Essay Five

DUE December 9 (11:59pm, EST)
100 Points

General Directions:

  • To follow these General Directions with relative ease, be sure to review Thinking to Write Lesson W1: Formatting for APA Style with Google Docs.
  • All essays MUST be typed into a KSU Google Docs document. (KSU Google Drive is located in Flashline.) You may not write the essay offline (such as with MS Word) and upload it. I want to see how the essay develops, to help me analyze your writing process. This means that I will be checking the essay document’s version history.
  • The essay must be formatted in APA  documentation style.
  • Be sure to put your last name and the assignment in the document label (upper left corner), for example: Smith’s Essay One, or Jones’ Essay Two.
  • You are also encouraged to save a copy of the paper.
  • Be sure to share the essay with me (clrobins@kent.edu), allowing me permission to edit it.
  • In order to receive confirmation that I have access to the essay, make sure that I receive email notification (and thus a link to the essay) when you share it.

Essay Five Directions:

There is a bit of flexibility in the directions: there are 1-3 parts to this assignment (depending upon what you choose to do).

    • PART I (OPTIONAL): Write a proposal for the focus of your essay. Due: November 11, 2023. There are no points earned for this part. This proposal may be written in an email, if you wish. Write a paragraph describing the focus and possible sources for your essay. I will respond within a week, giving you feedback on your idea. If you submit a proposal prior to November 11, I will look at it within a week of submission. Any proposals submitted after this date will be ignored (sorry).
    • PART II (200 POINTS): Compose a 1000-2000 word essay¹ that discusses any of the works to be found in Lesson R12: Adaptation Theory & Christmas, in terms of adaptation and appropriation. Below is a list of topic suggestions.
    • This essay must make use of the following:
      •  Linda Hutcheon’s A Theory of Adaptation.
      • At least two of any of the following:
        • “The Science of Fake News”
        • Judith Butler’s “Performative Acts and Gender Constitution”
        • Mary Louise Pratt’s “Arts of the Contact Zone”
        • Jonathan Rée’s I See a Voice
        • Heather Cox Richardson’s October 12, 2022 Letters from an American essay
        • Edward Said’s “States”
        • Amy Tan’s “Mother Tongue”
        • Jane Tompkins’ “‘Indians’: Textualism, Morality, and the Problem of History”
        • Neil deGrasse Tyson’s speech on “Knowledge vs. Thinking”
        • Alice Walker’s “In Search of Our Mothers’ Gardens”
      • A Christmas Carol. In Prose. Being a Ghost Story of Christmas, Charles Dickens, 1843
      • At least four sources from one of the following other case studies:
      • At least four sources from any other case study or lesson (to be used to deepen your analysis, such as for comparison/contrast or to illustrate a point).
      • Thus, the total number of references should be at least 12 sources. 
      • Topic Suggestions:
        • Visual vs. Audio Communication of a story
        • Mimesis vs. Diegesis of a story
        • Narrative through Poetry (more than one story/case study might be needed)
        • Narrative through Motion Pictures (more than one story/case study might be needed)
        • Narrative through Music (more than one story/case study might be needed)
        • Adaptation vs Appropriation of Santa Claus
        • Adaptation vs Appropriation of the Christmas Party
        • Appropriating Ghost Stories for Christmas
        • Adapting Voice and Tone to the Holidays
        • Appropriating Voice and Tone for the Holidays
        • Culture, Appropriation, and Christmas
        • Culture, Adaptation, and Christmas
        • Adapting Identity to Christmas
        • Appropriating Identity for Christmas
        • Contact Zones and Christmas
        • Performativity and Christmas
        • Panopticism and Christmas
        • Language/Communication and Christmas
        • The Art of Christmas
        • I See a Santa Claus
        • In Search of Our Parents’ Christmases
        • Mother Santa Claus
        • History, Fact, Fiction, and Christmas
    • PART III (50 POINTS): Adapt your essay into a multimedia experience. You can do this in any of several ways, but there must be a multimedia element to the final product, which means that at least three media types must be engaged. Examples:
      • a written paper (digital) with images, audio clips, and videos embedded into the paper
      • a PowerPoint (or Google Slides, or Libre Office Presentation) of the essay with images, audio clips, and videos
      • a video of you reading your essay with background music, special effects, etc.
      • a performance of your essay (not quite sure what I mean by this, just so you know)
      • an adaptation of the meanings of your essay into a song, interpretative dance, series of images, etc.
    • OPTION: You may combine Parts II and III together, as long as the entire essay is used (included a printed version). This would count as 250 total points.


