Essay : to synthesize and contribute to a significant contemporary cultural conversation relevant to the broader course theme of the real and the fake. Let me break down the main components of that task in more detail:
*synthesize: distill the core issue(s) at stake in the conversation, and generously represent a variety of distinct opinions, perspectives, and arguments surrounding those issues.
*contribute to: develop your own complex idea. This idea should go beyond “taking sides” in the conversation or adopting a pro/con position; it should allow us to see the issue in a new light.
*significant: this means non-trivial. In many cases it will be clear why/how it is significant; if it’s not, part of your rhetorical task will be to make the reader accept that it is, in fact, significant.
*contemporary: people are discussing it now – that is, within the last few days or weeks – in major published venues. Perhaps, as a sign of contemporaneity, it also has pop-cultural traction.
*cultural conversation: a debate or controversy being discussed across the culture as a whole.
So, your ultimate task is to write an essay, 6 pages long, that does what I have just described. You will have a number of models: from this year’s Mercer Street and from earlier issues of Mercer Street, such as “The World’s Game” and “Medicating the Cultural Subconscious.”
Your Works Cited list should have a minimum of 6 sources. Fewer than that, and the essay is unlikely to be genuinely synthetic. (Remember that the library guide can lead you to library databases for discovering valuable evidence.) There are 7 types of sources to consider using:
1. Brooklyn Reader/e-Reader sources. You can but are not required to use these. If there is one relevant to your conversation, it is very strongly encouraged, for the simple reason that they are high-quality sources and worth engaging with. But if there’s nothing relevant, that’s that.
2. Reference sources: encyclopedia or dictionary sources, preferably from CREDO Reference. But you are permitted to use Wikipedia as well. However, if you find that the Wikipedia article is disputed (there would be visible notes saying so), look into why, and consider the implications.
3. News sources: these will be mostly from newspapers or news websites, and will be articles that simply report a story about a recent event. (Such articles might quote opinions, but the reporter will not advance an opinion or make an argument about the issue him- or herself.)
4. Scholarly or academic articles found on EBSCO, ProQuest, Google Scholar, etc. These will involve some in-depth research in the form of careful analysis of evidence, archival investigation, fieldwork, statistical studies, controlled experiments. They will have a scholarly apparatus, that is to say, a Works Cited/bibliography and footnotes, and will participate in the discourse of a field such as law, literary studies, biology, computer science, medicine, sociology, psychology, etc. – an important factor to consider when making use of this kind of source.
5. Mainstream opinion articles. These are essential sources for the purposes of this essay. They will have appeared in mainstream newspapers, magazines, and websites, and will make an argument about the issue. These are the places where cultural conversations become cultural conversations; if an issue is not being discussed actively in such venues, it probably doesn’t count as a cultural conversation. Examples of such venues: New York Times, New Yorker, New York, Slate, The Atlantic, Wired, New Republic, Vox, Washington Post.
6. Popular culture sources: movies, comedy shows, talk shows, cartoons, comic books, etc.
A good cultural conversation essay will draw on a thoughtful admixture of sources from several different categories. The most important kinds of sources for this essay are groups 4 and 5 – and your discussion of these sources should take up much of your essay. An essay that does not engage with these kind of sources will likely be inadequate: cultural conversations happen in these kinds of sources, so if you’re not reading and citing them, you’re not on the pulse of the conversation. Sources drawn from categories 2, 3, 6, & 7 will play a smaller, but potentially crucial role, by, for example: offering evidence of relevance (esp. 3 and 6); offering concrete examples, and exhibits for analysis (esp. 3, 6, 7); clarifying and specifying concepts (esp. 2 but possibly also the others). Assembling an interesting array of sources that inform your thinking and placing them in dialogue are important tasks for this progression: put real effort into them!
Additionally, it’s crucial that you have 2-3 high-quality sources to anchor your discussion. High-quality sources are in-depth, original in their arguments, and lucid in their expression. The assigned essays, and any Brooklyn Reader texts, are good examples of high-quality sources.
The criteria for grading this essay are as follows. The essay must:
*Synthesize and contribute to a contemporary cultural conversation about a significant issue.
*Develop a compelling idea that allows a reader to think in a new way about the issue. This idea should go beyond “taking sides”: it should present a new way of thinking about the problem.
*Express your and others’ ideas and arguments with clarity, elegance, and efficiency.
*Make a clear, coherent argument that leads the reader through a development of thought.
*Stage a conversation that gives consideration to several divergent perspectives on the issue.
*Represent and explore a minimum of 6 sources, at least half of which should be scholarly articles and mainstream opinion articles (the rest may belong to other categories).
*Follow all MLA formatting requirements carefully, and undergo careful proofreading.
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