

So far this semester, we have explored the topic of education in three different ways. In Essay 1, we examined what helped and hindered us on our way to college. In Essay 2, we examined and then responded to one reading selection about a student's experiences in college. And in Essay 3, we examined a variety of reading selections and tried to focus on one particular topic or theme as a way to connect the various selections to each other.

As we read and studied all the reading selections, we obviously found a great variety of experiences and opinions about college. However, maybe we can agree that one way of thinking about what some of the authors had to say is that "education should be learning to be critical about the messages that surround us." Therefore, in your fourth and last paper, I am asking you to practice writing critical responses to some of the messages that surround us.

Specifically, I’d like you each to find, analyze, and evaluate some (at least three) texts that educate people about what it means to be a member of a particular group -- like a member of an age group like youth, or a member of a campus group like college athletes, or a member of a gender group like women, or a social class like blue-collar workers, or a political group like independents, or a national group like American, or a religious group like Muslim. The choice of the "group" is entirely up to you, but try to be as precise as you can in defining the group.

The goal in your examination and your essay will be to tell your readers what and how the texts you choose are telling people about being _____ these days. I would expect that you’d build your discussion around some kind of thesis statement or central idea that captures for readers the key to the insights you present in the paper, though the texts certainly don’t all need to say the same things.

For example, you might say for your thesis statement that the 3+ texts you chose to work with all suggest that being a member of the _____ group is a very "responsible" thing to do. Then, for your main ideas or insights in your paper, you might then break that central idea down into "how" and "why" the 3+ texts all present that particular message. For your evidence or support, you will describe, summarize, paraphrase, or quote things from your 3+ texts to support your main ideas.

At least one of your texts must be primarily visual, one primarily written, and one must be a web site or a web page. These three must be "mass-circulated" texts as opposed to a letter from your cousin or a personal photo from you trip to Cancun (though a postcard from a gift shop would work). You will be required to submit these texts with the final draft of your essay.

When I grade your paper, I will look for:

• A clear focus on a central idea that helps readers see what your body paragraphs "add up to."
• Substantial analysis of both WHAT each text’s message is and HOW it sends the messages you say it does.
• A discussion of what you think is good and/or bad about the messages these texts are sending (this is evaluation) and WHY.
• Experimentation with at least one writerly move or trick that you have not tried previously. This could be a stylistic move like rhyming, or a rhetorical move like parallelism.

Process and Due Dates:

We will, together, go through the entire writing process for this essay, and you will be expected to demonstrate significant prewriting (e.g., brainstorming, etc.) and revision. Please see the course schedule for the due dates for the drafts. When you submit your final draft, I may ask you to put it in a folder containing all your prewriting, your working drafts (in order), and your peer review notes. The final draft must have noticeable improvements over the first draft, and it must be at least 2 FULL pages long but NO MORE than 4 pages long.

Grading:

A papers:

• Excellent, interesting, original central idea about how people are educated about a specific social group identity. Appropriate examples and quotations that are clearly linked to the central idea and reflected on in ways that may not have been obvious to readers. Writing that expresses a new idea in a unique way. Uses all of the required length to add important material to the paper.

B papers:

• Good, strong, clear central idea. Appropriate examples well described and connected to the main idea. Writing that expresses an idea in a way that the reader can follow but that may have some flat spots.

C papers:

• OK central idea, maybe obvious to most people. Some combination of examples and generalities. Some drifting of focus.

D papers:

• No real main idea, just a general focus on a particular group. Writing that is very hard to follow.

F papers:

• No submission, or intentional plagiarism.