Analysis Paper Assignment

You will be writing an in-depth analysis paper.   As the Wayne Writer notes, an analysis paper asks you to do more than either a summary or a response.  For this paper, “additional meaning [should] be added to the conversation” (li).  This is different from your response paper.  In that paper, you wrote about your reaction to what you had read.  An analysis paper “works to break down a text or argument into its component parts, and then to discuss or describe those parts using a particular perspective, theory, method, or lens” (li). You have two options as ways to complete this paper.

Option 1: For this paper, you will be analyzing an image of your choosing.  You may find movie posters or book covers to very fruitful sources.  As a visual analysis, you will discuss the formal elements of the image, but you will do that in order to support a thesis you are stating about the image.  You can also include genre analysis and rhetorical analysis.  This is not a comparison / contrast paper, but if a second image will help you to prove your thesis, you may include it.

Option 2: For this paper, you will analyze a music video of your choosing.  The video should be one that you find interesting, whether or not you like the music.  As with the visual analysis option, you can incorporate genre, visual, and rhetorical analysis into this paper.  You may want to consider how the video represents the song and/or the artist. 

The standard formatting rules in the syllabus apply to this paper.

Deadlines:
11-5: Summary Draft Due. 
            Draft Requirements:
·         4 pages of text, not including the Works Cited page
·         MLA formatting of your source, including a Works Cited page
·         You will also need to submit samples of your prewriting.
11-14: Final Draft Due
            Final Requirements
·         4-5 pages of text, not including the Works Cited page
·         MLA formatting of your source, including a Works Cited page
·         Peer Revision rubrics




As a sample, I’d like you to examine these two images.  One is a recent book cover; the other is a parody of that same cover.  What does the parody tell us about the original?


Figure 1. "Flandry Side by Side" from Jim C. Hines, Cover Poses. (Flickr, Web. Jan 2013)

Jim C. Hines has recreated a number of book covers in recent years.  You can see his full catalog here: http://www.flickr.com/photos/41225422@N00/sets/72157632676570479/

You may also find this music video useful as a means to study self-fashioning.  How does Lana Del Rey advance her "gangsta Nancy Sinatra" persona in this video?

Lana Del Rey’s cover of “Summer Wine” can be seen here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1OEron4rXfk&feature=share&list=UUqk3CdGN_j8IR9z4uBbVPSg

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