Note: again, the above page links in the pull-down menu are for your convenience to find specific aspects of the assignment as you work on your essay.  However, I suggest you read through the entire page first, to get a good overview of what you're to do.  Furthermore, I imbed mini-lectures throughout the page.  I want you to learn from and reflect upon the assignment page, not just find out what you need to do.

Here's a snippet from Steely Dan's "Everyone's Gone to the Movies," this assignment's theme song.

Introduction

Owning an Assignment:

Over the number of years that I have taught writing, I've had many students express a distaste for an assigned topic. They wanted to write about whatever they chose, finding an assigned topic limiting. And they're right. It is limiting. But get used to it. You will find lots of times when you will have writing assignments--both in college and in the business/professional world--where you will have to write whatever is assigned to you.

• "Explain the value of content analysis in media research."
• "Interview the new hires here at Krogers and write an article introducing them to the store employees."
• "How important was the influence of the Civil War on Walt Whitman's poetry? Discuss with specific analysis of at least three Whitman pieces." 
• "Study the cost overruns in your department for the last six months and write a proposal for reducing them."
• Or my favorite that I faced in a final exam for a Jewish History class: "Discuss the history of the Jews from 70 AD to present day." Two thousand years in two hours!

So you have to deal with assigned topics, but you don't have to look at them as mere drudgery. You can make them work for you.

Toby Fulwiler, in The Working Writer, includes a brief discussion about the value of owning an assignment:

To understand and take seriously assignments given by other people, you need to do more than merely react to them. You need to make them your own. One way of owning an assignment is to figure out how doing the assignment benefits you in some way--answers a nagging question, is fun or challenging, helps somebody you care about. Another way of owning an assignment is to break it down to a manageable size so you can handle it with the information and time available. In addition, you may also find a way of doing the assignment that's original and creative--an approach more likely than not to spark interest in your reader. (38)

In other words, the key is to find an angle, a perspective, an approach that is in some way connected to your interests, your experience and your worldview so that you can infuse value into the work. That way, you will learn from the work, and you will more likely find a way to make it interesting and insightful for us, your audience.

Return to top

Topic Questions

Moving on, with this essay, we are going to focus upon something we've all had experience with in popular culture: movies and television. So based on our readings from Common Culture (CC), I'd like you to develop a discussion where you set out to give us insight concerning some aspect of television and/or movies.

Come up with a question that you would like to explore, something that you wonder about, and through which your reading and writing can ultimately bring us insight into the world of TV and/or movies. Here are some examples of ways to approach the subject:

1. Ehrenreich in "Spudding Out" harkens back to an earlier era when people were more active, more involved with friends and activities than we are today (147).

• Paul Reiser, on the 1996 Emmy Awards, made a joke saying much the same:

Before TV we had to go out and make our own friends. Now we can see them on NBC, they're much better looking than most of those we can find, and we can get rid of them in thirty minutes.

• Has television weakened our culture? Were people more active before TV? Were people more socially involved?

None of us can answer such a question conclusively, and I'm pretty sure most of us--even me!--weren't around prior to TV (generally before 1946).

However, we might have parents, grandparents, other relatives or neighbors who were.

Interview one or two who lived at least through their teenage years without TV.

• How do they see TV changing their lives?

• Were they more active, or simply more bored?

• Were their lives richer before TV--or narrower, more provincial, limited?

If you choose to do this for your essay, make sure to read "Tips for Personal Interviews" in ID (321-22).

• And your prewriting should include interview questions and notes on the interview(s) you conduct.

• However, watch out. Just because your relatives and/or friends had certain experiences, this does not mean that they represent most Americans.

To be convincing, you need to find support from somewhere else as well, such as a newspaper or magazine article, that supports your position.

2. Robert Kubey and Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi present intriguing research about the addictive power of television, and the possibility of television influencing viewer attitude and behavior. Other researchers, such as Leonard Eron (in the Frontline video we watched) and George Gerbner (see "Life According to TV" by Harry Waters in CC), make powerful assertions about how movies and TV have affected us detrimentally--making us more violent, sexually irresponsible, racist, misogynistic and fearful.

However, Sydney Pollack also presents an effective position by asserting that movies only reflect the values and attitudes that already exist in our society.

• Which of these writers/researchers do you find more evident in those around you?

• Do movies and TV primarily reflect our values or do they shape the values of the audience?

I realize that some of you might want to assert that movies and TV do both.

• Doing so is fine, but which is more so?

• Reflect or shape?

• And--I suggest you focus on one specific value or attitude, such as body image or sexual behavior, among a specific population, like preteen girls, or college-age men. Also, plan to focus on a specific TV show or movie.

3. Ehrenreich provides insight about TV viewers from analyzing her family's behavior. Do the same with your family or friends.
   • But consider doing so with a focus on a recent national event, such as the anniversary of the 9-11 terrorist bombings, the Iraq War, presidential primaries, or even something like the American League Playoffs. 
   • What insight can you give to us about the part TV has played in dealing with this event? Has it helped? Or has it hindered?

