LONG(ER) CRITICAL DISCUSSION & MULTIMODAL PERFORMANCE
Due 4/29/15 by your usual class time (11:00 a.m. or 2:00 p.m.)HOW TO SUBMIT THIS ASSIGNMENT
As usual, your critical discussion should be submitted to Blackboard via "Assignments." However, please also submit a hard copy of the critical discussion to WMS 221, along with your evaluation sheet. For your multimodal performance: if it is digital, please submit it to Blackboard via "Assignments" and also submit a backup copy on portable media to WMS 221. Your multimodal performance need not be digital! If it is physical/material instead of digital, then I will of course expect you to submit it to me in WMS 221, but you won't need to upload anything to Blackboard.
PURPOSE AND AIMS
For this final assignment, I invite you to revise, extend, and deepen one of your short critical discussions into a longer one (in ~4-5 single-spaced pages, but you may go longer if needed). Please think of this as a real revision, extension, and deepening of the curiosity you have already begun to grapple with! You certainly don't need to make the same argument as you did the first time you wrote it, and you may draw on relevant texts and case studies from any of our units. There are two principal differences between this Final Project and your SCDs:
LONG(ER) CRITICAL DISCUSSION
Here are your aims with this assignment:
MULTIMODAL PERFORMANCE
The multimodal performance should:
Your options are many! For example, you may compose, record, and perform a song on DVD or in mp3 format; construct a short documentary film; compose a poem; choreograph a dance; write or record a skit; design a poster; make a painting; create your own Manga; scrapbook; create a hypertext; do whiteboard animation; make a web-based bibliography; plot a three-dimensional map or a schema; build a genealogy; compose a photo essay; construct a boardgame; craft another material "thing" through quilting, knitting, or crocheting; or etc. The multimodal performance does not have to repurpose your whole argument, although it can do so if you wish. I am primarily asking you to consider how you would communicate the essence of your discovery to a specific audience in another form. Please note that I will need to collect this both in “real” and digital versions, if digital applies.
If you have an idea for the multimodal performance but are uncertain about your platform, or if you are wondering what digital technologies might be available to help you develop the idea into a performative concept, please remember that the Johnston and Williams Digital Studios are staffed by very talented instructors who enjoy working with both low- and high-end applications and who are fairly committed to multimodal composing. Feel free to schedule an appointment online.
PROJECT PROPOSAL
By April 15 (at 11:00 a.m., or 2:00 p.m., depending on your class hour) I will ask you to submit a brief written proposal to me via e-mail with a works cited list in which you explain your chosen critical texts and case studies, and speculate on the argument you will make. Obviously, you cannot know your complete argument at this point, but I’d like you to:
You may absolutely submit your proposal earlier if you would like earlier feedback.
- the scope, breadth, and depth of this final project allows you to write an essay in which you show more mastery of what you have already read; and
- this final project involves a multimodal performance. In some cases, creating the multimodal piece may help you get at the essence of what you want to argue in your critical discussion.
LONG(ER) CRITICAL DISCUSSION
Here are your aims with this assignment:
- To arrive at a discovery that advances your thinking, based on reading several texts or theorists together. This aim has not changed, and in fact, the curiosity, question, or problem that inspired the LCD is more important here than it was in your SCDs. Your reason for writing this project is in your discovery.
- To craft that critical discovery in the form of an essay. To "essay" means to endeavor, to try towards or to claim, so you'll focus this LCD on a critical discovery that you have made as a result of re-synthesizing and re-presenting what you have already read, and you'll unfold that discovery in a series of smaller claims that orchestrate, rather than merely summarize the critical texts you discuss.
- To demonstrate a sophisticated understanding of at least five of our critical texts, their possibilities, and their interpretive limits. Believe it or not, this is not an arbitrary number; "at least five" means you can handle a few more sources at one time than you handled during your SCDs, but not so many that you cannot maintain focus.
- To develop an interesting, specific, and coherent argument through sufficient evidence and examples, from the critical texts, cases, and reference materials. This means demonstrating that you can expertly and accurately apply critical perspectives to each other and to relevant cases. As always, I'll look for how well you can speak alongside and through our course texts. However, this is not a traditional research paper, and so you do not have to seek out additional texts if your argument doesn't need them.
