For this short assignment (minimum 600 words, submitted via email), you should start to work toward analyzing the cultural artifact that you will address further in Paper 2. For both the short assignment and the paper, we want to draw on our analysis questions and concepts from the first unit so that we can better understand how the cultural artifact works.
One challenge will be choosing a cultural artifact or text to analyze. Our understanding of “text” here is broad. You could focus on a text from popular culture such as a song, music video, television show, movie, or advertisement. You could look at examples from fashion, sports, food, entertainment, politics, or business. You can focus on a particular person who has some sort of cultural significance. Just about anything will work as long as you can make specific observations about the text and analyze it through the lens of our rhetorical analysis questions and concepts.
Your work should address the following prompts and questions:
- Your first challenge is to analyze the cultural text. How would you define the text’s project? What is the purpose of the text? How does it shape our ideas about what it is about? What sort of perspective does it offer? What keywords, passages, examples, or details can you identify from the text to support your thinking about its purpose and perspective? What details from the text are particularly important in terms of our understanding of it?
- Offer your own thoughts on how this text is significant. How does the text offer new ideas, contribute to a conversation, or shape our thinking in some way? How does the text build on its influences and its cultural context? How is it different from other texts that are similar to it?
Your paper should follow APA guidelines for formatting (including a title page but not an abstract) and citations, both in-text and on a works cited page.
Matt King 