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A 10:001 or 10:003 Unit ~ Cultural Appreciation, Cultural Appropriation: Mapping the Place of "Others" in Popular and Museum Culture
Formal Assignments

Goals:

  • Offering a detailed history and analysis of the various voices speaking about your issue
  • Exploring and synthesizing a variety of texts to identify 1) positions that you might agree with and be able to use later, or 2) positions that you disagree with and might need to formulate counter-arguments to later
  • Continuing library research by using and properly citing at least 5 information sources
  • Writing for precision and clarity, focusing especially on the role of self-evaluation and revision

The Assignment:

For this paper, you will map positions about an issue of your choice that is related to our second unit on “Cultural Appreciation and Appropriation.” Remember that the specific purpose of “mapping” is to establish the relationships among positions. For this paper that will include delving into how the different positions are talking – or not talking – to each other, how, and why. You can base your analysis in various media images as well as textual arguments. There are two key tasks in mapping that you will accomplish through this assignment

  1. Imagine that the parties are sitting around a table together discussing the issue. What is created through this conversation. Who are the parties involved? What brought them to the table? What voices are heard? What picture do they paint about the issue? What do they hope to accomplish? What rhetorical strategies do they utilize to this end? Et cetera! If you analyze images, interpret the argument made through each image’s rhetorical strategies, characters, positioning, any text superimposed on the images or around them, et cetera. Utilize any of the other ways to analyze arguments that we have already learned.
  2. What do they have to say to each other? Show the areas of intersection and diversion among the positions. They might be very different or very similar, diverge or intersect on major and/or minor points. Your task is to sort this out, and present a detailed analysis of the differences between each position and any similarities as well.

Remember that your purpose here is AGAIN to remain neutral and survey the scene for us.

Process:

Pick a topic that is related to our current unit (e.g., Eminem, street ball, museum acquisitions, displays, American Indian ownership of artifacts, etc.) In a page or two, introduce the issue. Here you might want to delve into more depth about background information and reflections about what is at stake in the controversy, who is involved, and what your role is. Follow this up with the annotated bibliography that reviews 4 or more articles in conversation about your chosen issue. For each article begin with a full citation. Next, write a one-paragraph summary of the article. Conclude by offering one paragraph of analysis of the article. In both of these parts you might compare and contrast this article with others on your bibliography. You might also do this in your conclusion.

Requirements:

This essay should be at least 4 pages long, typed, double-spaced, 10-12 pt. font, with one-inch margins, and free of spelling and grammar errors. Using a stylebook, write it in either APA or MLA format. Research and properly cite at least five sources in the paper (at least 1 book and 1 non-electronic periodical).

The due dates associated with this assignment are:

An informal proposal/plan for your work: _____________

Style and Polish Workshop: ____________

Final Draft: the beginning of class ____________ (turn in the final draft, a clean response form, photocopies of the title page of the articles/books you cite, a note as to what style [APA or MLA] you are using, and all other rough drafts and response forms associated with this essay).

An informal calendar for you to keep would be to have your research done by __________, two articles analyzed by ____________, and a complete draft done by the workshop date.

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