Spcom 12 Final Assignment

Points 250 points

Length 6-8 pages

The final assignment asks you to develop a piece of this course for future students. Your assignment is to choose a text and articulate why (and how) the selected text should be included in a future course on media. Each student must select at least one piece of media and develop an argument around their selected text. Papers should use the narrative textual analysis developed within the course. Please feel free to utilize any of the theoretical concepts or frameworks developed in the course.

Each paper should center on the following issues:

-Why is the selected film/text particularly relevant for the course? Does the film illuminate anything interesting regarding identity politics or cultural ways of knowing? How does the text demonstrate an important or interesting concept for students interested in media?

-What is the significance of the text? In other words, why should the class include the film/text that you have selected over others? Is it an important piece of film history? Is it particularly relevant to a particular cultural moment, or is it particularly helpful in demonstrating a concept or idea? Remember, other students will be advocating other texts, so your paper should clarify why your text should be selected above others.

-What class activities or discussion would accompany the showing of this film/text? What material would be discussed in lecture or class exercises? Please be as clear and specific as possible. This part of the assignment is asking you to make clear and distinct connections between the film/text and larger concepts or ideas about the media.

(Advocating that a text should be used because “it is good” is not a strong insightful connection.) Please do not selected any text/movie that has been shown or used in class (The Simpsons, Sex and the City, etc.)

Papers will be graded with the following criteria:

Is there a solid thesis, a reasonable progression of ideas, and an appropriate conclusion?

Does analysis draw examples and illustrations from the text in order to demonstrate the validity of ideas?

Does analysis address the full nature of the questions asked in the previous paragraph?

Does the paper include original ideas?

Does the paper include factual inaccuracies?

Does the paper contain spelling, formatting, or other editing-related errors?