Assignment 1 description.
It is a very difficult thing indeed to convey information in a neutral, but enthusiastic way. How do we convince someone to care about the same things that we do without sounding biased or judgmental or sensational?
Q: Generate your own avenue for a research project and investigate the phenomenon in which you are interested.
This assignment asks you to select one phenomenon (anything at all from the world of music, hobbies, books, TV, Film, Opera or poetry) and to try to communicate your idea to me in a way that is both enthusiastic about the positive qualities of your selected thing, but which also does not read like an advertisement for that thing (steer clear of hokey or cheap tricks).
Once you have selected your idea, try to think of the simple mechanical aspects first:
· Are you confident that you can talk about it clearly without going overboard? Remember, a lot of people feel very strongly about their own ideas, and this can jeopardise our ability to remain neutral.
· Does everyone have a broad familiarity with what you are interested in writing about? Will you have to eat into your word count just simply in order to transmit information? (Risk-Reward).
· Am I familiar enough with the ideas that Sean has presented in class? If not, ask anyone else in class to see what they reckon!
· How much time will I need to do this? Will it be fun, or will it be a chore? Why is it so hard to find positive critical/evaluative words, when there are so, so many words to characterize bad things (what an execrable, nightmarishly uncharitable and cruel predicament this is). How many ways can you praise something?
· Will I use a concept map or a mind map or a structural guide at all? Will I remember to write the introduction last, only once I know both the destination and the direction of my argument. Once you know where you’re going, you can tell the reader where you’re going to go.
So those are some of the mechanical considerations required to start thinking about an undertaking that requires academic writing.
Assessment of assignment 1:
The assignment is assessed on the basis of five criterion. They are:
1. Clarity of research purpose: How clear is your work? Does it have a recognizable structure? (Introduction, conclusion, clear paragraphs, sufficient signposting).
2. Precision of execution: Is your work clean? Are there a lot of moments that knock the reader out of the flow and that leave them cold and confused? (No typos, oversights, big gaps, missing page numbers or any of the oversights examined in the previous class- avoid pitfalls).
3. Hypothesis-Antithesis-Synthesis: How boring would it be if Batman had no villains? Very. He needs villains so they can fight. Ideas also need contrasting counterpoints. No idea is perfect and even the thing you love most in the world has flaws, so think about them and try to see why your research object is great despite its flaws (Idea-potential weaknesses in idea-reinforced idea).
4. Context-Problem-Response: Try to implement the Context-Problem-Response method outlined in this class in your introduction to your idea.
5. Extrapolation: “One of a kind! Unique, alone and exceptional in every way! Unknowably singular!” Nothing is really like this; everything has comparators or lineages or “like-this-but-that” elements. Extrapolating your idea means trying to add connections from your idea to the ideas of others. Great extrapolation has the quality of saying: “I think the world would be a better place if everyone loved their art as much as I love mine.”
Deadline: Friday December 6th 2024 @ absolutely no later than 17:59 and will be submitted via Turnitin. It is expected to be 500 words in length (+/- 10%)
A small note on the issue of plagiarism:
Do not plagiarise; I will know, and I would actually rather you submit nothing than take any material from another source, remove any indication that someone besides you wrote it and include it in your work. Plagiarism is so bad that you will get kicked back an entire rubric box, across all five categories (Were ‘Good’? If you plagiarise, now the best you can be is ‘Pass’; were ‘Pass’, now the best you can be is ‘Fail’). Seriously, do not plagiarise material. If you are tempted to, reach out to me and we’ll work something out.
Plagiarism robs two people. It robs you of a good grade and it robs me of the opportunity to get to know your thinking and your ideas.