Assignment 10: Meeting a Scholar
For this unit, you get to choose from two scholarly texts, each of which connects to McCloud’s chapter, albeit in different ways. From the text that you chose, you will continue to develop and refine your research interests from the first unit, and you will eventually locate other scholarly articles that respond to those interests. That collection of essays will then serve as the basis for your Unit 3 and Unit 4 final projects, though if you’d like to shift your project away from McCloud’s essay and thus not include it in your work for Units 3 and 4, you are welcome to do so).
The text that you choose now will thus influence the direction of your research for the remainder of the semester, so make your choice carefully (note: you can change your research direction later in the semester, though it is recommended that you consult with your instructor before doing so). Here are your choices:
Read& Annotate
Read the article above that interests you most (note: it’s probably a good idea to print the essay, since you’ll be working with it in subsequent assignments as well). As you read, make use of the strategies you developed in the first unit by annotating, recording observations about the text’s rhetorical situation and argument, and posing critical questions.
Post & Discuss
Then, write a detailed and thoughtful response (recommended to write in MS Word and cut/paste to avoid losing work) in which you:
- Identify any aspects of the writer’s perspective that you found striking, confusing, or noteworthy.
- Describe any of your past experiences, present interests, or future ambitions that you see addressed in the text, as well as what you know, don’t know, and might like to know about issues raised in the text.
- Reflect on your research interests as they have evolved through the previous unit and as a result of reading this most recent text, and pose three questions that grow out of issues raised in McCloud’s essay and the essay you chose to read for this assignment that are relevant to your personal, scholastic, or professional interests (you will refine these questions in the next assignment).
- Identify several critical questions the text raises that might be of interest to you and/or others, and pose any questions you had about the text that was confusing or unclear to you.
- Respond to at least one of your classmates’ questions or post a question to them.
Requirements: Responses to all of the prompts above, abiding by “netiquette” guidelines, prose that is appropriate within the context of this assignment.
Answer Preview-Assignment 10: Meeting a Scholar-ENGL-121-N201
