Assignment 3: American Artifacts

Assignment 3: American Artifacts

Due: In Class, Friday October 21

Purpose:

In assignments one and two, we have focused on rhetorical skills of inventing your own claim and analyzing or evaluating others’ arguments, respectively. For your third essay, you will turn your view to synthesis: the successful incorporation of both invention and analysis. In other words, not only will you make an original claim about a primary source, but also you will provide assessments of at leastthree other scholars’ opinions. We will explore the implications of academic critical dialogue through our research. Ultimately, this unit is designed to help you learn how to effectively incorporate research in your writing process.

Readings:

Any object artifact of significance to American culture (but notthe American flag or any type of currency)
No fewer than three scholarly, critical texts (essays, book chapters, news articles, etc.) on your object. We will attend a research session where you will receive instruction on source location. At least one of your sources should be a scholarly article and no more than one may be a website. As you learned in A2, you will challenge, bolster, or refute the authors’ claims based on the evidence, and on your own well-informed opinions.

Topic Overview:

As we have seen since the start of the semester, a major motivating factor of the American Dream is the promise of success. This success can appear in a number of forms: wealth, athleticism, health, appearance, romance, a family, metaphysical contentedness, or others. If we agree that success is an integral part of the American Dream, who is to say which success is the “correct” kind? As we pursue our desired success (as in the wealth to buy advertised products, the equality that Eric Avila seeks, or the saleable order of the Disney brand), the motivation to succeed can edge dangerously close to obsessive product consumption.

But what if “stuff” is what makes America what it is?

Writing Task:

Material objects and the study of them are hugely significant to Americanness, and to studies of culture in general. Think of a museum exhibit: the curator has chosen to represent a specific culture or time period through careful selection not only of art and written materials, but also through tangible objects, the accoutrements of daily life. If we need these objects to understand a culture, is consumerism as sinister as Avila makes it out to be (products, for example, that exploit foreign labor)? On the other hand, is consumerism as inevitable as the advertisers want us to think? Must cultural artifacts be products designed specifically for capitalist purchase? How is material culture a necessary part of culture formation?

Prompt:

After having selected a particular object for study, in 6-8 pages, please address the following question:

How does your chosen object uniquely represent Americanness?

Please note:

You are not meant to provide a simple description of your object. The descriptive object analysis exercise is not meant to constitute the bulk of your paper, but itwill provide the primary evidence and fodder for your claim/interpretation of the object.

Moreover, you are not meant to compare and contrast your secondary source authors’ opinions of the object you’ve chosen. The readings you choose are not meant to “prove” your claim, but should instead be considered as other speakers in a discussion. The authors are not always stating facts, but are making claims of their own that you may or may not agree with. If you take a stancethat you can’t find in an existing essay, this doesn’t mean you have a bad topic; it means you have found something new to add to the conversation.

Assignment 3 Calendar

Sept. 30:A2 unit review; A3 distributed; review of Writing Program goals

October 3:A3 unpacking; What is it? – cluster invention (vs. topoi vs. f/i list)

HW:Email Ms. Z. object choice; Begin cluster re: object’s Americannness

October 5:The Object of the Game (game show!) – hone your descriptive style

HW:Read excerpt from Prown’s American Artifacts; Develop proto-thesis

October 7:Workable Structures – examples of close reading & coherent writing

HW:Complete Object Analysis; Develop Rough Plan

October 10:Rough Plan Workshop

HW:Narrow thesis (using cluster, f/I, topoi, or similar); Revise Rough Plan

October 12:Library Instruction ***Meet at Leavey Library***

HW:Locate at least 3 sources & email Ms. Z. for approval; Begin first drafts

October 14:Individual Conferences – NO REGULAR CLASS MEETING

HW: Email Ms. Z. first drafts for comments

October 17:Introductions and Conclusions – a specific stylistic/organizational skill