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Essay
Assignment #2: Where Are You Now? |
English 104
Instructor Kathy Crutcher
Overview:
In the first unit we explored the places of our past in order to better understand “where we’re coming from.” Now we’ll focus on the place of our present—in Lexington, at the University of Kentucky—as a way to practice conscious, critical observation of our surroundings. We will complicate our views of the people and places we encounter every day by examining with “fresh and deliberate eyes” (Matthieu 60).
Your Job:
Your job is to examine a local place—i.e. on campus or in the city of Lexington—from multiple perspectives, and therefore to complicate and deepen your (and your audience’s) understanding of that place. Thus you have two duties in selecting an essay topic: 1) to choose a place (which could be anything from a coffee shop to a skate park to the ROTC building to campus/city bike lanes) worthy of critical investigation, and 2) to select a range of perspectives that illuminate and complicate your original perception of this place. A few essential distinctions are in order:
Note that, as in our first assignment, your essay should utilize specific details and purposeful vignettes to narrate your exploration, but you must also do more than tell a story: your essay must unearth important questions that matter to a general public, especially the local public. By the end of your investigation you should be able to articulate your own hypotheses as to how this place functions in the community. Here are some questions to help you think about possible paths for analysis:
Research:
In order to effectively examine this place, you will need to incorporate a variety of research methods—the more varied, the better. Specifically, you will need to combine both primary and secondary methods of investigation. Primary sources include on-site observation, experiential learning, interviews, surveys, etc. Secondary sources include newspaper or magazine articles, scholarly essays, historical facts, statistics, relevant internet research, etc. At the very minimum, you should utilize at least three sources total, although more are encouraged. Also, to deepen the analysis / reflection in your essays, I highly recommend that you utilize scholarly essays and/or make connections to class readings whenever possible. We will practice finding and integrating sources in class.
Forum:
This investigation is interesting and relevant to those beyond our classroom. Thus, as you investigate, you’ll share what you learn with a broader community via your own personal blog on www.blogger.com!
We’ll set up our blogs in class. Your blog will include:
The possibilities are nearly endless, and you will have plenty of freedom to design your site!
One thing you need to determine is your audience for this blog. You may broadcast to the whole internet-viewing public, to a local interest group, to a select group of friends and family, or only to myself + your workshop group. We will discuss.
Nitty-Gritty: