Preparing Assignments

The close reading essay requires students to carefully examine and defend an original thesis about a single text. Both because it is the simplest of the three essays and because close reading skills are essential for both the lens and research essays, the close reading unit is generally taught first. In addition to teaching the practice of close reading, the classes leading up to this essay should introduce the basic skills of college essay writing: thesis, motive, evidence, and analysis. The length of close reading essays is generally between five and seven pages.

Goals

Teaching students how to derive meaning from the smallest parts of a text

Encouraging students to link smaller elements in a text back to a larger thesis about that text

Focusing straightforwardly on a single text in order to emphasize the elements of the academic essay

Setting up the lens and research essays which require the use of close reading techniques but complicate them by adding additional components

Tips

Type of text: You should ask your students to close read a piece of art or culture, a text that has some clear meaning but also contains enough ambiguity to allow students to formulate original and contestable theses. Texts that make for good close reading assignments include: short stories, poems, novels, advertisements, plays, songs, films, television programs, and art works. Texts in which the author is clearly expressing a point of view or in which the meaning is very straightforward do not usually work well for close reading essays. Such texts include: articles (both academic and popular), editorials, pieces of critical theory, and documentaries.

Topic: In addition to assigning students a particular text (or type of text) to close read, it is usually beneficial to require students to focus on a particular topic. This relieves them of the burden of finding a worthwhile topic and allows them to focus on the task of close reading. Examples of possible topics include, representations of gender in a Shakespeare sonnet or the satiric treatment of race in a Dorothy Parker short story.

Length of text: Short stories are generally of ideal length for close reading. However, it might benefit your students to challenge them by asking them to close read something very short (e.g. a sonnet or an advertisement) or something very long (e.g. a novel). Close reading a short text will give students practice expanding their ideas to fill five or six pages. This is a task young students often struggle with, and forcing them to rise to this challenge often produces stronger essays. Close reading a long text will give students practice in narrowing and refining their ideas to an appropriate length for a short essay.

Pre-draft assignments: You will need at least two pre-draft assignments in your close reading unit. It is generally ideal for one of the assignments to focus on an element of the academic essay-thesis, motive, and analysis would be more relevant-and for the other assignment to focus on techniques of close reading. Possible pre-draft assignments are listed on the following page.

Pre-Draft Assignment: Close Reading

UWS instructors are required to assign at least two pre-drafts for the close reading essay. It is recommended that one pre-draft assignment focus primarily on close reading techniques and another focus on a specific "element of the academic essay," in this case, constructing a thesis. Though I offer potential variations on these assignments in a few cases, they have been left somewhat vague in order to allow instructors to creatively adapt them to their own courses in more specific ways.

Pre-draft assignments should not be self-contained. In addition to using them as building blocks for the close reading essay, instructors are encouraged to use pre-draft assignments as foundations for in class exercises. In most cases, I relate these assignments to exercises that can be performed either in class or on Webct message boards (or both).

Assignment #1: Notes on a Source Text (with Reflection)

Ask students to take a page or two of notes while reading or viewing the text (or a portion of the text) they will be using for their close reading essay. Once they have taken their notes students should read them over looking for patterns, tensions, or questions that emerged in what they noticed. Ask them to write a one page reflection addressing an issue of significance that emerged in their note taking. This assignment provides students with a technique for practicing close reading while encouraging them to take notes on course texts and to reflect on their own note-taking strategies.

Assignment #2: Mini-Close Reading Assignment

Choose several difficult passages in the text(s) you will use for your close reading assignment (possibly moments that generated puzzlement or disagreement in class discussion) and ask students to write a 1-2 page close reading that takes a position on the meaning of one of those passages. You might choose five or six passages and assign groups of three or four students to each passage, a foundation for group work in the following class.

Another possibility would be to ask students to locate a puzzling or meaningful passage for themselves. Like the assignment above, the goal of this assignment is to provide students with a hands-on strategy for approaching close reading. If you decide to ask students to choose a passage on their own, be sure to provide some guidelines for what makes a good passage for close reading. I recommend asking them to identify a question or tension in the text-the technique most likely to produce strong thesis statements-that they identify explicitly at the beginning of their pre-draft assignment and explore in 1-2 pages of focused writing.

