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Forum Assignment:  Pre-writing Focus Activity for Essay 3

 

The purpose of this activity is to discover possible focuses for writing your paper.  This activity asks you to choose a particular TV show for analysis and generate some possible cultural contexts, exigencies, and audiences for writing.

 

Part 1:  This part is to be completed by Sunday.  Post your prewriting focus assignment to the designated forum using the following guidelines.

 

Focus on the particular show that you’ve chosen.  You should have a couple of episodes to choose from that you’ve recorded earlier to complete this activity.  Using your notes and memory from viewing the show earlier, write detailed responses to the following questions. (If you haven’t been videotaping your show, make sure that you begin taping it now so you can view it again to find more ideas and details for developing your analysis.):

 

1.       Identify the show you watched and briefly explain the premise of the episode or episodes you’ll be writing about.  (Assume that your audience includes readers who haven’t seen the show, so you’ll need to provide some detail.) 

 

2.       Then, list 3 different cultural contexts the show might be responding to, based on your viewing.  That is, what shared cultural beliefs does the show address?

A.

B.

C.

 

3.       What aspects or moments of the show seem to be communicating mixed or competing messages?  That is, where is the show reinforcing and challenging each of the 3 cultural beliefs you identified in #2?  List the competing messages it offers or suggests about each belief.

A.

B.

C.

 

4.       What might be your exigence for writing about each of those 3 contexts (beliefs) you identified in #2?  Why might writing about these messages be important to other Americans? 

A.

B.

C.

 

5.       Identify a potential audience for each exigence.  Who might benefit from learning more about this message?

A.

B.

C.

 

 

 

 

6.       Write a tentative claim that addresses what you see the show “doing” with each of the 3 cultural beliefs you’ve identified.

A.

B.

C.

 

7.       What evidence would you need to support each of those 3 claims you identified in #6 above? For each of those 3 claims, list any evidence that could support each claim. Refer to the strategies for analysis in pages 8-11 of Reading Culture and our discussion from last meeting.  For instance, how might the dominant images, set design, attire of the characters, spatial arrangement, camera space, dialogue and/or character interactions, (even sponsor commercials), etc. help illustrate your claim?

A.

B.

C.

 

 

Part 2:  This part is to be completed before class Tuesday.  After you’ve posted your own prewriting focus assignment to the forum, read and provide some initial feedback to 2 other students’ responses.  Respond to those postings that appear above or below yours on the forum.  (If your own posting is at the top or bottom of the forum list, respond to the 2 that are nearest to yours.)   Post your response to each as a REPLY.  Provide the writer responses to these questions:

 

1)      Which of the 3 options the writer has identified do you think would work best and why?  That is, why do you think this shared cultural belief, exigence, audience, and claim make sense together?

2)      For the option you identified above, what else might the writer consider if he or she decides to develop an analysis using that cultural belief, exigence, audience and claim?  For instance, how could the writer make the purpose more appropriate to the audience? How could she/he narrow or make the claim more appropriate to the audience?  Does the writer have any evidence that could support the claim?  What other evidence can you think of that might work?