Archive for month: June, 2019

Assignment Objectives:  Enhance and/or improve critical thinking and media literacy skills by: 

                                1. Developing a clear and concise thesis statement (an argument) in response to the

                                     following question: Does the film have the power to transform political sensibilities?

                                2. Writing an outline for a five paragraph analytical essay building on a clear and

                                     concise thesis statement, including topic sentences and secondary supports.

                                3. Identifying and explaining three scenes from the film text in support of the thesis

                                     statement/argument.

                                4.  Writing an introductory paragraph for the outlined analytical essay

Be sure to read thoroughly the writing conventions below before beginning this assignment.  

Note: You are NOT writing a full essay; rather, you are outlining an analytical essay by completing the dialogue boxes below.

Writing a Critical Review (analytical) Essay

1. Every essay that you write for this course must have a clear thesis, placed (perhaps) somewhere near the end of the introductory paragraph. Simply stated, a THESIS (or ARGUMENT) expresses, preferably in a single sentence, the point you want to make about the text that is the subject of your essay. A THESIS should be an opinion or interpretation of the text, not merely a fact or observation.  The best possible THESIS will answer some specific questions about the text. Very often the THESIS contains an outline of the major points to be covered in the essay. A possible thesis for an essay on character in Perry Henzell’s The Harder They Come might read somewhat as follows:
   
   
   The protagonist of THTC is not a hero in the epic sense of the word, but a self-centered young man bred of economic oppression and cultural dependency. The characters in this film have no real psychological depth, but are markers for a society of consumption and momentary glory.
   
   
   (You might then go on to exemplify from the text and argue in favor or against this interpretation: your essay need not hold to only one perspective.)
   
   
   What single, clear QUESTION does the above THESIS attempt to answer?
   
    
2. Each essay should be organized into five (5) paragraphs, each based on one of two to four major ideas, which will comprise the BODY of the essay. Each paragraph must have a topic sentence, often (but not always) towards the beginning of the paragraph, which clearly states the ARGUMENT or point to be made in the paragraph. Following the thesis set forth above, the first paragraph might begin with a sentence like “Ivan’s desires and his destiny are signaled in the opening shots of the film, where the friendly, jumbled interior of the bus is contrasted with Ivan’s first view of the outer world: a world of shiny white cars and beautiful women.” Avoid topic sentences that fail to make an interpretative statement about the work or that merely state something any reader might observe; for example, “The first characters we see are country people on a bus to town.”
   
    
3. Underline the THESIS and each TOPIC SENTENCE in every critical review essay you submit. This exercise will force you to make certain that you have expressed and developed the ideas in your essay clearly and logically.  (In other words, do not do this exercise five minutes before you submit the essay but, rather, as you are working on the very first draft.)
   
    
4. Always use present tense verbs in your critical review essays about film texts.  Present tense is the verb tense of analysis.  Past tense, on the other hand, is the tense of narration. In each essay, you will be analyzing a particular text, not retelling or summarizing the story.  If you find yourself slipping into past tense as you compose, you are probably narrating rather than analyzing.
   
    
5. Use specific passages from the text to support each point that you make in your essay. You may simply refer to an event in the text, or you may paraphrase what a character or the narrator says. But the best EVIDENCE will most often be direct quotes from the text.  
    

The Introductory Paragraph – Some Approaches

In your essay, an opening or introductory paragraph may not always be the first one you write.  But it will be the first one your readers read and you need to engage your readers’ attention and interest and present all you need to make your thesis clear and convincing.

1. Some Pitfalls to Avoid
   
   1. Dictionary definitions:  Define key terms and concepts in your opening paragraph, but don’t quote directly from the dictionary to do so. Use a dictionary – more than one dictionary – to formulate the definition in your own words.
      
       
   2. Generalizations about “life,” “society,” “people today,” etc.: You don’t want to begin your essay with the kind of statement that teeters on that fine line between opinion (those ideas you will go on to prove) and belief (those ideas unprovable with the evidence offered by the text).  Rather than a statement like, “Almost every man has a sense of pride and will go to war to prove it,” try something more specific to the text you are analyzing.  “The character of Roland exemplifies how personal pride and personal valor do not always lead to the most fortunate conclusion.”
      
       
   3. The painfully obvious:  Avoid opening statements like “Dante’s Inferno is about a journey to hell,” or “Roland is the hero of The Song of Roland,” unless such statements are in some way controversial and challenging to traditional interpretations of the text. Try to avoid any kind of tautological formula – “something is something else” – in the opening sentence, especially, but also elsewhere as an “argument.”
      
