Dr. Alex E. Blazer Course Site Syllabus
In Class Activities Peer Response
Paper 1  
Paper 2 Annotated Bibliography Paper 3

Assignments

Consuming (Pop) Culture

English 102-49: Intermediate College Writing

Spring 2004, TR 2:30-3:45PM, Bingham Humanities Bldg 106

In Class Group Activity

1. Debate: Advertisers vs Editors

In "Sex, Lies, and Advertising," Gloria Steinem describes an editorial situation in which advertisers attempted to control editorial judgment and content of the magazines in which they placed their ads. Today, we will have our own debate on this topic. Divide into three groups and spend approximately 20 minutes preparing your position for the debate. Here are the groups' positions:

  1. Magazine Editors should construct arguments asserting their editorial control.
  2. Advertisers should construct arguments for control of product placement.
  3. Moderators should form a list of balanced yet probing questions to ask each side.

Informal Writing

The goal of the informal writing assignments is to get you to think actively about the readings and write analytically about popular culture (become a critical consumer rather than a blind indulger.) These short assignments of approximately 300-500 words will also prepare you to write the longer, formal papers. Approximately once per week, you will be asked to respond to an essay or some element of popular culture. Although you will write in class or email a couple of responses to me, you will type most responses and hand them in at the beginning of class.

  1. More Goods
    • Respond to either either Laurence Shames' "The More Factor" or Anne Norton's "The Signs of Shopping." First and foremost, summarize the essay's argument. Second, argue what you think the author would argue if she were writing the essay today, 10 to 15 years after she originally wrote it. Would Shames' think we're still suffering from a lack of more, or might our culture have found a new frontier? How would Norton read the rise of Wal-Mart and Amazon.com?
    • Due: Thursday, January 15
  2. Jihad vs McWorld
    • In an informal response, answer the textbook's "Reading the Text" questions 1, 2, and 4 on page 132: "Summarize in your own words Barber's definitions of 'jihad' and 'McWorld.' What are the two scenarios for the future as painted by the proponents of what Barber calls 'jihad' and 'McWorld'? To what extent do you find these scenarios valid?' How do both jihadic culture and McWorld endanger democracy, in Barber's view?"
    • Due: Thursday, January 22
  3. Advertising
    • Advertising is all around us. Select a particularly effective or abhorrent television commercial or print advertisement and write about your reaction to it. Does it make you want to buy the product? Or, are you desensitized? If it works, why does it work? What desires or fears does it try to play on? Are these the kinds of desires or fears that Marchand and Solomon discuss? Be sure to tape the ad or cut it out so you can share it with the class class.
    • Due: Thursday, January 29
  4. TV
  5. The News Media
  6. Satirical Films
    • Below is a list of films that reflect and comment on the three units of our class, the American Dream of consumerism, the effects of television and film, and the news media. Sign up below for a film and respond to it. What is the film's satirical message or theme about the American Dream of consumerism, about television and film, or about the news? In other words, how does the film you've signed up for comment about some aspect of our course?
    • You must turn in this response electronically (email it to me before class) for I plan to post your responses to Blackboard in order to create an annotated bibliography of movies for the class's use at Blackboard > English 102 > Informal Writing > The Movies. To learn more about the plots of these films before you make your choice, browse to the Internet Movie Database. If you have another film suggestion, please bring it to my attention and I will most likely allow you to respond to it.
    • Due: Tuesday, March 30
      Satire of the American Dream
      American Beauty (Sam Mendes, 1999) Whitney Cecil
      Boiler Room (Ben Younger, 2000) Erin Yates
      Can't Hardly Wait (Harry Elfont and Deborah Kaplan, 1998) Hope Fothergill
      A Christmas Story (Bob Clark, 1983) Sarah Riche

      Clueless (Amy Heckerling, 1995)

      Casey Crawford

      Dierdre Thomas

      Fight Club (David Fincher, 1999)

      		 Matt Rasche

      Glengarry Glen Ross (James Foley, 1992)

      		  
      She's All That (Robert Iscove, 1999) Maegan Smith
      Vanilla Sky (Cameron Crowe, 2001) Evan Fedders

      Television and Film Satire

      Cecil B. Demented (John Waters, 2000)

      		 Lori Cissell
      Death to Smoochie (Danny DeVito, 2002) Jordan Greenwell
      Jay and Silent Bob Strike Back (Kevin Smith, 2001) Brad Ellis
      Leave It to Beaver (Andy Cadiff, 1997) Betsy Wolfe

      Man Bites Dog (Rémy Belvaux, André Bonzol, and Benôt Poelvoorde, 1992)

      		  

      Pleasantville (Gary Ross, 1998)

      Ben Casabella

      Brian S. Ford

      The Running Man (Paul Michael Glaser, 1987)

      		 Holly Clark

      Series 7: The Contender (Daniel Minahan, 2000)

      		 Varina Sausman

      Trekkies (Roger Nygard, 1999)

      		  

      The Truman Show (Peter Weir, 1998)

      		 Shaliza Edge

      News Satire
      Broadcast News (James L. Brooks, 1987)  

      Citizen Kane (Orson Wells, 1941)

      		  
      Natural Born Killers (Oliver Stone, 1994) Mike Webber

      Network (Sidney Lumet, 1976)

      		  

      To Die For (Gas Van Sant, 1995)

      		 Dottie Copeland

      Tomorrow Never Dies (Roger Spottiswoode, 1997)