- To articulate how that argument ultimately gives back, either to the problem you are interested in or to the theories themselves. In other words, what is your intervention? Are you hoping to build onto a term? To open up a theory so that it is more inclusive of a particular idea or group of people? To unpack a concept so that your readers notice a neglected part of it? To use one concept to challenge another one? To rethink a model that one of our theorists built? Or, something else?
MULTIMODAL PERFORMANCE
The multimodal performance should:
- communicate (perform or embody) something about your argument that could not be communicated in an essay alone;
- rely on a different system of symbols to complete the project or deliver its essence to an unfamiliar audience (and this audience should be quite specific and identifiable);
- help to deliver your project's rhetorical velocity—to offer some self-reflexivity that makes viewers aware of the constraints of the project, as well as the complexities of its own delivery;
- reflect something you have authentically made or performed (i.e., is not merely a convenient or quick resampling of someone else's multimodal performance);
- act like a genuine component of your final project, rather than an add-on to the critical discussion.
Your options are many! For example, you may compose, record, and perform a song on DVD or in mp3 format; construct a short documentary film; compose a poem; choreograph a dance; write or record a skit; design a poster; make a painting; create your own Manga; scrapbook; create a hypertext; do whiteboard animation; make a web-based bibliography; plot a three-dimensional map or a schema; build a genealogy; compose a photo essay; construct a boardgame; craft another material "thing" through quilting, knitting, or crocheting; or etc. The multimodal performance does not have to repurpose your whole argument, although it can do so if you wish. I am primarily asking you to consider how you would communicate the essence of your discovery to a specific audience in another form. Please note that I will need to collect this both in “real” and digital versions, if digital applies.
If you have an idea for the multimodal performance but are uncertain about your platform, or if you are wondering what digital technologies might be available to help you develop the idea into a performative concept, please remember that the Johnston and Williams Digital Studios are staffed by very talented instructors who enjoy working with both low- and high-end applications and who are fairly committed to multimodal composing. Feel free to schedule an appointment online.
PROJECT PROPOSAL
By April 15 (at 11:00 a.m., or 2:00 p.m., depending on your class hour) I will ask you to submit a brief written proposal to me via e-mail with a works cited list in which you explain your chosen critical texts and case studies, and speculate on the argument you will make. Obviously, you cannot know your complete argument at this point, but I’d like you to:
- discuss the discovery or critical dilemma you are starting with;
- write out as much as you can so that I know how you will use your chosen critical texts and why;
- describe the shape, form, or genre of your multimodal performance, as well as its audience of delivery or circulation;
- articulate up to three (3) specific evaluation criteria that you want me to keep in mind when I determine the effectiveness of your multimodal performance for the audience you have identified.
CHARACTERISTICS AND EVALUATION CRITERIA
This assignment is worth 200 points. Here are some specific criteria I will use to evaluate:
Multimodal Performance
I will use the 3 evaluation criteria you provide to help me determine whether this component of the project really does bring your critical discussion to light in an interesting way. Generally speaking, I don't expect you to create something that a paid professional would do—you may not have the time or expertise to do so. However, this multimodal component should be relevant, thoughtful, identifiable (i.e., I should not have to guess what I am viewing or seeing), polished, and complete. If you relied on any outside sources to construct it (such as image archives or photo banks), please include them on your Works Cited page.
Argument and Thesis
For this assignment, “argument” does not necessarily mean “position” (as in, the traditional pro/con, agree/disagree, good/bad, right/wrong sense of argumentation). It does mean a discovery that can only be arrived at through careful synthesis. Your argument should be interesting, worthwhile, and specific. Your argument should be guided by an original and clear thesis statement that represents the discovery, is not simply a summary of the texts’ main purpose or theme, and does not simply state the obvious about the texts you are reading. In other words, your thesis statement should provide us the result of all your thinking and analyzing, rather than just telling us broadly what you hope to think about or analyze, and it should not simply answer the prompt. If your thesis is complex, it may take a few sentences to articulate all of its points. This is perfectly natural, but please don't make us wait until the end of your LCD in order to find that discovery!