       
   4. Try to distinguish between historical or biographical fact:  “Dante’s Inferno was written in fourteenth-century Italy,” and interpretation, especially when you are considering the intention of an author:  “Dante wrote his Inferno to expose the problem of Florentine political corruption to the world.” The latter may be a part of your theory or thesis (or conclusion) but if you use it as a statement of fact (an “intentional fallacy”) you will have to prove it rather than merely argue it – a slippery and difficult and perhaps not particularly useful task. Beware also of using vague or imprecise generalizations of terms such as “dramatic,” “realistic,” or “critical,” which differ in their literary and historical significance.
       
2. Challenges to Meet
   
   1. Try for a (syntactically) shapely and relevant opening sentence: be thoughtful and original and persuasive.  Always look for interesting ways into your essay: an epigraph, perhaps, or an important episode that seems to set the stage for what you want to say, or a succinct comparison with another well-known work, which will help your reader understand the point you want to make.
      
       
   2. Always (particularly in a comparative essay) identify your texts early on. (Usually with full title, full authors’ names, and date/period of publication.)
      
       
   3. Think of your thesis statement as the logical goal of the first paragraph. Everything you say here should lead towards (or from) that thesis. Anything that doesn’t lead in that direction – unless you are presenting a view different from yours, which you want to argue against—doesn’t belong in your paragraph.  Think of the paragraph as a funnel, where the contents are being concentrated and filtered to one end.

Milk

, 2008; Directed by Gus Van Sant

Using proper MLA bibliographic formatting, cite the film text in the box to the right: 

MLA Film Citation

1. Develop a thesis statement pertaining to the assigned film text and whether or not it, the film, in your view has the power to transform one’s political sensibilities. Your argument should express your point of view regarding the politics of difference, political sensibilities, and political transformation(s) as related to the film. Remember, you’re writing (developing) an analytical essay. Submit your thesis statement in the box located to the right. Be sure to proofread your work.

2. Develop three (3) topic sentences that articulate the major ideas that will comprise the body of your essay. Remember that your topic sentences should clearly state the argument or point to be made in the respective paragraphs and must map back to your thesis statement. Submit your topic sentences in the box located to the right. Be sure to proofread your work.

3. Identify three (3) scenes from the film that support your thesis statement. Briefly explain your choices of scenes and how the scenes specifically support your thesis statement. Also, provide the exact time the scenes begin and end within the film text. Submit your reply in the box located to the right. Be sure to proofread your work.

4. Lastly, fully develop your introductory paragraph. Remember that the best possible thesis will answer some specific question about the text. In this case a question related to the film’s power to transform political sensibilities regarding difference. Your thesis statement should appear parenthetically within the paragraph you present. Submit your answer in the box located to the right. Be sure to proofread your work.

Assignment 2: Current Events and U.S. Diplomacy  Due Week 9

Draw from the information gained in your first research paper and expand your research to follow up in a new paper. Write three to four (3-4) new pages that address the following:

1. Define presidential doctrine and summarize the regional or global events during the Cold War leading up to the formation of the presidential doctrine you wrote about in Assignment 1.  

2. Select one country you wrote about in Assignment 1 and describe the Cold War relationship that existed between the country you selected and the U.S. before the presidential doctrine was announced.

3. Describe the relationship that currently exists between the U.S. and the country you selected in section (2) above.

4. Describe the effect that the presidential doctrine has had on regional or global affairs since it was announced during the Cold War.

5. Assess whether the presidential doctrine you wrote about in Assignment 1 had had the intended effect of altering the behavior of the country you selected in section (2) above in the time since the doctrine was first announced.

6. Cite at least four (4) reputable sources in addition to the textbook, not including Wikipedia, encyclopedias, or dictionaries.

To help you understand this assignment further, the following description and examples may be useful.

Step 1: Define a doctrine and identify why a president would want to announce one. A doctrine is an ideological platform that a president uses to advance a policy towards a country or region in order to accomplish foreign policy goals for the United States, so you will need to expand on this theme. 

Refer back to Assignment 1 and build on whatever doctrine you wrote about then.  Say, for example, you selected the Truman Doctrine. Therefore, this is the only thing you will write about in Assignment 2 step 1.

Step 2: Select one country you wrote about in Assignment 1 and describe the Cold War relationship that existed between it and the U.S. before the presidential doctrine was announced. 