Assignment #3: Thesis Writing Exercise

After reviewing Gordon Harvey's criteria for a strong thesis statement in class, ask students to compose two thesis statements that adhere to Harvey's criteria, meaning that they 1) get at the heart of the text, 2) are limited enough in scope to be arguable within page limits and with available evidence, and 3) are true but contestable. You can then use some of these thesis statements as examples that further your initial thesis lesson during group discussion in the following class. You may even want to ask students to submit their thesis statements to you electronically beforehand or post them of Webct so that you can pick the most useful ones (good, bad, and middling). Though you should choose a variety of examples, I often find that most useful student theses to present for class discussion are those that are potentially very strong, but currently very weak.

Assignment #4: Peer Critique of Introductory Paragraph (Thesis)

After reviewing Gordon Harvey's criteria for a strong thesis statement in class (see Assignment #3, above), ask students to write an introductory paragraph for their close reading essay and bring several copies to class. In small groups, students should 1) identify the thesis in the intro and 2) assess how well it fulfills Harvey's three criteria. In order to save class time, this assignment can also be done on Webct (especially good for classes that meet only once a week). Have students post their introductory paragraphs and assign two students to respond to each post in the same manner they would in small groups in class. In addition to emphasizing the importance of peer feedback, this assignment allows the instructor access to each student's thesis before the close reading essay is written, allowing him or her to troubleshoot off track assignments before the student composes an entire draft.

Sample Close Reading Questions

Write an essay that explores a contradiction, misperception, or other question about prostitution in the past using the archaeological record of brothels in the 19th century. Use specific archaeological evidence from Seifert et al. and Costello to support your argument.
Develop an argument about the way in which the Mothers of the Plaza de Mayo are an example of how memory is used in political activism, as depicted in the film Las Madres de Plaza de Mayo. Support your argument with a close reading of the film.
Identify and make an argument about a tension in the way one of the films (Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind or Memento) represents memory. You must base your analysis on two key scenes from the film you choose.
Identify and interpret a problem, tension, inconsistency or ambiguity in the depiction of the Metropolis in Fritz Lang's film. For example, you may choose to write about authority, class relationships, gender, the organization of spaces, the role of technology.
Marcel Mauss's influential Essai sur le don (The Gift), originally published in France in 1950, challenges many of our accepted notions of what a gift is or what conditions define the act of gift giving. For your first essay, critique and refine Mauss's theory of gift exchange by evaluating the theory's ability to explain gift giving practices in contemporary America.
Choose a scene from The Importance of Being Earnest and offer an analysis of it that challenges or complicates the standard reading (i.e., the status quo).
The readings for Unit #1 reveal the extent to which Americans met the enormous changes after World War II with redoubled efforts to map the boundaries of permissible behavior and shore up the social categories that defined groups and individuals across the country. Magazine articles, public speeches, bestsellers, and other sources from the period brim with carefully drawn prescriptions for postwar Americans-instructions for how to act, what to want, and who to be. Your assignment is to pick one concept, rule, or ideal and make an argument that focuses on something problematic about its use. In other words, you should make an argument based on a close analysis of a paradox, ambiguity, tension, or other perplexing feature you deem worthy of exploration. Potential topics range widely from political principles like "democracy" or "freedom," social categories like "Western man" or "teenager," to cultural judgments like "subversive" or "square."
Write an essay about one story from In Our Time, showing how it critiques, challenges, or complicates a conventional definition of "the lost generation." In order to write such an essay, you will need to specify how you are defining the phrase, and from which sources your definition comes.

Sample Close Reading Essay Assignments

Close Reading a Poem and Gender (from Miranda Waggoner)

Close Reading a Treaty (from Josh Cracraft)

Close Reading Drama (from Cory Nelson)

The Lens Essay

Guidelines

The lens essay uses one text to shed light on another in order to show readers something they would not have been able to see if they had examined the texts in isolation. In most assignments, the lens essay challenges students by requiring them to analyze texts on a theoretical level in addition to the thematic level that was emphasized in the close reading essay. Because it requires the use of two sources, the lens essay assignment sequence is typically taught after the close reading essay. The typical length of a lens essay assignment is between seven and nine pages.

Goals

The primary goal of the lens essay is for students to be able to achieve a baseline reading of some piece of culture using a lens text. In other words, students should be able to defend some central claim about the text they are examining by linking moments in that text to categories or ideas in the lens text.
Students should continue to use and improve the close reading skills they employed in the first essay.
For more advanced students who are able to produce a compelling baseline lens reading of a text, the ideal of the lens essay would be for those students to complicate their baseline reading using some counterevidence from the text and then to use that complicating evidence to reflect critically back on the lens text itself.

