115 Project One: Culture, Pop Culture, and Personal Identity

FOR ALL READINGS AND ASSIGNMENT DUE DATES, SEE THE SCHEDULE ON MOODLE.

Scaffolding Exercise: Rhetorical Analysis

The purpose of this first scaffolding assignment is to encourage you to look critically and carefully at the
argument of another scholar. You will start by looking at the different essays and articles in Pop Perspectives,
and you will choose one that interests you, hopefully one that relates to issues you are interested in eventually
writing about, either for the Identity Essay or the Research Paper. You can agree or disagree with what the
author says, as long as it relates to a topic you are interested in. If you wish, you can also use this text as a
source for your essay.
Directions:
First, no matter if you agree or disagree with the authors ideas, you must make sense of her/his main
points by explaining them in your own words. You will start by writing a summary and rhetorical analysis of
the following:
Who is the author and what is their purpose (as far as you can tell) in writing this text?
Is there any necessary context we may need to know to understand it? Here you might address questions
like who was the intended audience and when/where/why the text was originally published, or if the
writer is responding to anything in particular.
What is the writers position? What does the writing set out to prove to its audience or seek to make its
audience understand? What is the main point (thesis) and essential claims? What evidence does the
author offer for these claims? What kinds of support does the text use?
Next, respond to the essay with your own opinions and evaluations of the claims and the rhetoric (not only
what it says but also how it was written)
Do you find the authors position persuasive? Do you agree or disagree with the claims?
Do any parts of the essay sound wrong to you? Do you doubt anything? Which assumptions or conclusions
strike you as problematic or unreasonable?
Are there any problems with the way it is written? Are there issues with structure/organization, tone, or
word choice? On the other hand, if you admire the way the text was written, how does the essays
structure, tone, and word choice help to support the authors thesis?
What are you views and thoughts on this topic? How do they relate to the ideas expressed in the authors
text? How might all this connect to your essay topic or other issues you are interested in writing about?
Assignment Success Notes: Your response should at least 600 words (about 2 pages, double spaced) and use
MLA documentation. This means you must cite the text you are analyzing in correct MLA format. Use this
exercise as an opportunity to improve your MLA skills. If you include quotations from the original text, make
sure they are short quotation (no more than 3 lines long). Use this as an opportunity to practice weaving
together short quotes, summary, and paraphrase from another text, with your own words, analysis, and opinions.

Project One: Culture and Identity Essay

Prompt:
In this section of the class, we will read several essays about how identity is influenced by ethnic culture and/or
popular culture. Ethnic culture is complex, and popular perceptions about culture, ethnicity and race often have
a profound impact on how we see ourselves and how we interact with the world around us. As we will see in
our class readings and discussion, sometimes these issues can intersect with issues of popular culture. In some
of these cases, pop culture has a productive or positive influence, in some cases, pop culture has a destructive or
negative influence on identity, and sometimes it's a little of both.
Think about your own construction of identity, and how it is influenced by the various cultures you are a
part of.
Then, write about a way that a culture you are part of or identify with (can be either ethnic
culture, pop culture, a particular subculture, or a mix of these) is connected in a significant and
influential way to how you form or express identity, and make a complex claim about that
connection using narrative and examples to illustrate that claim.
Sample Topics: Note: You are not limited to these topics. These are simply examples of topics that would fit this
question.

How a culture/subculture you identify with has shaped/changed/influenced your own identity and
outlook on the world.
o Is the subculture you identify with different from the one you were raised in? If so, how have
these differences been significant to you?
The influence of music and music subcultures on the development of identity, for example, what it
means to identify as punk, hip hop, a goth, a scene kid, a metalhead, a raver, etc
The impact of Fandom and geek culture on your identity and interact with the world
The influence of advertisements or media on the creation of feminine/masculine/non-binary identities
How racial stereotypes negatively impact the quality of life for minorities in America
How important is it for immigrants or the children of immigrants in America to hold on to traditional
foods, native language, and family customs? How does one balance holding on to your cultural identity
and assimilating into mainstream American culture?

Your essay should do these things:

First, it should have a clear main point (thesis statement) that makes a claim about the connection
between culture and identity.
Second, it should show an awareness of the conversation that is already going on about these issues. You
should do this by fully describe the specific connection between culture and identity that you choose to
discuss and also summarize some of the ideas that you have found in the class readings or in your own
experience or research.
Third, it should build a clear, coherent argument in response to the prompt and the sources that you choose.
Sources: Outside sources are admired but not required for this essay. IF you find or incorporate articles into
your essay that connect to the issues you are discussing, you must correctly quote and cite them. Please see the
MLA section of your Handbook and the Incorporating Sources Handout for guidance. We will also discuss how
to cite sources and avoiding plagiarism in class.

Length: 1200 words minimum. IF you do outside research, you must also cite any outside sources you include
in your essay, including readings we do in class. We will discuss MLA format in class at a later date, so you will
not be graded on MLA correctness, but please give it your best shot anyway when you cite your sources for this
paper. You can find an MLA guide starting on page 109 of The Little Seagull Handbook.
As always, I am here to help! Email or set up a conference with me for questions and concerns