In the case of Truman, you would pick either the Soviet Union, Greece, or Iran, because all three were affected by his doctrine.  If you are writing about the Eisenhower Doctrine, you would choose Lebanon or Egypt; if you wrote about the Kennedy Doctrine, you would have write about Cuba or Vietnam; if your wrote about the Nixon Doctrine, you would choose either Vietnam, Saudi Arabia, or Iran; if you chose Carter, you would select either Iran or Afghanistan; and if you wrote about the Reagan Doctrine, you would select Nicaragua, Angola, Russia, or Afghanistan (although there were several others).

Step 3: Describe what effect the presidential doctrine you chose has had on regional or global affairs since it was announced during the Cold War. 

That is, how did the doctrine change the status quo regionally or globally after it was announced by the U.S.?  What happened in Western Europe after the Truman Doctrine was announced?  What happened in the Middle East after the Eisenhower Doctrine was announced?  What happened with Cuba or Vietnam after Kennedy offered up his doctrine of flexible response?  What happened in Southeast Asia or the Persian Gulf after the Nixon Doctrine went in effect?  What happened in the Middle East after the Carter Doctrine was announced?  What happened in Central America or Africa or the Middle East after Reagan announced his doctrine?

Step 4: Refer back to the country you selected in step two and describe the relationship that currently exists between the U.S. and that country. 

How has the relationship changed between the U.S. and that country since the doctrine was announced?

Step 5: Evaluate whether the presidential doctrine had had the intended effect of altering the behavior of the one country you selected in section (2) above since the doctrine was first announced.

Your assignment must:

· Be typed, double spaced, using Times New Roman font (size 12), with one-inch margins on all sides; references must follow APA or school-specific format. Check with your professor for any additional instructions.

· Include a cover page containing the title of the assignment, the student’s name, the professor’s name, the course title, and the date. The cover page and the reference page are not included in the required page length.

The specific course learning outcomes associated with this assignment are:

· Identify the cultural, economic, and political context of information resources, and interpret information in light of that context.

· Use technology and information resources to research issues in international problems.

· Write clearly and concisely about international problems using proper writing mechanics.

Telecommuting, remote work, or telework is a work arrangement in which employees do not commute to a central place of work. These terms were coined by Jack Nilles in 1973 (JALA International). A person who telecommutes is known as a “telecommuter,” “teleworker,” and sometimes as a “home-sourced” employee. Many telecommuters work from home, while others, sometimes called “nomad workers” use mobile telecommunications technology to work from coffee shops or other locations. According to a Reuters poll, approximately “one in five workers around the globe, particularly employees in the Middle East, Latin America and Asia, telecommute frequently and nearly 10 percent work from home everyday” (Reaney, 2012).

In February, 2013, Yahoo CEO, Marissa Mayer, discontinued Yahoo’s telecommuting program, sparking a national debate. For this activity, perform an Internet search for Policies and Procedures for Teleworking. Review the policies from several different companies and organizations, and then enter this forum and discuss the following:

• Advantages and benefits associated with telework from the perspective of both workers and companies/organizations.
• What are some of the disadvantages and concerns regarding telework? Again, include both the worker and organization perspectives.
• What are the main points? How are they alike? How do they differ?

Write an 800-1,000 word essay on your personal worldview. Briefly discuss the various possible meanings of the term “spirituality,” and your understanding of the concepts of pluralism, scientism, and postmodernism. Primarily, address the following seven basic worldview questions:

1. What is prime reality?
2. What is the nature of the world around you?
3. What is a human being?
4. What happens to a person at death?
5. Why is it possible to know anything at all?
6. How do people know what is right or wrong?
7. What is the meaning of human history?

Prepare this assignment according to the APA guidelines found in the APA Style Guide, located in the Student Success Center. An abstract is not required.

This assignment uses a rubric. Please review the rubric prior to beginning the assignment to become familiar with the expectations for successful completion.

You are required to submit this assignment to Turnitin. Please refer to the directions in the Student Success Center.

Write an 800-1,000 word essay on your personal worldview. Briefly discuss the various possible meanings of the term “spirituality,” and your understanding of the concepts of pluralism, scientism, and postmodernism. Primarily, address the following seven basic worldview questions:

1. What is prime reality?
2. What is the nature of the world around you?
3. What is a human being?
4. What happens to a person at death?
5. Why is it possible to know anything at all?
6. How do people know what is right or wrong?
7. What is the meaning of human history?

Prepare this assignment according to the APA guidelines found in the APA Style Guide, located in the Student Success Center. An abstract is not required.

This assignment uses a rubric. Please review the rubric prior to beginning the assignment to become familiar with the expectations for successful completion.

You are required to submit this assignment to Turnitin. Please refer to the directions in the Student Success Center.