NOTES
¹ One page is roughly 315 words (Times Roman, 12pt. font, 1 inch margins).
² A critical source is a work that somehow analyzes the subject matter, or else indirectly (or incidentally) contributes to a point being made. You may use sources that you find yourself; however, you must share the source with me at least 72 hours prior to the due date of this essay, in order to gain my permission to use it.


Grading Rubric

A paper may fall between the below described levels of quality—it may, for example, have a clearly stated central claim (thesis) but lack sufficient support, or it may be tightly organized and well supported, but full of grammatical and/or mechanical errors. In such instances, the paper will be evaluated in terms of its strongest qualities as set against its weakest qualities. Feedback will always be provided.

A Level Work
The paper demonstrates a full understanding and respect for the directions and stays on the chosen topic. The paper is properly formatted (APA Style) and was obviously composed using KSU Google Docs.  The paper’s thesis (main point) is clearly stated. The paper is tightly organized, well developed, and coherent. The paper is well supported by reasoning and documented sources (cited quotes, facts, and/or paraphrases). The paper has a professional tone, avoiding second person (“you” or “we”) completely. The paper is virtually free of grammatical and mechanical errors.

B Level Work
The paper demonstrates a full understanding and respect for the directions and stays on the chosen topic. The paper is properly formatted (APA Style) and was obviously composed using KSU Google Docs.  The paper’s thesis (main point) is clearly stated. The paper is mostly organized, sufficiently developed, and mostly coherent. The paper is sufficiently supported by reasoning and documented sources (cited quotes, facts, and/or paraphrases). The paper has a mostly professional tone, avoiding second person (“you” or “we”) completely. The paper is mostly free of grammatical and mechanical errors.

C Level Work
The paper demonstrates some understanding and respect for the directions and stays on the chosen topic. The paper demonstrates an attempt to be properly formatted (APA Style) and was obviously composed using KSU Google Docs. The paper’s thesis (main point) is stated, but not very clearly. The paper is somewhat organized, loosely developed, and vaguely coherent. The paper is marginally supported by reasoning and documented sources (cited quotes, facts, and/or paraphrases). The paper has a barely professional tone, failing to avoid second person (“you” or “we”) completely. The paper is mostly free of grammatical and mechanical errors.

D Level Work
The paper does not demonstrate a full understanding or respect for the directions, and/or the paper fails to stay on the chosen topic. The paper does not demonstrate an attempt to be properly formatted (APA Style), and it is not clear that it was composed using KSU Google Docs. The paper’s thesis (main point) may or may not be stated, but if it is stated, it has not been done so very clearly. The paper is barely organized, under- developed, and/or barely coherent. The paper is weakly supported by reasoning and documented sources (cited quotes, facts, and/or paraphrases). The paper has an unprofessional tone, significantly failing to avoid second person (“you” or “we”) completely. The paper contains several grammatical and mechanical errors.

F Level Work
The paper does not demonstrate a full understanding or respect for the directions, and/or the paper fails to stay on the chosen topic. The paper does not demonstrate an attempt to be properly formatted (APA Style) and was obviously not composed using KSU Google Docs. The paper’s thesis (main point) may or may not be stated, but if it is stated, it has not been done so very clearly. The paper is unorganized, under- developed, and/or incoherent. The paper is weakly supported by reasoning and documented sources (cited quotes, facts, and/or paraphrases), if supported at all. The paper has an unprofessional tone, significantly failing to avoid second person (“you” or “we”) completely. The paper is cluttered by grammatical and mechanical errors.

Sample Point Deductions:
Submitted late: 3% grade point subtraction for each day late
Vague or missing thesis statement: 5% grade point subtraction
Unprofessional tone: 5% grade point subtraction
Improperly formatted: 5% grade point subtraction
Unprofessional use and citation of references: 5% grade point subtraction
Sentence coherence: 5-10% grade point subtraction
Weak essay organization and/or essay unity: 10% grade point subtraction
Not composed using KSU Google Docs: 10% grade point subtraction

1% of a 100 point essay = 1 point
1% of a 200 point essay = 2 points

Sample Point Additions:
Excellent thesis statement (clear and well written): 3% grade point addition
Professional tone: 5% grade point addition
Professionally cited references: 5% grade point addition
Well stated and supported points: 5-10% grade point addition
Very strong essay organization and/or essay unity: 10% grade point addition

Example
An essay worth 100 points that is: not be properly formatted (-5 points), submitted three days late (-9 points), has a very weak thesis (-5 points), has numerous incoherent sentences (-10 points), but has very strong organization and/or unity (+10 points) would likely earn a grade of 81 points (B-).

Rule
No grade for submitted work ever goes above an A; likewise, no graded work ever goes below an F; however, if an assignment is never submitted, or if it is submitted too late to be graded, it will receive ZERO points.