16-Research Paper Proposal and Post

A complete draft of your final research paper proposal and annotated bibliography due in print form at the beginning of class on April 30th.  You will exchange papers in class and use an editing sheet to comment on each others’ drafts.  A revised version of your proposal (3-4 pages typed with section headings) is due at the beginning of class on May 5th.  During class on May 5th, you will make a brief presentation of your question, your plan for answering it, why you think the paper would be interesting and/or important, and what the most interesting and/or useful source you found was.  Before class that day you should also have posted your question, plan and statement of interest/importance to the class blog.  Use the New Post link in the blue area at the top of the page. Remember to check paper proposal (under Assignments) and your name (under People) in the category boxes to the right of the posting area and title your post Research Paper Proposal and include your first name and last initial.   

Your final research paper proposal will have to include:  1)    a research question and short statement of why this question is interesting and/or important; 2)   a thesis; 3)  an introduction and statement of what you will argue/the position you will take; 4)  a plan for how you would use your sources in developing and supporting your argument; and 5)  an annotated works cited list (in MLA, APA or Chicago) with at least three peer reviewed scholarly articles or material located with a library database (like old newspaper reviews), three books, and three other sources of your choosing.   Under each Works Cited item you will include a brief account of what they say, how you will use them, their reliability, and the perspective from which they are written.  To see the proper format for citing articles you find in online databases (provided by the library or other services) see: 
http://www.dianahacker.com/resdoc/p04_c08_s2.html#31 for MLA and 
http://www.dianahacker.com/resdoc/p04_c09_s2.html#20 for APA. 

Your bibliography should include a detailed account of the reliability of the sources you found and their usefulness in answering your research question (what they say specifically and how you will use them).  Also include an account of how you found your sources (library database, LOC subject heading, search engine, etc.).  Include at least three books (specific chapters or sections), three web pages or other soureces, and three articles from refereed journals (or other items you found with the library databases).  Follow Diana Hacker’s model for MLA citations (unless you have been trained in another format in a course in your major).  Put your annotations in a paragraph under each citation entry.

15-Minow/Johnson Blog & paper

In your paper paper on TV and/or Video games, begin by setting out the thesis Minow or Johnson advance in the selections you read and the arguments/evidence they use to support it.  Then talk about whether you agree with their position or not and why.  Or, you can compare their positions on the benefits and dangers of popular entertainment (TV and Computer Games) and then develop your own view on the larger issue they address.  Include both in-text citations and a works cited page/list of references and indicate whether you are using MLA or APA.  

Remember that if you write on just one of these authors, you are required to add a blog posting on the other, summarizing that author’s position on entertainment for children (TV and/or games).  

The Posting is due by Friday April 17th at 5:30pm.  Check Minow/Johnson (under Assignments) and your name (under People) in the category boxes to the right of the posting area. 

14-Prince on Violence

Before class on April 16th, read Stephen Prince, Classical Film Violence, pp. 11-29 (especially pp. 20-29) and pp. 87-119 available on both  books.google.com or in electronic form on the George Mason library website at http://library.gmu.edu/  Post an entry on the applicability of Prince’s ideas about violence to the 1932 Scarface  by noon on Thurs.   Quote specific lines from Prince and discuss specific scenes in the film. 

After we have watched the ending of the 1983 Scarface and D.W. Griffith’s Musketeers of Pig Alley in class, you will add to your initial posting.   Indicate whether you think Prince’s ideas about the way violence has been represented and regulated over time apply to Musketeers and the ‘83 Scarface.  Also discuss key similarities and differences between the endings of the 1932 and 1983 Scarface and whether the less restrictive environment in which the 1983 film was made, made it a more or less entertaining/more or less dangerous film.    

Use the New Post link in the blue area at the top of the page. Also remember to check Prince on violence (under Assignments) and your name (under People) in the category boxes to the right of the posting area. 

13-Computer Games

Before class on April 7th, read Steven Johnson, Everything Bad Is Good For You,  pp. 17-47 and 62-80 and post an entry on your own experience with computer/video games and what you see as their dangers and/or educational value.  Note:  there is a video of Johnson talking about his book at a 2008 conference we will watch selections from in class.   

In your posting, remember to check your name (under People) and Games (under Assignments) in the category boxes to the right of the posting area.  

11-Mutual Decision

Before class, read the 1915 Supreme Court decision, Mutual Film Company v. The Industrial Commission of Ohio and review Black, pp. 15-18.  The Mutual Decision affirmed the constitutionality of the kind of pre-production film censorship we have studied so far this semester  The text will be difficult for many of you to read and we will discuss it both in terms of its legal reasoning and its style of writing. 

After we go over the document in class, post to the blog using prompt 11.   Summarize the issues in the case, the arguments on both sides, and Justice McKenna’s reasoning in the decision.  Then talk about whether the case was difficult to read (or not) and why.  Conclude by saying how the decision might be relevant to the censorship history of Scarface.  The posting is due by Friday March 20th at midnight.    

Before class on March 26th, you will also post your 3-17 in-class rewriting of Justice McKenna’s opinion.  At the end of class, you will vote (using the comment function) on which rewriting you think is the best and why.  See the sheet I put together for the assignment after class at:  http://mason.gmu.edu/~kthomps4/101-21-s09/mutual_in-class.htm    The assignment is also available as prompt 12. 

10-Hays Code

Before class on March 3rd, read the draft of the Hays’ Code written by Father Lord and Martin Quigley in 1930 (Black 302-308 ).  We will go over Father Lord’s and Martin Quigley’s draft in class.  You will then to to the 3rd floor computer lab and post a detailed summary of those sections of the Code that you think are most relevant in understanding Hays’ Office censorship of Scarface.  Make sure to indicate how the sections of the Code you focus on help us understand the censorship of the film.  

After you have posted your entry, read at least one other posting and comment on your fellow student’s ideas about the relevance of the Code to the film.  Indicate whether you agree with the posting on the sections of the Code that are most relevant to understanding the censorship of the film.  Also indicate whether the postings account of the code is accurate and detailed enough to help us understand the production history of Scarface.

Welcome; course blog postings

Welcome to the course blog for Engl 101 section 21 in the spring of 2009. Over the course of the semester, you will be posting several reading, film and paper responses on the blog, using the assignment prompts on the right hand side of page (under pages).

When you post, remember to check the appropriate categories for that entry (look for the specific assignment under assignments) using the box in the upper right of the posting area. Its especially important you check your name in the category box as well; otherwise, you may not get credit for your work and it will be much harder for the class to see what you have to say.

To make your posts, click on the New Post link in the blue area at the top of the page. Then enter the title of your post (Assignment 3-, starting with the introductions) and your name in the title box and your essay itself in the Posting box.

See Pages 2a and 2b to the right for more detailed instructions on registering and posting.