Assignment 3

For assignment one, you developed an original and arguable claim in response to one version, or adaptation, of Little Red Riding Hood. For assignment two, you considered a different sort of adaptation, the Netflix documentary The Great Hack, and a selection of texts interpreting and contextualizing the film. Your goal with this assignment is to contribute new knowledge to our understanding of adaptation. You will do this by developing an original research question on a particular cultural product that has been adapted and conducting research to answer that question. 

Research Project Process

As in your first two assignments this semester, you will begin by finding a specific opportunity for conversation (a gap, tension, contradiction, ambiguity, or difficulty in the history of the thing you isolate or in the topic more broadly). You will then go through a process that will prove useful as you undertake research assignments in future courses:

1. develop an original research question 
2. find reliable sources that help you answer that question
3. read and evaluate those sources and chronicle your findings (two options for this!)
4. present your answer to that question (your claim) in a 6-page paper

You are not restricted in the evidence you use in this essay. To the challenge of locating an opportunity for conversation and formulating a question, therefore, this assignment adds the tricky task of finding reliable and relevant sources and analyzing them to answer your question. You will decide on the audience for your project and include the standard “note on audience” after the works cited page in your final project.

Research Proposal

At least 1 single-spaced page that introduces your research question (or questions if you’re still trying to decide) and the sources you plan to read (and find) in order to answer that question. It should explain why you’re interested in this question and it should also mention at least three reliable (these might be peer-reviewed, but that is not required) sources you plan to use in your process. It can help to imagine a tentative claim just so that you know if your question can lead to an arguable claim.

Chronicling The Research Process 

Building on the note-taking questions we’ve been using this semester, this assignment asks you to devote considerable time to reading and taking notes on the sources you find. You will notice a deadline to submit a draft and a deadline for a revised version. You have two options for submitting the results of this work:

1. Create a Word Document by copy/pasting the questions below, repeating the bolded area for each source you find in your research process. This note-taking document can be formatted in whatever way you find most useful as long as all questions are answered.
2. For extra credit (one half-letter grade bump), complete this task in Zotero. Once you learn how Zotero works, this will save you time on this and future research projects. You will create a note for each source, but have fewer questions to answer about the source because you will be making sure that imported metadata is accurate. Watch the following videos if you want to get started with Zotero and send me an e-mail when you’ve created an account so I can add you to our class group.

Prompts for Note Taking

Describe the Project

• Explain how you decided to pursue the topic you have selected for your research project.
• State your research question explicitly.
• Describe the audience you plan to write for and why they will be interested in the answer to your question.

Source #1

• Provide the full title of the source and the larger work it is a part of (a single web-page on a website, a story in a book, a song on an album, etc.). It’s best to write the title in accordance with the citation style you will use (MLA for this paper).
• Describe the genre of this source. What is it (play, story in a collection, article on a website, article in a peer-reviewed journal) and how does that matter?
• Describe the author/creator, starting with the full name. If it was created collaboratively, try to include all of the people who contributed in a significant way to the creation of the source. For each significant contributor, Include birth and (if relevant) death dates, country of origin, and noteworthy bits of biography. Then explain how these things matter.
• Describe the publisher, starting with the name of the publisher. Is this a company selling stories? An academic press? An individual who has self-published on the Internet? A company more interested in selling a product other than the source? What does the publisher tell you about the quality of the information presented in the source? Does the publisher make you think this source is appropriate for your project?
• When and where was this source originally published/produced and who do you think it was produced for? Was this the original publication date or has it been republished for a new audience? How does this publication history matter?
• What do you think the purpose of this source was when it was first published? If the source was translated or edited for a later publication, you might also comment on the purpose of the source at that time.
• How are you thinking of using this source for your project? It will be most helpful if you include particular page numbers or timestamps for material you might cite. You are also welcome to include a link to another document you’re using to take notes.

Source #2

[repeat for as many sources as you find]

Concluding Thoughts

• Explain where you are now in your thinking and how your research question and your sense of how to answer that question has changed.
• Present your current answer to your question based on all that you have learned so far, or explain why you still can’t answer your question or explain what research you might pursue further.
• After doing this research, I know that I want to argue that _______.

Research Paper

Present your answer to your research question (an original, arguable claim) in a 6-page paper. Please format this paper according to MLA guidelines. If you would like to download a template document already formatted in this way, click here. The audience for this paper is ________ . Please  include a “note on audience” after your works cited page explaining the decisions you made to appeal to that audience (you will see an example of this note in the template document). You should write formally and according to academic writing conventions, but take care to write in a way that will be compelling and persuasive to this audience.

Tip: A strong claim is an answer to a complex question. You might find it useful to begin this assignment by first formulating a question and then drafting your essay by pursuing the question through close analysis of passages from the text. You can then revise your draft so it is organized to support your claim. 

Extra credit: If you volunteer to share your draft with the class for feedback, you get an extra half letter grade bump. E-mail me if you want to volunteer to share your draft because we can only do one per class period!

Frequently Asked Questions

What can I cite in this paper? 

You can cite any text you find useful in this research project. 

What are MLA guidelines?

The Modern Language Association (MLA) guidelines provide the citation and formatting rules used by many scholars in the humanities. It is not the only citation style you will need to use during your university career, so ultimately you should learn to follow (not memorize!) these guidelines. You can find instructions on the MLA guidelines at this link. You can find resources for signal phrases  at this link and this link.

When is this paper due?

The course schedule in our syllabus includes deadlines for freewriting, drafting, and revision for this assignment. I strongly encourage you to follow this schedule so you can benefit from our class conversations about the writing process. 

How can I get feedback on my draft?

