Final Interpretive Project

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If you received an A on the first project, you may elect to not submit the final project and I’ll credit the first project at 30% of your final average.  If not, you have two options for the second project:  (1) a brief interpretive project that will overweight your first interpretive project (25% to 5%), or a longer interpretive project that is identical to the first project and can replace it if your grade is higher (15% and 15%). 

Full Project

At the semester’s end, this assignment will help develop and demonstrate your ability to (a) navigate theory and (b) interpret texts using theory.  This interpretive project will choose theoretical concepts from the second half of the term and use them to reflectively interpret a text of significance. Your goal in this project is to demonstrate a sophisticated understanding of theory (through both vocabulary and secondary criticism) and to demonstrate your ability to articulate interpretations that are forceful and elegant, nuanced and impactful.  Your project will stand as a capstone to the term.

During the 3 week interpretive project timeline, your work is graded on process and product. The goal is to encourage you to recursively think about theory, write with & about theory, and reflect and revise your writing and thinking with theory.  Your assignment should (a) demonstrate your competence with the theoretical material from the second and third units; (b) demonstrate your ability to use theory to make meaningful interpretations of text(s); and (c) demonstrate your ability to craft an insightful written interpretive project that engages with primary, secondary, and theoretical texts and contexts as it develops a thesis-based exposition.  

Project Requirements

Every interpretive project needs to conform to the following rules:

  • Every project needs to demonstrate a deep, substantial engagement with the theory(ies) of the second half of the course: hook’s theory of education, as a sustained engagement with power, language, and emotion; and/or Foucault’s theory of self writing and the techniques of the self.  This engagement should be demonstrated through the varieties of citation at the heart of English studies: quotation, paraphrase, citation and reference.
  • Every project, no matter the genre or format, needs to make a significant, substantial interpretive claim about a text.  This claim should be advanced and developed through expository methods appropriate to the genre of the interpretive project.  
  • Every project needs to be deeply engaged with the texts and the contexts appropriate to its moment.  Primary materials (the theory and the text for interpretation) and secondary materials (other writers who consider the theory and the text for interpretation) should be used.  

Your project may adopt as its genre the conventions of the essay, an ancient rhetorical trope conveying an interpretive argument to a resisting reader.  Or your project may adopt another genre of your choosing: a comic, a website, a powerpoint, a movie. Whatever genre your project adopts, do so consciously:  recognize the rhetorical conventions of that genre and use those conventions to persuade your audience. In length, your project should be between 1200 and 2000 words, approximately 5 to 8 pages. If presented in another genre, your project’s scope should be roughly similar. Non word-based projects will be strongly encouraged to submit up to 500 words as a statement of vision, which can accommodate some of the requirements of the project.  Please consult me for length guidance regarding electronic genre choices.

In addition to the primary materials for your interpretation, you should employ no fewer than three additional secondary sources related to each of your primary materials, meaning that your project should use at least 8 sources to advance its interpretation. In order to ensure that your interpretation stays in focus, please don’t use more than 15 sources.  In seeking sources regarding your text, look for sources that interpret your text and/or other texts that are similar to your chosen text. When looking for sources on your theoretical text, look for peer-reviewed articles from the last twenty years or so.

Brief Interpretive Project

At the semester’s end, this brief assignment will help develop and demonstrate your ability to (a) navigate theory and (b) interpret texts using theory.  The brief project will choose to briefly interpret a text of your choice, selecting quality over quantity. In length, the project should be 1/3 to 1/2 in length.  Despite the short length, our goal in this project is to demonstrate a sophisticated understanding of theory (through both vocabulary and secondary criticism) and to demonstrate your ability to articulate interpretations that are forceful and elegant, nuanced and impactful.  Your project will stand as a capstone to the term.

During the 3 week interpretive project timeline, your work is graded on process and product. The goal is to encourage you to recursively think about theory, write with & about theory, and reflect and revise your writing and thinking with theory.  Your assignment should (a) demonstrate your competence with the theoretical material from the second and third units; (b) demonstrate your ability to use theory to make meaningful interpretations of text(s); and (c) demonstrate your ability to craft an insightful written interpretive project that engages with primary, secondary, and theoretical texts and contexts as it develops a thesis-based exposition.  

Project Requirements

Every interpretive project needs to conform to the following rules:

  • Every project needs to demonstrate a deep, substantial engagement with the theory(ies) of the second half of the course: hook’s theory of education, as a sustained engagement with power, language, and emotion; and/or Foucault’s theory of self writing and the techniques of the self.  This engagement should be demonstrated through the varieties of citation at the heart of English studies: quotation, paraphrase, citation and reference.
  • Every project, no matter the genre or format, needs to make a significant, substantial interpretive claim about a text.  This claim should be advanced and developed through expository methods appropriate to the genre of the interpretive project.  
  • Every project needs to be deeply engaged with the texts and the contexts appropriate to its moment.  Primary materials (the theory and the text for interpretation) and secondary materials (other writers who consider the theory and the text for interpretation) should be used.  

Your project may adopt as its genre the conventions of the essay, an ancient rhetorical trope conveying an interpretive argument to a resisting reader.  Or your project may adopt another genre of your choosing: a comic, a website, a powerpoint, a movie. Whatever genre your project adopts, do so consciously:  recognize the rhetorical conventions of that genre and use those conventions to persuade your audience. In length, your project should be between 1200 and 2000 words, approximately 5 to 8 pages. If presented in another genre, your project’s scope should be roughly similar. Non word-based projects will be strongly encouraged to submit up to 500 words as a statement of vision, which can accommodate some of the requirements of the project.  Please consult me for length guidance regarding electronic genre choices.

In addition to the primary materials for your interpretation, you should employ no fewer than three additional secondary sources related to each of your primary materials, meaning that your project should use at least 8 sources to advance its interpretation. In order to ensure that your interpretation stays in focus, please don’t use more than 15 sources.  In seeking sources regarding your text, look for sources that interpret your text and/or other texts that are similar to your chosen text. When looking for sources on your theoretical text, look for peer-reviewed articles from the last twenty years or so.

Timeline

Initial project description and brainstorming period begins Thursday Apr 4

Formal project assignment & discussion Tuesday Apr 9

Proposal Due 5% Tuesday Apr 16

Proposal Conference 5% 4/15-19 extended to 4/25

Initial Rough Draft of Interpretive Project Due 5% Sunday Apr 28

Initial Draft conference 5% 4/22-30  

Substantial Draft 5% 5/1

Review of another’s draft 5% 5/2

Substantial Draft Conference 5% 4/29-5/3

Final Project due 65% Exam Meeting

Grading

In order to encourage you to engage in the recursive process of reading, reflecting, and writing, each of the process items contains with it a point value which is all or nothing: meet the deadline and get the free points, or miss the deadline and get none of the points. The process points constitute 35% of the grade of the assignment.  A qualitative assessment of the project as submitted is worth 65% of the project’s grade. Late work will lose 5 pts each day it is late, until end of day 5/12 when projects not submitted will receive a 0.

The exam period for class ends on Thursday May 9th at 1:45pm.