4. There are several other articles about TV and movies in CC, dealing with reality shows, the Simpsons, violent movies and such. You can choose to provide insight dealt with in one of these articles. 

Return to top

Remember your audience

We, the members of this class, are your audience.  As I mentioned above, your goal is to provide us insight about some aspect of TV or movies.

To do so, you need to persuade us that your point of view is credible and interesting.

• Of course, there are many ways to do so that ID discusses throughout the text.  However, there are four ways to reach your audience that I'd like to highlight here.

1. Consider the points of view that class members make in class or the Writer's Café.

• For example, if you notice  a class member saying  that the Legend of Zelda: The Windwaker is a really enjoyable game, how effectively will you communicate to him or her if you state that only a baby would play on a Nintendo video game system? 

Of course this doesn't mean you can't disagree with each other.  Doing so is inevitable.

But doing so respectfully will get your audience to consider you position valid and worth listening to even if they disagree.

2. Another way to persuade us of the validity and significance of your point of view is by specific, detailed examples from your own experiences and observations.

• If you can show us expertise--

• by sharing an anecdote about TV viewing in your family or

• by showing us the extensive skills needed to be a successful video game player--

• then we are more likely to consider your point valid.

• And more likely to consider it interesting.

• Again, review part 3 of the virtual lecture on academic essays about developing paragraphs.

However, you do need to avoid the logical fallacy hasty generalization. In other words, just because something happened to members of your family or friends doesn't make it so, necessarily, for the rest of our society.

• In other words, just because Uncle Buford roams the countryside yelling "They're hear, watch out for giant pods" after watching Invasion of the Body Snatchers doesn't mean most viewers are influenced the same way.

See the next two points to help broaden your evidence.

3. One other way to persuade us of your point's validity is to use other sources.

• If you find

• an informative discussion in a magazine article about the positive values expressed in reality shows,
• a fact from a credible web page (more on this later) about the average number of hours that teenagers watch TV, or
• a relevant quotation from a newspaper about how movies reflect our society's mores about sex,

• you bring in other voices to your discussion that may enrich you position.

Note again, that you have access to a reference librarian online and in the library who would delight in helping you.  Click here for more information.

4. Finally, you can persuade us of the validity and significance of your point of view by using  the shared knowledge of your audience.

• We've read together three articles from CC on TV and movies. You would do well to use one or more of the articles we've read together.

• Think of the authors we read as other voices that participate in the conversation about the topic you are giving us insight into, voices that you spring off in agreement, disagreement, qualification and such.

• Doing so broadens your credibility, shows us that your point of view is based not only on your perceptive observations, but also on your consideration of a community of writers and thinkers in our broader society.

• Plus using articles we've read together places your topic into a context that we are familiar with and can give us more insight into your point of view.

• And as I noted above, you don't necessarily have to agree with those we read (or that you read in other articles you come upon in your research).

But you do need to disagree respectfully, as you would with one of us.

Just remember that some in your audience may agree with the position you disagree with. If you insult the author, you may be insulting your audience, who may then disregard what you are asserting.

So, again, you would do well to use support from one or more of the selections we've read together.

• Just remember that if you make a point that could be supported by our reading and you don't, your discussion will be less effective for us.

Also, make sure that when you do quote or paraphrase from someone you put the page number in parenthesis. See LPH 127+.

Return to top

Using Sources

Therefore based on the discussion above, this essay should include as support for your discussion the following:

• At least one article from CC

• At least one published source outside of CC (not a dictionary or encyclopedia)

• And the minimum number to use is three.

• Also, note that you need to cite any movies or TV shows you deal with in the essay.

Also, make sure that when you do quote or paraphrase from someone you put the page number, or paragraph number if an online source, in parenthesis. See LPH 65+.

And include a works cited page that presents the sources you use, whether from CC or elsewhere.

• Do note that any essay placed in the portfolio that uses any sources will need to include a works cited page.  See LPH 65+.

Return to top

Requirements

This paper is also to be

• 800-1000 words in length,
• formatted with MLA style guidelines (LPH 94  and sample in Course Files>Samples from Dan) and
• in RTF format.

And again it needs to include a works cited page for the sources you use.

See the virtual lecture on MLA style, under week 7 of our calendar.

And remember: strive to accomplish the maximum number of words allowed on papers--shorter papers typically are not developed effectively with sufficient detail or with sufficient complexity of thought for a college level audience.

• Also, the more effective essays tend to use more than just the minimum three sources for support.

And make sure to keep everything you do in working this paper, including hard copies of the drafts you produce, because I will need to see all of it if you choose the essay for the portfolio.

Return to top

There are five steps that need to be completed as described below to receive full credit for this essay.

Due dates:

• Step 1--annotated bibliography: 10/13/07, Saturday midnight
• Step 2--prewriting: 10/13/07, Saturday midnight
• Step 3--draft: 10/20/07, Saturday midnight
• Step 4--audience response: 10/25/07 Thursday midnight.
• Step 5--revised draft: 10/27/07, Saturday midnight.

Step 1: Annotated bibliography