Minimum Length: 1,000 words (not including quoted material)?Format: MLA?Value: 150 points (15%)??For Writing Project 1, you will be required to think deeply about how a "text" taken from American popular culture reflects, depicts, or conveys the American experience/identity to an audience.  The primary "text" that you will be using is the film The Avengers.  Your job will involve analyzing the superheroes in this movie to assert which of these characters displays traits of American identity or lacks these traits. You may focus on one character and discuss multiple aspects or discuss multiple characters and show how they all relate to one idea or issue relating to American identity. In your analysis you should not rely on general observations of your primary text.  Focus on specific examples and details from your primary text in order to fully develop and illustrate your analysis of the text.   The Purpose The purpose of this writing project is to analyze, evaluate, and reflect on the possible meanings, intended or not intended, of your primary text. As such, you will need to spend time going over the text multiple times and time to consider how the text relates to the writing prompt. Take notes. Ask yourself the following questions: Does the text rely on almost mythic ideas of what it means to be American? Does it utilize symbols or motifs or stereotypes (class, race, ethnicity, gender)? What messages—implicit or explicit, accurate or not so accurate—does this text produce or promote concerning American experience/identity? What language and/or visual images are incorporated into this text and for what effect? Does the primary text celebrate being American and present a positive depiction? Is the text’s message jingoistic? Does the text convey a negative image and criticize what Americans stand for? Is such a criticism valid and what is its source? It is important that your opening paragraph introduce and briefly summarize/describe your primary text. But be very careful to not present plot summary. Your job is to analyze the characters and place them in the context of American identity. The Structure Your writing project should be clearly and logically organized and thoroughly develop and support your ideas. Your opening paragraph should convey why your primary text is representative of the American experience/identity and should establish a statement that controls the focus of your writing project and makes a claim about what insights your primary text makes about the American experience/identity.??Body paragraphs should contain only enough summary for background and context, relevant details from the texts, direct quotes when needed to support/illustrate a point, and thorough analysis.  Be sure to move smoothly from one text to the next by drawing significant connections and utilizing transitional phrases.

Rule of thumb:  There should always be more analysis/interpretation than summary.  Assume that your reader is familiar with your chosen texts.  Originality should be in the ideas, not the form of your analysis. Use the basic introduction-body-conclusion format. Each paragraph should have a topic sentence indicating the main point and how it relates to the thesis. The introduction should Start with a hook. Grab your reader’s attention with an interesting quotation, a startling fact or statistic or other provoking statement, a relevant story or description, a list, a joke, a unique definition. End the introduction paragraph with a thesis. A strong thesis includes a provable opinion or claim about a limited topic and the main reasons given to support that opinion. ??Finally, you may want to end your writing project with a conclusion that contains your final thoughts on how texts taken from our popular cult ‌‌‌‍‍‌‍‌‌‍‍‌‍‍‌‌‌‍‍ ure convey or reflect or shape American experience/identity. End strong with a statement or challenge to the readers to relate the text to their lives. Research/Secondary Sources Please scroll down to view everything.??In addition to your primary text, you must research and include information taken from two (and only two) secondary sources that directly or indirectly address the text/topic.  The secondary sources MAY NOT consist of book reviews or plot summaries. Please note that your research must come from credible sources such as books (none from the kid’s section), scholarly journals, magazines, or research databases (such as those available through Columbus State). You must research and find secondary sources that are more academic and that discuss your primary text (or topics related to the text) more deeply and more analytically than a basic review or plot summary can. The MLA International Bibliography database (which can be found on the Columbus State library website) might be a very useful place to begin your search for secondary sources. Many of the online databases (such as Academic Search Complete, MLA International Bibliography, etc.) offer access to full-text articles from print sources, so I highly recommend you search one of those databases for reliable secondary sources. I also recommend that you go to the "Research" area of the course (located on Blackboard), which contains two interactive guides that can help you significantly as you research your topic for Writing project1.  Keep in mind that your secondary sources don’t necessarily have to directly discuss the primary text you’ve chosen (although it can be helpful when they do).  For instance, your secondary sources could provide biographical information, historical information, cultural information, etc.  As long as you can make useful and relevant connections between the information in your secondary sources and your topic, you’ll be fine.  Remember, the most important aspect of this writing project is what you have to say about your primary text; your secondary sources should play a supporting role only.  Here is a list of secondary sources that you CANNOT use:

• any assigned readings or textbooks for this course

• encyclopedias or dictionaries of any kind (including Wikipedia)

• Master Plots or Cliff’s Notes

• book reviews

• abstracts

• juvenile/children’s books

• YouTube

• DVD commentaries  Writing Project 1 Requirements Please scroll down to view everything.

• An interesting and informative title

• An introductory paragraph that identifies your primary text and establishes an explicit statement in your introductory paragraph that makes a claim about your text’s message and how characters reflect aspects of American experience/identity

• An awareness of audience, purpose, and context

• An appropriate voice, tone, style, and level of formality

• An analysis of argumentative strategies and/or persuasive appeals present in your primary text

• Development and support of a compelling idea through relevant and thorough exploration of one (and only one) primary text

• Development and support that incorporates ideas and evidence from two (and only two) secondary sources

• An identifiable structure, including introduction, coherent paragraphs, and conclusion

• Appropriate conventions for structure and paragraphing

• Appropriate mechanics and format

• Effective use of syntax, grammar, punctuation, and spelling

• Proper documentation of primary text and secondary sources

• At least two direct quotes from the primary text

• Incorporating information taken from two (and only two) secondary sources

• At least one direct quote from each secondary source

• Appropriate textual conventions for incorporating ideas from sources, e.g., introducing and incorporating quotations; qu ‌‌‌‍‍‌‍‌‌‍‍‌‍‍‌‌‌‍‍ oting, paraphrasing, and summarizing

• A minimum of 1,000 words (not including quoted material)