Narrative Exploration Essay: DUE 9/19. ONE DRAFT ONLY.
Write a 4-5 page essay that describes an event or series of events in your life that gave you a new awareness of the world around you. Explain how and why the experience changed you.
The purpose of this assignment is to get you thinking about your own thoughts, speech, actions, and reactions and their relationship to the world around you. I want you to emphasize and utilize two main strategies in this essay. First, be descriptive. Describe the scene and your reaction so that some one who was not there can see and feel what you witnessed or experienced. Second, while describing the scene, also make sure that you answer that second part of the prompt—Why. Do not limit yourself in your examination, and, like your description of the scene, try to describe the answer to “why” in a way that helps your reader understand what you already know.
Annotated Bibliography for Research Essay: 1ST DRAFT 10/10, 2ND 10/26
Select a topic that interests you and that you would like to explore further. This is the only assignment for which you are given freedom to select your topic, so feel free to be creative. You will, however, need to defend the topic you have chosen in a reflective essay after you have compiled the bibliography, so choose a topic for which you can fashion a defendable thesis. I am not asking you to actually write a research essay. I want you to do everything leading up to the writing of that paper, so that you can develop the skills to do so in the future. I will be asking you to apply what you have learned about reliable and relevant sources to the next paper, Art as an Expression of Argument.
This assignment has two parts. First, compile an annotated bibliography that consists of at least 8 reliable sources that deal with the topic you have chosen. Two of the sources should have an argument or point that conflicts or disagrees with an argument or point expressed in the other sources. Follow the format for annotated bibliographies we will have discussed at length in class.
Second, write a 2-3 page paper explaining what your potential theses for the research essay would have been if you had to write one. Then explain what your two strongest points would have been and what problems you may have come across as you wrote the paper.
Art as an Expression of Argument: 1ST DRAFT 11/5, 2ND 11/19
Write a 6-7 page essay that explores how one of the following pieces of art expresses a political or cultural argument:
• Guernica by Pablo Picasso, 1937
• Flexible by Jean-Michel Basquiat, 1984
• Judith Beheading Holofernes by Artemisia Gentileschi, 1620
• Liberty Leading the People 28 July 1830 by Eugene Delacroix, 1830
• Number 1 by Jackson Pollock, 1948
Select 1 or 2 basic elements of the art work—the colors that are used, the subject of the painting, the title, how realistic or distorted the lines and figures in the painting are, etc.—and explain how the artist may have been trying to use those elements to express a political or cultural argument. You will need to do some research for this assignment to discover what the political and cultural background of the artist and his or her environment were. You need to have 2 reliable sources that discuss the political or cultural views of the artist or the society the artist comes from. You should use these sources as a sounding board for your ideas. Your citations should be in MLA style (see handout).
Color images of the artwork will be made available to you on this blog. You may choose an alternative work of art, but you will need to bring me a copy of the piece and your ideas before the thesis is due for approval.
The purpose of this assignment is to continue to build your ability to form and analyze argument. I want you not only to be able to make your own argument about what you believe the art is expressing, but also to be able to consider how an artist uses his or her tools to express an argument to an audience. You will also learn to use outside sources as tools for supporting your arguments. A thesis that makes a specific and strongly stated claim will be very important for this paper. Since we have discussed logical fallacies, I will also be paying attention to how sound your logic is for this paper. You will also be able to use some of those great descriptive techniques you developed when writing your narrative essay to describe the elements of the painting you choose.
Letter to Senator or Editor: 1ST DRAFT 11/28, 2ND 12/7
Write a 2-3 page letter to one of your government representatives or to an editor of a newspaper or news magazine (I am not talking Pet Fancy , here. You will need to choose a news source that you can write to about a current political issue). You can choose an issue from one of the readings from our reader or from a current news article that interests you.
Now that you have learned how to present an idea, argue an idea, and support an idea, it is time to apply those skills some place in the real world. I want you to use the tools that we have discussed in class (pathos, ethos, logos, etc.) to persuade another person of your point of view on an issue that matters to you. You will be graded on how well you can apply our class discussions on argument in the letter and on how well you consider your audience. This assignment will also teach you how to write a formal letter—an important skill for the career and business worlds, and also lays the foundation for your becoming responsible and active citizens. Welcome to the world of knowledge as power