Guidelines

Type of texts: The lens essay typically employs a theoretical text as the lens and uses it to examine a piece of art or culture (the same type of text used in the close reading essay). It is possible to use a non-theoretical text as a lens if you employ it in a theoretical way. For example, you could use Jonathan Swift's "A Modest Proposal" as an example of one genre of satire that you would then use to analyze a more modern transformation of the genre.

Two types of lens essays: Your expectations for the lens essay will differ depending on the complexity of the text you assign your students to examine through the lens. You may choose to ask students to analyze a relatively straightforward piece of popular culture or a complex piece of art. If examining a piece of pop culture, the goal in applying the lens will be to develop a thesis about the deeper meaning or cultural significance of a text that may have initially seemed to be pure entertainment. For example, the application of a Foucauldian lens could turn The 40 Year Old Virgin from a gratuitous sequence of crass jokes into a film about overcoming the pathologization of sex in Western culture. If you are examining a more complex piece of art, the goal in applying the lens will typically be to establish new connections and, in turn, new meanings, within the work of art. For example, a piece of Freudian dream theory could be used to explore Poe's world in "The Tell-Tale Heart."

Pre-draft assignments: The lens essay assignment sequence should require at least two pre-draft assignments. It is recommended that one assignment focus on applying a lens and another should emphasize an element of the academic essay (a different one that the close reading assignment sequence).

Pre-Draft Assignments: Lens Essay

UWS instructors are required to assign at least two pre-drafts for the lens essay. It is recommended that one pre-draft assignment focus primarily on using the lens and another focus on a specific "element of the academic essay," in this case, defining the motive. Though I offer potential variations on these assignments in a few cases, they have been left somewhat vague in order to allow instructors to creatively adapt them to their own courses in more specific ways.

Pre-draft assignments should not be self-contained. In addition to using them as building blocks for the lens essay, instructors are encouraged to use pre-draft assignments as foundations for in class exercises. In most cases, I relate these assignments to exercises that can be performed either in class or on Webct message boards (or both).

Assignment #1: Reflection on the Lens Text

The most crucial element in any successful lens essay is a clear and nuanced understanding of the lens text itself. In order to allow students to grapple with the lens text-and especially its language, which they will be using in their essays-ask them to apply their newly acquired close reading skills to the lens text by exploring a difficult passage or concept in 1-2 pages of writing. You may choose the passages/concepts you would like students to write about, or you may leave it up to their choice. I would recommend assigning passages to students that might be most helpful in writing their lens essays. This assignment is especially helpful if the lens text is particularly complex or challenging.

Assignment #2: Mini Lens Reading

Though you may perform numerous lens readings during class discussion, it is helpful for students to practice applying a theoretical lens in writing before they begin composing their lens essays. One method for doing this is to ask students to read an object or event outside of class through the lens text in 1-2 pages of writing. It is usually advisable to have students focus on the everyday-a Freudian analysis of a dream they had last night or two ways they were "hailed" à la Althusser on their walk back to their dorm room. Students will often provide simple baseline readings that you can then use to demonstrate how to complicate and add complexity to a lens reading in subsequent class discussions.

Courses that offer students a choice between two or more lens texts allow for a more sophisticated version of this assignment. Using a single object or event (chosen by either the instructor or the student), assign students to write 1-2 pages that place the two sources in dialogue. The students should first describe one author's reading of the object or event and then propose a reading that the other lens author would offer in response. If possible, students may continue with a series of responses and counter-responses.

Assignment #3: Quotation Exercise

Ask students to choose one quotation from the lens text and use it to provide a deeper understanding of a scene from a film or novel that you are reading in class. In addition to teaching lens reading skills, you can use this assignment to focus on the mechanics of quotation. The assignment should require that every quotation have three parts: 1) the lead-in, 2) a parenthetical citation, and 3) substantial analysis.

Assignment #4: Supplying a Motive

After discussing Kerry Walk's eight "motivating moves," ask students to bring to class a thesis and motive for their lens essays printed on separate sheets of paper. In groups of three, students should pass the sheets of paper with their thesis statements on them to their partners while keeping the motives to themselves. Each member of the group should formulate a motive-writing it beneath the thesis on the sheet of paper-that conforms to one of Walk's "motivating moves." After each member of the group has supplied a motive for the other members, the authors can reveal the motives they have chosen one at a time, discussing differences in opinion with the other members of the group. At the end of group work, you may choose a few examples to model during class discussion.

Assignment #5: Peer Critique of Introductory Paragraph (Motive)

After discussing Kerry Walk's eight motivating moves, ask students to draft the introductory paragraphs for their lens essays and bring several copies to class. In small groups, students should 1) identify the motive in each introductory paragraph and 2) identify the "motivating move" that the author has chosen. Students should then discuss how that motive could be strengthened or supply a possible motive if one is found to be nonexistent. In order to save class time, this assignment can also be done on Webct (especially good for classes that meet only once a week). Have students post their introductory paragraphs and assign two students to respond to each post in the same manner they would in small groups in class. In addition to exposing students to the writing of their peers and emphasizing the importance of peer feedback, this assignment allows the instructor access to each student's thesis and motive before the lens essay is written, allowing him or her to troubleshoot off track assignments before the student composes an entire draft.

Sample Lens Essay Questions

Develop an argument about three episodes of I Love Lucy as seen through the lens of Friedan's The Feminine Mystique and the work of Judith Butler. In what ways does Lucy conform to and/or resist mid-century and post modernist ideals of gender, domesticity, or sexuality?
Choose one of the major figures from the "Heroic Age" of Antarctic exploration: Scott, Shackleton, Amundsen, Mawson, or Byrd. Using at least one of our critical sources, develop an argument about how ideologies of empire influenced your chosen explorer's expedition. How have new ways of viewing the past reshaped the legacies of Antarctic explorers and exploration? What is at stake in the way explorers are represented?
Using primary texts in literature, art, and law (Nella Larsen's Passing, Kara Walker's silhouette museum installations, and the transcript of an important Supreme Court decision), along with a richly evidenced secondary text by critic Randall Kennedy, understand some implications and problems surrounding the social practice of "passing," the feigning of membership in a dominant racial group. Locate problems, arguments, and questions-both stated and implied-in both the primary and secondary sources. Then, building on the practice you gained in discovering an argument in Essay #1, and using the cases most pertinent to your purpose, formulate and pursue a question of your own. The question will not have been fully highlighted or analyzed in the readings, giving you and your reader the motivation to address it.
Bearing in mind the concerns we raised about biological determinism (nature not nurture) in biotechnology and the genome project, develop an argument on the ethical consequences of designing humans through genetic engineering or cloning technologies using either Charles Darwin, Richard Lewontin, or Stephen Jay Gould and Kazuo Ishiguro's Never Let Me Go.
Using the primary source documents on the blackouts, make an argument that extends, complicates, and/or contradicts Jane Jacobs's thesis in "The Uses of the Sidewalk: Safety" or the thesis of James Q. Wilson and George L. Kelling in "Broken Windows."
Chose a key "mad" scene from one of the musician biopics listed below. Use the theories of Susan Sontag or Albert Rothenberg to critique the director's dramatization of madness and its relationship to musical creativity.
For the essay assignment, you will choose a particular contemporary practice of friendship as it is represented in popular culture or scholarly literature. Using the sources from this unit, you will make an argument about the ethical and/or political foundations and implications of your chosen friendship practice.
Like Hobbes and Rousseau, the American Framers believed they were promoting liberty when they drafted the US Constitution; unlike Hobbes and Rousseau, the Framers came away with a limited government. Compare the US Constitution to either Leviathan or the Social Contract. Measure the Framers' success in establishing the type of liberty they cared about against their theoretical predecessor's. How did suppressing the power of government affect their level of success?
Venus figurines have been recovered in multiple sites in Europe and the Middle East, yet archaeologists remain uncertain about their true meaning. Offer a new interpretation of the Venus figurines based on your understanding of hunter-gatherer society. Use the assigned articles as sources of evidence and to provide a theoretical context for the understanding of iconography.

