LONG CRITICAL DISCUSSION + MULTIMODAL COMPONENT
Due
PURPOSE AND AIMS OF THE CRITICAL DISCUSSION
For this final assignment, I invite you to revise,
extend, and deepen one of your short critical discussions into a longer
one (in ~5-6 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. Here are some specific aims for the assignment:
PURPOSE AND AIMS OF THE MULTIMODAL COMPONENT
The multimodal component should:
The multimodal component does not have to repurpose your whole argument. I am primarily asking you to consider how you would communicate the essence of your critical discussion to a specific audience in another form, and I'd like that form to be carefully rendered. Your options are many but they are not limitless, and they should make sense with what you have discovered in your LCD. 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; make a painting; create your own Manga; build 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; or craft another material "thing" through quilting, knitting, or crocheting; or etc.
If you have an idea for the multimodal component 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 AND PROJECT WORKSHOP
By April 17 (at 11:00 a.m.) I will ask you to submit to Canvas (LCD slot) and bring two (2) copies to class of a project proposal (~ 1-2 pages, single-spaced), in which you explain your chosen critical texts and case studies, and speculate on the argument you will make. If you do not know your complete argument at this point, you should at least be able to do the following:
You may absolutely submit your proposal earlier if you would like earlier feedback.
On April 26, we will have a final project workshop in class. I'll announce details in class and also on our "Daily Preparations" page when we get closer to it.
- To arrive at a discovery that advances your thinking, based on reading several texts or theorists together.
- To craft that critical discovery in the form of an essay (where to "essay" means to endeavor, to try towards or to claim).
- To demonstrate a sophisticated understanding of at least five (5) of our critical texts, their possibilities, and their interpretive limits.
- To develop an interesting, specific, and coherent argument through sufficient evidence and examples, from the critical texts, case studies, and backgrounders.
- To articulate how that argument ultimately gives back, either to the problem you are interested in or to the theories themselves.
PURPOSE AND AIMS OF THE MULTIMODAL COMPONENT
The multimodal component 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 complexity—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 component);
- act like a genuine component of your final project, rather than an add-on to the critical discussion.
The multimodal component does not have to repurpose your whole argument. I am primarily asking you to consider how you would communicate the essence of your critical discussion to a specific audience in another form, and I'd like that form to be carefully rendered. Your options are many but they are not limitless, and they should make sense with what you have discovered in your LCD. 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; make a painting; create your own Manga; build 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; or craft another material "thing" through quilting, knitting, or crocheting; or etc.
If you have an idea for the multimodal component 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 AND PROJECT WORKSHOP
By April 17 (at 11:00 a.m.) I will ask you to submit to Canvas (LCD slot) and bring two (2) copies to class of a project proposal (~ 1-2 pages, single-spaced), in which you explain your chosen critical texts and case studies, and speculate on the argument you will make. If you do not know your complete argument at this point, you should at least be able to do the following:
- 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 component, 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 component for the audience you have identified.
You may absolutely submit your proposal earlier if you would like earlier feedback.
On April 26, we will have a final project workshop in class. I'll announce details in class and also on our "Daily Preparations" page when we get closer to it.
HOW TO SUBMIT THIS ASSIGNMENT
As usual, your long critical discussion should be submitted to Canvas via "Assignments." For your multimodal component: if it is digital, please submit it to Canvas via "Assignments" and also submit a backup copy on portable media to WMS 221. Your multimodal component need not be digital! If it is physical/material instead of digital, then I will expect you to submit it to me in WMS 221, but you won't need to upload anything to Canvas other than a quick image or photograph of it just for good measure.
CHARACTERISTICS AND EVALUATION CRITERIA
This assignment is worth 200 points. Here are some specific criteria I will use to evaluate:
Multimodal Component
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.
LCD Argument and Thesis
For a critical discussion, “argument” does not necessarily mean “position” (i.e., pro/con, agree/disagree, good/bad, right/wrong sense of argumentation). It means a specific or nuanced discovery that can only be arrived at through careful synthesis. Your argument should be guided by an original thesis statement that is not simply a restatement of the big question, and does not simply state the obvious about the texts you are reading. 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 essay in order to realize that discovery.
LCD Textual and Contextual Evidence
You’ll want to develop your discovery by drawing a lot on the critical text(s) you have chosen, using examples well, and employing in-text (parenthetical) citations where needed, especially where you paraphrase concepts. The essays we have read are very rich, so I encourage you to read broadly into them, and try not to just fixate on a single paragraph, or repeat the same passage over and over. 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.
For a critical discussion, “argument” does not necessarily mean “position” (i.e., pro/con, agree/disagree, good/bad, right/wrong sense of argumentation). It means a specific or nuanced discovery that can only be arrived at through careful synthesis. Your argument should be guided by an original thesis statement that is not simply a restatement of the big question, and does not simply state the obvious about the texts you are reading. 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 essay in order to realize that discovery.
LCD Textual and Contextual Evidence
You’ll want to develop your discovery by drawing a lot on the critical text(s) you have chosen, using examples well, and employing in-text (parenthetical) citations where needed, especially where you paraphrase concepts. The essays we have read are very rich, so I encourage you to read broadly into them, and try not to just fixate on a single paragraph, or repeat the same passage over and over. 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.
LCD Originality and Situatedness
Think of this LCD not as a regurgitation of what you have read, but as an original discussion of a unique and specific problem. 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 “All texts are now multimodal in the age of remediation”). Instead, I'm asking you to make situated observations (e.g., “In the kind of standpoint feminism that Karlyn Campbell writes about,” or “In Gunther Kress's notion of multimodality, ...”), and this may seem difficult at first if you've never before been asked to justify your claims in terms of the text.
LCD Introductions and Reader Awareness
Give your argument a critical and imaginative beginning, i.e., a sense that you know what you want to say and why. You can be artful; you need not just summarize the contents of your essay. Whatever you do, your introduction should help us understand the discovery that prompted you to write, and it should help us understand our investment in reading. While I fully encourage you to make use of the OED Online, it is not enough to introduce your essay simply by writing “According to the Oxford English Dictionary …”
LCD 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.
LCD 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.
LCD Title and Other Discourse Conventions
Ideally, your title should reflect what you are trying to argue (it doesn't always have to state what are you are arguing) and may even contain layers of meaning. Metaphors, ironies, parodies, are all fair game, as is creativity that is rhetorically sound. Citation conventions should be accurate. Aim for ~5-6 pages single-spaced 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
Start early and feel free to send questions my way!
-Dr. Graban