You can get feedback on your work at any stage in the process in a variety of ways:

• In class: My absolute favorite way to provide feedback on drafts is by workshopping the draft in class. To do this, make sure you have the most up-to-date draft in your word online document or in Kaizena so I can pull it up easily from the classroom computer.
• One-on-one: Drop by my office hours (in the syllabus; always reserved for students), make an appointment using my online scheduler (https://calendly.com/maryisbell), or talk to me before or after class.
• Online: Join our course group at Kaizena and share your document (or just post a message about your ideas) in a conversation with me or the whole class. I’ll demonstrate how Kaizena works in class.
• At the Writing Center: Tutors at the writing center will encourage you to talk through your ideas and read whatever you’ve got written aloud. These 45-minute appointments are a fantastic way to improve your work. You can sign up for an appointment using the online schedule.

How do you grade?

I will read your paper and determine a grade based on how successfully your paper accomplishes the work of the assignment. I will also give you a spreadsheet that I call the “framework for feedback,” which will help you see where you should focus your attention on future assignments. This framework breaks the work of an assignment down into seven sections and then indicates how successful you’ve been in each section. I’ve included the range for each section below:

Claim

Basic	Beginning	Developing	Competent	Mature
Writer has not developed a claim that responds to the assignment. The project is a series of observations or attempts at ideas.	Writer has struggled to develop a claim that responds to the assignment. One or more ideas could become the primary claim of the project, but the entire project does not work to support this point	Writer has developed a claim and introduced it to the reader somewhere in project, but that claim is significantly lacking in complexity and originality.	Writer has developed an original claim, but has not accounted for counterclaims as he/she revises the project. The claim could be more complex by addressing counterclaims.	Claim exhibits complexity and nuance through the writer’s consideration of counterclaims.

Process

Basic	Beginning	Developing	Competent	Mature
The writer has turned in a final project, but has not participated in the drafting and revision process	The writer has composed a draft and made surface changes before handing in the final draft. The writer has not participated fully in the drafting and revision process.	The writer has participated in the revision process in a superficial way. The writer has not used the revision process to full advantage	The writer has participated actively in the process and made substantial revisions from rough to final draft, taking full advantage of feedback from instructor and peers.	The writer has participated actively in the process and made substantial revisions from rough to final draft, taking full advantage of feedback from instructor and peers. Furthermore, the writer has continued with this process of revision until the final product is as strong as possible.

Analysis

Basic	Beginning	Developing	Competent	Mature
The project does not engage the text in any meaningful way	The project references one or more sections of text as appropriate for the assignment, but misunderstands the text or introduces sections of the text that are irrelevant to the goals of the project	The writer draws on sections of the text that are implicitly relevant to the project, but does not offer explicit analysis in individual paragraphs to make the relevance clear to the reader. There is a logic to the ideas introduced, but the reader has to guess why they have been chosen.	The writer has demonstrated that he/she can offer analysis of one section of the text to support his/her project, but has not done this consistently in the project	The writer has offered thoughtful analysis of all sections of the text introduced and demonstrated how those sections support the goals of the project. In so doing, the writer has offered a truly inventive angle on the assigned text.

Organization

Basic	Beginning	Developing	Competent	Mature
The project reads like a list of unrelated ideas. The writer would benefit from more careful attention to logical arrangement of well-structured paragraphs with transition sentences	The project reads like a list of unrelated ideas. One of the ideas might have the potential to become a primary claim, but it is not presented as such, and the other unrelated ideas do not support that claim.	Ideas are introduced in a logical order, but the writer has not taken advantage of paragraphs with clear topic sentences and transitions between ideas	The writer has demonstrated that he/she can construct a persuasive paragraph with a clear topic sentence and careful analysis related to one distinct point, but has not done this throughout the project.	The writer has organized his/her project thoughtfully, offering carefully ordered paragraphs that contain clear topic sentences. Transitions between these paragraphs are logical and the reader is able to understand the purpose of all components of the project.

Citation 

Basic	Beginning	Developing	Competent	Mature
It is difficult to tell if the ideas in the project are the ideas of the writer or something the writer has read. This is the grade given when the instructor believes the errors in citation are not deliberate cheating but a misuse of sources	Writer references the work of other writers and indicates in some way that those ideas are not the writer’s own ideas, but the writer does not include in-text citations.	Writer includes in-text citations and a works cited page, but struggles to indicate through sentences that the ideas of others are not his/her own.	The writer has demonstrated that he/she can introduce the ideas of others clearly, but has not done this with every text referenced in the project.	The writer has introduced all ideas from other writers and has even made it clear how his/her ideas forward or counter those ideas to say something new

Clarity

Basic	Beginning	Developing	Competent	Mature
The project is impossible to understand because of sentence-level issues	The project is difficult to understand because of sentence-level issues	Multiple sentence-level errors make the project confusing in places	Occasional sentence-level issues interrupt an otherwise easy-to-understand project	The writer has expressed his/her ideas clearly

Audience

Basic	Beginning	Developing	Competent	Mature
The project exhibits no attention to an audience for the writer’s work.	The project makes occasional moves that might be effective with a particular audience (or perhaps moves that would be effective with different audiences), but this does not seem to have been done deliberately.	The writer makes a sustained effort to appeal to a particular audience, but makes poor decisions that would likely prove ineffective or counterproductive. The project would be stronger if the writer considered the values and expectations of his/her audience	The writer has demonstrated that he/she can appeal effectively to a particular audience, but hasn’t used this sense of audience to full advantage	The writer has appealed consistently to a specific audience, anticipating potential counterarguments and demonstrating the relevance of the project to the values or concerns of the audience.