For this assignment, “argument” does not necessarily mean “position” (as in, the traditional pro/con, agree/disagree, good/bad, right/wrong sense of argumentation). It does mean a discovery that can only be arrived at through careful synthesis. Your argument should be interesting, worthwhile, and specific. Your argument should be guided by an original and clear thesis statement that represents the discovery, is not simply a summary of the texts’ main purpose or theme, and does not simply state the obvious about the texts you are reading. In other words, your thesis statement should provide us the result of all your thinking and analyzing, rather than just telling us broadly what you hope to think about or analyze, and it should not simply answer the prompt. If your thesis is complex, it may take a few sentences to articulate all of its points. This is perfectly natural, but please don't make us wait until the end of your LCD in order to find that discovery!
Textual and Contextual Evidence
You’ll want to develop your argument by drawing heavily on the critical text(s) you have chosen, and you’ll want to use examples accurately and well, using in-text (parenthetical) citations throughout your discussion where needed, especially where you paraphrase concepts. Feel free to use examples drawn from class, but please do not just echo the examples back to me without demonstrating that you can extend them. Rather than just relying on what you think is “common knowledge,” use the reference texts to provide essential background. Please cite specific incidents, images, and other textual details. In a discussion this brief, please try to avoid extensive block quoting!
You’ll want to develop your argument by drawing heavily on the critical text(s) you have chosen, and you’ll want to use examples accurately and well, using in-text (parenthetical) citations throughout your discussion where needed, especially where you paraphrase concepts. Feel free to use examples drawn from class, but please do not just echo the examples back to me without demonstrating that you can extend them. Rather than just relying on what you think is “common knowledge,” use the reference texts to provide essential background. Please cite specific incidents, images, and other textual details. In a discussion this brief, please try to avoid extensive block quoting!
Specificity and Situatedness
Some of our collective goals, as a class, are to learn to argue specifically, to question our own assumptions, and to strike a balance between letting the theorist speak to us and speaking back to the theorist. This means making careful observations, providing context details, and avoiding broad generalizations or vague claims (e.g., “Nowadays, things are much better for women writers,” or “In 2015, all genres are complex.”). It also means finding ways to engage with ideas and texts other than merely reacting to them or merely editorializing about them. Instead, I'm asking you to make situated observations (e.g., “In the kind of standpoint feminism that Seyla Benhabib writes about in 1992,” or “Ellen Barton was critical of one of the United Way's 1955 campaign based on its flattening of disability”), and this may seem difficult at first if you've never before been asked to justify your claims in terms of the text.
Reader Awareness
You are writing for a reader (or group of readers) who needs to see that you can carefully handle textual evidence, so be sure to educate them wherever possible by taking the time to define key terms. While I fully expect and fully encourage you to make use of the Oxford English Dictionary, it is not enough to simply justify a claim by saying “According to the Oxford English Dictionary …” You are also writing for a reader (or group of readers) who needs to know by the end of your introduction what their investment is in reading. Try hooking your reader(s) with a critical and imaginative beginning, i.e., a sense that you know what you want to say, and not a vague or wandering or philandering opening. Your introduction should help us understand the specific dilemma that prompted you to write.
Organization and Coherence
How you organize your critical discussion should ultimately reflect the argument you want to make. This includes a clear introduction and conclusion, useful transitions, and adequate development of each point. Your thesis may act like a “thread” for your main and supporting points, and each paragraph should be well focused and guided by something like a topic sentence that helps your thesis to unfold.
Language and Style
Your discussion can be confident and still carry a balanced tone, with neutral language and strong sentences. Your use of terms should be thoughtful, even elegant. You should not need to rely on excessive metadiscourse, “I think/feel/believe,” or “In my opinion” statements to carry your argument forward. It should always be clear who is saying what. Try putting dense or complicated language into your own words, and be sure to report names and titles accurately. No patterns of sentence- or paragraph-level error should get in the way of meaning. Spelling and punctuation should be precise.
Discourse Conventions and Formatting
Your title should reflect what you are trying to argue and may even contain layers of meaning. Citation conventions should be accurate, with your “Works Cited” in MLA format. This means that the final draft should be: Word-processed in a legible 11- or 12-point serif font, and formatted to include 1-inch margins. No cover sheet is necessary, but your name, due date, and course information should appear at the top left of the first page. Please create a header or footer with your last name and page number on all remaining pages.
Please feel free to ask questions at any time if any part of the assignment is unclear, or if you become stuck while working through an idea.
