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Microsoft Word - WGSS2230_FinalProject_PaperAssignmentDescription.docx WGSS 2230 Summer Session 1 Greenlee Final Essay or Creative Project (**due Monday, June 22 by 11:59 p.m.**) Assignment Overview: For the final course assignment, you have the option of completing a creative project or writing an analytical essay. Whatever you choose, our paper or project must explicitly relate to one of the course texts as well as course content (i.e. themes, questions, socio- political issues, etc.). It should be clear how your project/paper evolves from the course as a whole. The primary purpose of this assignment is to challenge you to synthesize what you’ve learned. Convey what you have absorbed from the course, and do so in a way that matters to you. OPTION 1: The Creative Project. A creativity-based assignment means there is no RIGHT WAY to do things. Examples of creative projects include (**This is not an exhaustive list): Fan fiction Scrapbook Painting or sculpture Website Infographic Photography/photo essay Collage Comic strip Board game A Blog series A Podcast Spoken word video Original poetry collection Zine Short story YouTube video Dance performance Original 10-minute play A series of skits Teaching materials (i.e. high school syllabus with a series of lessons) Creative nonfiction/memoir Ultimately, you should use this assignment to express yourself in a way that shows what you have learned, as well as how you have experienced and engaged with the content of this course. Before settling on the design of the project itself, you might reflect on a few questions: What have I learned from this course? Which ideas/questions/issues from this course have I been interested in exploring? What outstanding questions do I still have? Which text(s) really resonated with me and why? Are there aspects of this course that connect with my major/minor field(s) of study? All creative projects will require a written critical introduction (two pages, 600 words minimum, double-spaced, 12-point Times New Roman). In this introduction, the most important question you should answer is: how does your project explicitly relate to and evolve from the course? Other related questions include: Which themes or ideas does your project engage with? Why? How does this project encapsulate what you have learned from the course as a whole? What influenced the design and development of your project? For instance, are there certain WGSS 2230 Summer Session 1 Greenlee writers/texts/scholars that particularly inspired you? Why? Other things you might address, with the aforementioned questions in mind, include: your reasons for choosing your particular project, your aims, aesthetics, form, etc. This introduction provides you with the tools to critically analyze your own project the way you would critically analyze a literary work. It will provide me with important information to assess your work and, as such, is a critical component of your final project. The critical introduction should be written using the MLA style, and any primary or secondary sources (i.e. films, books, documentaries, music videos, etc.) that you use, quote or reference must be cited appropriately to avoid plagiarism. In other words, be sure to include in-text citations and a Works Cited page. Creative projects with introductions that lack necessary in- text citations and a bibliography will receive a zero. OPTION 2: A longer analytical essay 1200-1500 words on a topic of your choice. Your primary aim for this assignment is to make a strong critical claim (i.e. a main argument) and substantiate it with concrete evidence from your chosen text(s) and with thoughtful, complex analysis. You may choose to write about any topic that piques your interest, but your paper must incorporate one (1) of the texts from this term (i.e. a YA novel, a sitcom, or a film). To ensure feasibility of scope for your paper, you may write on no more than two (2) texts (i.e. a book and a related film or tv show; two of the YA novels; or two of the television shows or films). Feel free to expand on an idea from one of the weekly discussion forums, but you should aim to develop your own argument. Spend as little time as possible on plot summary--offer enough synopsis to inform a general reader who’s unfamiliar with the text(s)--and avoid overuse of block quotations. This does not mean you should not refer to lines or passages. You should certainly quote as needed (for evidence). Just be sure to offer concrete, in-depth analysis of any cited material, whether primary sources (like the YA novels, films and TV shows) or secondary sources. You are required to cite at least two (2) secondary sources to supplement your analysis, and one of those must be a reputable scholarly source (i.e. from a peer-reviewed journal like the Journal of Popular Culture, a chapter from a book in the library, or a scholarly article we used in class). You can use course materials, but you should do some research on your own. Use the sources to support your argument, to provide evidence, to introduce a counter-argument, to shed light on important background information, to present social/political contexts, etc. Cite using MLA style. Papers without in-text citations and a bibliography will receive a zero. If you have questions about sources and/or citations, please check with me.