      		 Robert Schaefer
      Wag the Dog (Barry Levinson, 1997) Amy Hedges
  7. Don DeLillo's White Noise
    • Just as American Psycho and the movie you signed up for comment upon issues important to our class, Don DeLillo's White Noise reflects a world infused with popular culture. Describe the world of White Noise, particularly in Part One: Waves and Radiation (1-106). What is white noise; what are "waves and radiation" ? Give some primary examples. How do the characters feel about the white noise of the world in which they live?
    • Due: Tuesday, April 6
  8. Don DeLillo's White Noise, concluded
    • Respond to one or both of the following questions about the conclusion of the novel. After his experiences with Babette, Willie Mink, the nuns, and the hospital, what has Jack learned about death? Is the ending of the novel, including Wilder crossing the expressway and the rearrangement of supermarket shelves, "happy"? Why or why not?
    • Due: Tuesday, April 20

Peer Response

You will be given the opportunity to revise your first two formal papers based upon not only my comments but your peer's comments as well. You will provide constructive criticism to three or four other members of the class as will they to you. Writers should therefore bring enough copies of the first draft of your paper for me and your group members.

Paper 1

Length: Write one response (250 words minimum) for each of your fellow group member's paper

Due: All written peer responses are due on the date and time that your peer group meets. Peer responders will give their peer response, and writers will turn in those responses to the professor with Draft 2.

 

Use the following issues to help you to formulate your 250 word response to each peer's paper. Even if you find the paper good, you should still comment on these issues. You can always engage a conversation with the writer about how you're analyzing the issue differently, for that dialogue can also help the writer in the revision process.

Paper 2

All peer groups will meet Thursday, April 4.

Length: Write one response (250 words minimum) for each of your fellow group member's paper.

Due: all written peer responses are due on the date and time that your peer group meets. Peer responders will give their peer response, and writers will turn in those responses to the professor with Draft 2.

 

Use the following issues to help you to formulate your 250 word response to each peer's paper. Even if you find the paper good, you should still comment on these issues. Don't be vague; talk specifically about particular ideas and analyses. You can always engage a conversation with the writer about how you're analyzing the issue differently, for that dialogue can also help the writer in the revision process.

Paper 1

In the previous three informal writing assignments, you made initial summaries of authors' arguments about the American consumerist world view and did your own semiotic analysis of an advertisement selling such a good. The goal of the first paper is for you to fully enter into the debate on consumerism by rigorously summarizing one of the essays we've read in class. Choose an author whose argument you wish to either expand upon or refute. In either case, your paper should summarize, fairly and accurately, the author's argument. Evaluate that argument: analyze and criticize, affirm and interrogate, but always be fair to the author's argument. Finally, your paper should provide your own perspective, your own argument (analysis and ideas) by either agreeing with the essay but furthering its point with your own ideas, or disagreeing with the essay and offering counterargument of your own.

 

You will write two drafts of this paper: first, an ungraded draft that will be responded to by me and your peers (see peer response guidelines), and second, a final, graded draft that revises the first draft.

Paper 2

In the first paper, you summarized a writer's argument and then provided your own evaluation of the subject. In the second paper, you will provide your own analysis first and foremost, and use two authors' essays to support your argument. Choose a specific television program or news source and then analyze that particular program and its genre. Your essay must utilize two articles to help it prove its point, one that we've read in our textbook and one that you yourself find using the library.

 

The outside article, which you can find using the information gained from our library day and this research handout, should be from a scholarly book chapter, a scholarly journal (published four times per year and consisting of writers who are academics in the field), or a reputable magazie (choose a high quality, substantial, argumentative and feature length article; editorials, reviews, and short essays are not acceptable). Finally, note that the point of this essay is not to summarize and evaluate others' essays, as you did in the first paper, but rather to construct your own analysis of a television or news program and use others' work to support that analysis.

 

For example, you could discuss issues of reality in Newlyweds and reality tv in general by using the Bissell article and one other article that you find through your own research. Or, you could discuss issues of hard and soft news on the 5:00 o'clock WAVE 3 broadcast by using the Rapping article and one other article that you find through your own research. With nine articles and innumerable television programs and news sources, the possibilities are rich.

 

You will write two drafts of this paper: first, an ungraded draft that will be responded to by me and your peers (note that the peer response issues and groups are different for this paper: see peer response guidelines), and second, a final, graded draft that revises the first draft.

Annotated Bibliography

An annotated bibliography is a list of secondary sources that includes summaries of those materials. A full two weeks before your final paper is due, you will compose an annotated bibliography of the research materials that you might use in Paper 3. Use this research handout to guide your search.

  1. Thesis in Progress: In a few sentences, state your tentative thesis in progress and the question that is guiding your research. (You will be asked to share this with the class.)
  2. Summary of Findings: In at least 250 words, summarize your findings. What are scholars and critics saying about your topic?
  3. 8 Secondary Sources

Paper 3

In the first paper, you summarized and evaluated a single article on pop culture consumerism while in the second paper, you used two articles to back up your own analysis of a television show or news outline. In the third paper, you will analayze and research a topic of your choosing (but not one you previously wrote a formal paper on) from any part of the course. You must use at least four research sources to help support your analysis of an issue regarding popular culture. Our three units on the American dream of consumerism; the news; and television, film, and literature have covered a broad range of issues in popular culture; and so you have many issues to choose from. I suggest you clear your topic with me before beginning your annotated bibliography.