Sample Lens Essay Assignments

Lens Analysis of Television Episode (from Tina Van Kley)

Lens Analysis of a Cultural Practice (from Laura John)

Lens Analysis of a Film (from Vinodini Murugesan)

Lens Analysis of a Myth (from Melanie Kingsley)

The Research Essay

Guidelines

The research essay requires students to use multiple sources in order to establish a context within which they will situate their original thesis. It is both the longest and most complex essay of the semester and, therefore, requires a carefully considered sequence of pre-draft assignments that encourage students to develop their original idea, build a researched context for their argument, and structure their essay effectively. Because it uses skills from both lens and close reading skills, the research essay assignment sequence is typically the third of the course's three units. The typical length of a research essay is between ten and twelve pages.

Goals

Teaching students to take part in academic dialogue by situating their own ideas in a researched context
Familiarizing students with the skills and resources used in college level research
Continuing to apply and develop both the writing and reasoning skills emphasized in the close reading and lens assignment sequences

Guidelines

Texts: Because it is a research essay, students will choose most of their own texts. However, it is often beneficial to give students one or two texts to structure their work. These texts can serve as the topic of the assignment (e.g. everyone does research on the same film) or as a theoretical grounding for their research (e.g. everyone researches around the same theoretical foundation).
The research question: Since they will be responsible for supplying most of the texts for this assignment, students should be given a bit more freedom to choose their own topics. It is possible to do this while still keeping the focus on the assignment very specific (e.g. "explore the film Rebecca from an anthropological perspective" or "analyze the historical transformation of satire as a genre using a contemporary example"). Because students are given freedom to pursue their own interests, you will want to be able to give them feedback and make sure they are on track before they write their essays. Be sure to assign some sort of research proposal so that you can troubleshoot problems early in the writing process.
The writing prompt: In addition to the usual formatting specifications (see the writing prompt guidelines), be sure to clearly articulate 1. the number of sources students are required to use on the assignment (typically at least five), 2. the types of sources students are and aren't allowed to use, and 3. the requirement that students directly engage with the central idea of each of each source (i.e. they may not just quote a peripheral idea). Placing these requirements up front will provide clear guidelines to refer back to when encouraging revision and explaining your grades.
Pre-draft assignments: The research essay assignment sequence should require at least three pre-draft assignments. It is recommended that two assignments focus on developing and researching the essay's central claim and another should emphasize an element of the academic essay (most likely evidence, analysis, or structure, since these are especially important in the research essay). Model pre-draft assignments for the research essay are listed on the following page.

Pre-Draft Assignments: Research Essay

UWS instructors are required to assign at least two pre-drafts for the research essay. It is recommended that one pre-draft assignment focus primarily on the research process and another focus on a specific "element of the academic essay." Because the research essay will be the longest piece of writing most UWS students have ever composed, it is often helpful to focus on structure. Though I offer potential variations on these assignments in a few cases, they have been left somewhat vague in order to allow instructors to creatively adapt them to their own courses in more specific ways.

Assignment #1: Research Proposal

Ask students to write a 1-2 page research proposal. The proposal is students' first step in the research paper writing. Its function is to provide space to begin brainstorming and narrowing down the research topic, generate ideas relating to the research topic and the essays read in class, and formulate questions they may wish to consider when writing. The research proposal is an essential step in making sure your students formulate topics that will be viable research papers. Many instructors hold short five to ten minute conferences with each student after receiving the research proposal to troubleshoot any potential issues. As you read through the many examples of research proposals, you will notice that some require students to know more about their proposed topic than others. The information you request of your students will determine whether this assignment should be due before or after the library session.

Assignment #2: Source Analysis

Ask students to write 1-2 pages complicating and analyzing the argument of one of the sources for their research essay (this usually works best with secondary sources). This assignment allows students to practice their analytical skills-an important "element of the academic essay"-while beginning to define their own position in relation to the broader discourse on their research topic. Because of its narrow focus, this assignment has the potential to lead to over reliance on one source in the research essay. It is important to remind students that this essay is meant to model the kind of analysis they should be doing less formally for every secondary source their will use in their paper.

Assignment #3: Annotated Bibliography

In addition to motivating students to think critically about their sources, this assignment allows instructors to check for deficiencies and biases in the collection of texts students have chosen to use in their research essays. Guidelines for both the composition of the bibliography and the contents of the annotations should be clearly defined by the instructor. The instructor should specify what kinds of sources primary/secondary, academic/non-academic, print/electronic, &c. students are required to gather. Each annotation should include: 1) a brief description of the author's thesis, 2) a sentence or two describing how this thesis relates to the broader discourse on the topic, and 3) a description of how the student will use the source in his or her paper.

