Social Media Thin Ideal & Body Dissatisfaction Essay – Description
Grade required: A
prewriting:
Purpose
The purpose of this activity is to practice identifying evidence to use as support in your paper. In the same way we have been identifying important lines from texts throughout the semester, you need to find the best evidence to support your ideas in the research you have done.
Instructions
For this assignment, please complete the following:
Review all the work you have done for the research paper, such as the proposal and annotated bibliography work.
Think about your tentative thesis and revise it based on your research and ideas so far as a way to guide you in the next steps. The goal is to synthesize what you have done so far so that you can find the best evidence for your ideas.
Find 2 pieces of evidence (golden lines) from the sources you read in assignments 4.4 and 4.5 that you think you could use in your research paper. You should find two quotes from each source, for a total of 10 pieces of evidence. Be sure to either copy and paste or re-type the direct quotes, and include the parenthetical citation (Author last name and page number).
For each piece of evidence, write a minimum of 50 words that explain the quote and how it supports your research. In other words, analyze the quote and explain which arguments or ideas of yours it will support, or how you will use it.
Post your work here for credit.
***By doing this, you will have evidence and a start on your analysis for your paper draft. Remember to use this for your paper, as well as the other work you have done for this class, including your essays. If you want to review choosing and using sources, please read the entire chapter on analyzing sources in your handbook, specifically the page on synthesizing sources.
text set:
Purpose
Text-Set Assignments are designed to give you a place to synthesize (combine things to make something new) the readings to further your development and understanding, as well as help you to develop your own arguments and ideas. These papers build off of work we have done, so be sure to use your notes and previous assignments to write these essays – you have done a lot of the work already, so use it! You should be revising what you have done in the Learning a activities to complete this assignment.
Readings to use for this Text-Set Assignment
For this Text-Set Assignment, you need 6 texts total. Please use a minimum of 5 texts that you found during your own research, and at least 1 text that was assigned in class. If you decided on a research topic that is not supported by one of our assigned texts, you can use 6 texts you found through research.
Text-Set Assignment Format – Changed for Research!
Your assignment should include the 4 below parts. Remember to use and revise your work from other assignments on these parts, as you have a start on most of it! Also, please note the changes, as we are transferring what we learned previously into the correct format for an annotated bibliography in one section.
A final argument, or thesis
A synthesis of all 6 texts. This synthesis must include a minimum of 6 direct quotes – one from each research source.
Questions for further research.
An annotated bibliography entry for each of the 6 texts required for this assignment, including MLA citations
Parts 1-4 of this Text-Set Explained in Detail
(1) FINAL ARGUMENT (1-3 SENTENCES – ONE ARGUMENT TOTAL – THIS SHOULD BE A SPECIFIC ARGUMENT ABOUT THE TOPIC AS A WHOLE, NOT INDIVIDUAL READINGS)
What does it all mean? You want to create a final argument, or thesis, that advances the ideas in the texts, and your own thoughts. Click here to read more about writing arguments (Links to an external site.).
(2) SYNTHESIS (MINIMUM 800 WORDS TOTAL)
Synthesizing texts means putting your sources and ideas together. Now that we have read several texts on the subject, your task is to organize your thoughts and identify relationships between the texts. Rather than looking at individual sources, you create new ideas based on thinking about the sources as being in conversation with each other. While you want to highlight connections, and even differences at times, this is not the same as a compare and contrast assignment. You want to compare and contrast the big ideas in each text and try to develop new and unique viewpoints based on how the texts relate to each other, and the general topic (this should connect to the argument you develop).
You are required to integrate and use a minimum of 6 direct quotes for this assignment. You should use one direct quote from each text.
(3) QUESTIONS FOR RESEARCH (2-4 QUESTIONS ON THE TOPIC AS A WHOLE, NOT INDIVIDUAL READINGS)
Developing good, critical questions is one of the keys to developing papers and conducting research. After doing is all this research, what questions still remain? What new questions do you have? Click here to read more about writing good questions for research (Links to an external site.).
(4) ANNOTATED BIBLIOGRAPHY ENTRIES
What is an Annotated Bibliography?
An annotated bibliography is a list of citations to books, articles, and documents. Each citation is followed by a brief descriptive and evaluative paragraph, the annotation. The purpose of the annotation is to inform the reader of the relevance, accuracy, and quality of the sources cited. Your annotation should have a short summary of the source, an evaluation of the content and credibility of the source, and an explanation of how this source connects to your research project, and/or other sources.
In other words, an annotated bibliography is a list of sources with notes about why they are good sources, and how they relate to your research and other sources on the topic. It is basically a combination of the summaries and rhetorical precis we have been doing!
Here are the guidelines for the Annotated Bibliography part:
There must be a total of 6 entries for your annotated bibliography. 5 of the 6 sources must be sources you found through research, and one must be a text from class. If your topic is not supported by one our our texts, you can use 6 texts from research.
Follow the current MLA formatting guidelines (Use the online writing guide, or Purdue OWLLinks to an external site. for help).
Each entry must include the following:
The MLA citation for the source
2-3 sentences that summarize the source accurately
4-6 sentences that evaluate the source’s credibility, content, and/or connection to the topic and other sources
1-3 sentences that reflect on how and why this source will be useful to your research topic/argument.
***Click here for a tutorial on and example of a formatted annotated bibliography
THINGS TO NOTE:
Remember that if you have completed previous assignments, you already have drafts of your entries done! You will need to revise, but a lot of the work is complete. Please use that work for this assignment.
Requirements
Title each section in bold so it is clear which part is which.
While you may write these in different order, please make sure the final version is formatted in the order listed under the format instructions.
There should be one space between each section, and between each summary and rhetorical precis.
Number the research questions using the number function.
Follow MLA formatting guidelines for all parts, especially the annotated bibliography (1 inch margins, double-spaced, proper header, etc.). Click here to review MLA RequirementsLinks to an external site.
How to Write this Assignment
Depending on how your brain works, you might find it easier to do some of these tasks before others. However, it is essential that you do your research, read, and complete the annotated bibliography part first, even though it is listed last. The order in which you write the synthesis, argument, and questions may vary, though.
For example, synthesizing sources can help you develop an argument and lead you to more questions, so you might want to do that part first. Others, though, might find they need to start with an argument, synthesize based on this argument, then see what questions can be posed. Some of you might prefer to start with questions, then choose one to answer as a way to form your argument, then synthesize based on your argument. Others still may find it more logical to develop questions, synthesize sources using a question as a guide, then develop an argument based on that work.
I encourage you to try different combinations to see what works for you, with the understanding that you might use a different process each time we do a Text-Set Assignment. No matter what combination you use, you will find it useful to go back and revise all parts based on how you develop the ones you do after the first one.
Tips for Success
As stated on the calendar, you are supposed to do the assignments in order, as they are designed to build upon one another. Because of this, you will find that you have already started work on aspects of your essay. Be sure to review your work, and use it here.
Even though you will use work you have already started on, simple copy and pasting won’t serve you well. Be sure to re-evaluate and re-think your work, and revise it for the assignment so that it is deeper and more advanced.
Remember that Text-Set Assignments are formally graded, so all aspects of writing are evaluated, including grammar and language.
Don’t forget about the great discussions we have had, and the interesting things others have said. While you don’t want to use something someone else said and present it as your idea (plagiarism), you do want to review the great learning we did and use it to help you develop your own ideas in more depth.
Remember – just get the work done! You can revise it, if you want, based on the feedback you receive and resubmit it to be re-assessed. The new grade will replace the previous grade.
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