Dr. Sigler

Purpose:

Drawing on all of the skills you have developed throughout the semester, you will analyze a text or cultural construct in order to interpret its meaning as well as its significance to you. The main purpose of this essay is to help you develop the skills to effectively interpret works created by others and to write a coherent and adroit analysis based on your interpretation.

Description:

To interpret a text is to explain what it means. To interpret a text also implies that a text can be read in more than one way?your interpretation is your reading; others may have read it differently. The word text implies words, writing books; however, virtually all works created by human beings can be considered as texts open to interpretation: films, music, dance, paintings, photographs, sculptures, advertisements, essays, poems, stories, myths, graphic texts/picture books, artifacts, buildings, and Web sites. For this particular essay, you will be asked to interpret a text that is particularly important to you, be it written, cinematic, musical or another form, and write a detailed analysis that explains both the text's personal significance and larger meaning.

To find out what a text means, you need to hear it, look at its language, examine how it is put together, compare it with similar things, notice and consider why and how it affects you, and most importantly, keep asking why and what (i.e., Why is it constructed this way? What meaning does it convey?).

Choosing a Topic:

The best text to select for an analysis one that is very important to you: perhaps a text that represents a major event or turning point in your life, that is set in a place that is important to you, that relates to the career you want to pursue (e.g. if you are going to be a teacher, you might want to examine a controversial children's book). You also want to choose a text that is problematic?a text whose meaning seems to you somewhat slippery and elusive?since these give you, the interpreter, the most room to argue one meaning against another. Your job is to make the best possible case that your interpretation is reasonable and deserves attention. If you think a text is overtly simple, you will have no real need to interpret it. As always, choose a topic that is important to you and that interests or intrigues you; if you don't, chances are it won't interest or intrigue your reader either.

Questions to consider:

• Why is this text important/meaningful to me?
• What cultural values do I think this text is trying to convey?
• Can this text be read/analyzed in more than one way?
• What are some of the different ways of reading/analyzing it?
• With which reading reading/analysis do I most agree with?
• Where are the passages/areas in the text that support this reading/analysis?
• Whom does my interpretation need to convince? (Who is my audience?)

You are not being asked to write a review or summary. You are writing an analysis of the message and meaning that a text conveys. Although the text's significance to you is an important element to consider and analyze, the essay should not merely be your personal opinion of a text.

Length:

6-8 pages minimum, not including notes and Works Cited pages.

Requirements and Deadlines:

• You must cite at least six sources in your essay. Only one third of the sources you use may be from the Internet. MLA documentation and Works Cited page are required. Copies of all pages cited in your essay (including Web pages) must be provided along with your prewriting. The cited passages must be highlighted, and each page must be labeled with the title and author of the work.
• A one-page description of the topic you propose to write on will be due Tuesday, October 31. This description will include a tentative thesis for the paper. You will also include a working bibliography of at least four items along with the topic proposal. You are encouraged to discuss your topics with me before then. No paper will be accepted without this preliminary proposal, which will be counted as Essay 3, handed in on this date. (Note that you will need to have a complete, typed draft of this proposal for an editing workshop on Thursday October 26.)
• A complete typed draft of the completed research essay (Essay 4) is due on Thursday, November 16 for a peer-editing workshop.
• The final version of the research essay is due on Tuesday, December 5, along with all drafts, editing sheets, copies of cited source pages, and prewriting.
• You will make a 5-minute oral presentation to the class about your research project. The presentation is worth 5% of your final grade for the class. (More information about preparing for the presentation will follow.)