Assignment #4: Literature Review

This assignment can take the place of an annotated bibliography, or it can be written after it (possibly for extra credit). The literature review places the sources (usually only the secondary sources) for the research essay in dialogue, outlining a few of the major topics of debate and the major critical positions on each topic. A literature review is not thesis driven; it merely describes the context within which the student will situate the thesis of his or her research essay.

Assignment #5: Peer Critique of Introductory Paragraph (Roadmap)

After discussing the roadmap sentence as a common component of introductions in longer essays, ask students to draft the introductory paragraphs for their research essays and bring several copies to class. In small groups, students should discuss 1) the construction of the road map sentence and 2) the effectiveness of the structure the sentence proposes for the essay. I find that requiring a road map sentence in longer essays is important not only in making student writing easier for a reader to understand, but also in keeping students focused in the structure of their essays. In order to save class time, this assignment can also be done on Webct (especially good for classes that meet only once a week). Have students post their introductory paragraphs online and assign two students to respond to each post in the same manner they would in small groups in class. In addition to serving as a sort of mini peer review, this assignment allows the instructor access to each student's thesis, motive, and essay structure before the lens essay is written, allowing him or her to troubleshoot off track assignments before the student composes an entire draft.

Assignment #6: Reverse Outline

Because research essays often require a bit more time for revision, you might consider assigning a written exercise after the initial draft has been turned in. In addition to highlighting a specific skill, the placement of this assignment will make students more focused on the revision process as a whole. The best assignment for teaching structure is a reverse outline. Ask each student to go through his or her research essay writing down the central claim of each paragraph in the form of a formal outline. In addition to emphasizing basic skills-such as the idea that every paragraph must have a central claim-this assignment gets students to reflect on the structure of their own work. Though it is possible to turn this into an in class exercise, I have found that the reverse outline often makes hidden redundancies, logical gaps, and structural indirection more obvious to the author, thus reducing the need for peer feedback. In addition to the reverse outline itself, you might ask each student to write a brief reflection detailing the revision ideas they have come up with during the process of writing the outline.

Sample Research Questions

Select a performer, composer, performance practice, or musical genre to research. Using a variety of sources, discuss how your chosen topic sheds light on the connection between music and madness.
In this essay, you'll interrogate a paradox, contradiction, tension or gap in an apocalyptic film of your choosing; drawing on Catherine Keller's theory of the "apocalypse pattern" or René Girard's theory of sacrifice, and other sources that you locate, you'll develop an argument about the significance of the way the film employs apocalypse.
Research one feature of university life. In a 10-12 page essay, analyze what it reveals about the university's "civilizing process," and about how members of the university community have both endorsed and resisted that process.
Drawing on our discussions of the possible risks of biocolonialism, biopiracy, and bioinformatics within bioengineering and the social effects of interactive machines and cultural interfaces, locate an instance in the realm of art, televisual media, computer technology, business, science, and/or the law where machines replace humans or create a new type of human interaction. Make an argument about the effects such changes could have on a specific context of your choosing, and discuss how justifiable they are in either ethical, economic, and/or scientific terms. Inform your argument with relevant research.
Choose a film to evaluate, test, explore, or critique the assigned critical theories. Locate sources about the film to help you make your case.
Choose one text and discuss how Antarctic fact and fantasy conflict, play off each other, or become confused. How does the tension between fact and fiction produce a problem, insight, or set of contested meanings around Antarctica? What does this dialectic say about the process of exploration itself? About Antarctica as a distinct place in history?
Choose any Shakespeare play and research its treatment of a particular aspect or element of love (such as courtship, marriage, sexuality, or gender roles) to argue for how this representation reflects Shakespeare's commentary on Renaissance notions of love and relationships. You may also choose to consider how Shakespeare adapts his source texts in order to present his critique.
Choose an apocalyptic text (or set of texts) that fascinates and puzzles you--and illuminates something about the role of the apocalyptic pattern in contemporary U.S. culture. Appropriate selections might range from television commercials to music to scholarly books. Develop an argument about your core text or set of texts by situating it in a social or historical context and drawing on at least one critical framework.

Sample Research Assignments

Text in Context Research Essay (from Cory Nelson)

Research Essay on Film (from Rachel Kapelle)

Researched Argument (from Rebecca Olson)

Research Essay on a Historical Moment (from Joshua Cracraft)


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