Sorry for spacing the Friday at 5 p.m. goal. I even had my topic picked out! I was just busy getting ready for a weekend at Emerald City Comic Con, which was sadly a bust because I didn't get to see Stan Lee OR Leonard Nimoy. But I got a neat shirt and some cool prints out of it, so it wasn't so bad.
But more on to the topic: what is my paper topic? I've decided to revisit a subject I wrote about for a 500-level class last semester: video games and gender. I enjoyed this topic quite a bit, and feel like I may even have some new views to throw into my paper blender thanks to another semester of theory education. I have new material (thanks, FF13 and Bayonetta!) to use, new studies to pull from, and new lessons on a "feministic" approach to digital media with respect to video games.
I'll probably end up pulling from my original paper (but not the entire thing, because that's academic dishonesty right there) and using The Big Pink Reader, as well as a couple of other books I have scattered around my house, for my academic sources.
Moreover, this topic will be a challenge to address again because it has been such a short period of time between papers. But I also remember finding great new studies literally the same day I'd turned in my paper and being so frustrated that I couldn't include that data, and also feeling like I hit the page limit on that term paper before I'd even really begun to get into my arguments. I may have some material I'll be able to sweep up from the cutting room floor, polish up and present as new-new.
We'll see how it goes. I may even end up trashing the original topic and going for race and video games, which should present a fantastic challenge thanks to my Wonderbread upbringing and, thus, perspective on games.
SHOULD BE EXCITING. I can't wait to start writing this the weekend before my presentation! (I won't, really, but procrastination is how I roll more often than not.)
Happy spring break, digital savants!
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This isn't actually a proposal. Doesn't matter if you did a paper in Jason's class, the assignment here is to propose exactly what you will be doing in THIS class. So, since I don't see exactly what it is you are proposing to do, I will give the same spiel I've given to others in this same situation:
From the assignment sheet, some of the general rules for the paper were:
* You must link at least two very general topics (ex: digital divide and the concept of community (virtual or otherwise), gaming and gender representations, personal representation and Internet activism, etc). You're not limited to two, but two is plenty.
* You must include secondary research that both supports and refutes your argument. Including the naysayer's point of view and subsequently arguing why the naysayer is wrong, is as important to making and supporting your argument as including a bunch of research that supports what you're saying.
* The specific rule of most importance is that you must make an original argument with your work. You must have a thesis that includes with it the "so what" or "who cares" aspect of your argument, and that "so what" or "who cares" part of the analysis must be clear throughout your essay.
Also from the assignment sheet, Step #2 says that for this assignment you should "write a paragraph or two that describes exactly what you plan to do, what you plan to argue, and how (in general) you plan to support your argument. Also, indicate why you want to pursue this topic."
Putting those things together, your proposal should have included, simply, what you plan to do (including which general topics from the course that you are going to link together) -- this means details and some depth -- what you plan to argue (this could include the argument or the research question in advance of the argument, with an hypothesis of the argument you potentially foresee), and how you plan to support the argument (which theories do you see yourself using on either side of your argument, etc).
All of those elements should be present in blog #9, yet with even more depth than I expected for blog #8, since you will have annotated sources and know how you will be using them in your argument.
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