Analysis - The Cultural "We"
Context: For this essay you will be moving from a subjective to an intersubjective point of view, focusing on how we construct and know ourselves as individuals within our own cultures and how we relate as members of, or visitors to, American culture in particular. It is important that you are moving from "I" to "we" in the writing process because, from a semiotic perspective, how you interpret something is very much a product of who you are.
Assignment: Identify a trend, fad, or style in society or culture. It might relate to music, films, choice of majors, political preferences, and so on. In no less than 4 pages, write a causal analysis of the phenomenon, considering causes and potential consequences of this fashion. Spend some time in the opening of your paper describing the trend and proving that it
• To be successful, you should try to set your opinions aside in order to pursue an interpretive argument with evidence to support it. It doesn't matter if you "like" the fad or not, but rather what it means within a larger cultural context. Writing an opinion is easy, but that isn't the goal of analytical writing.
• Persuade your reader through pertinent evidence, which comes from your knowledge of the system to which the object you are interpreting belongs. This will require that you look at the values of that system The best essays will:
• Clearly identify and describe in detail the subject of your essay so that a reader unfamiliar with your topic is able to understand the trend.
• Contain a logical organization of clear, distinct and unified paragraphs, each with a single clear topic.
• Be supported with specific pieces of objective evidence.
• Have few typographical, spelling, grammatical or sentence errors, and few awkward word choices.
• Have sentences with clear syntax and are easy to understand.
• Have a tone properly elevated and professional.
• Meet all MLA formatting requirements.
• THREE SOURCES MINIMUM.