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Working in consultation with the instructor, choose a topic for your final 7-10 page research paper that addresses a topic other than that of your Oral Presentation. While your paper may be on any topic related to course materials; it must synthesize material addressed throughout the semester. For example, if you decide to write about visual culture of hip hop, you should probably refer to Tricia Rose's arguments about "preferred transcripts" suggested by music videos and Todd Boyd's conception of "hyperreal" cinematic imagery.
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| FINAL PAPER INSTRUCTIONS: |
Your paper should also incorporate research that extends beyond the boundaries of materials on our syllabus. You should also be sure to construct an argument and offer a critique of assumptions surrounding your argument. The most successful papers will allow the "messiness" of researching popular culture to foreground contradictions implicit in your arguments. For example, if you want to argue that misogyny is less of a concern in 2006 than it was in 1995 because many of the gangsta rap groups responsible for "bitch-ho" rhetoric have disbanded, you would probably want to underscore the pervasive lack of feminist female representation in any hip hop idiom in 2002. In other words, less gangsta rap has not meant more positive heterosocial conditions for the production of hip hop. |
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This is a research paper, and it will be graded according
to standards of college-level humanities writing. Your paper must be typewritten,
double-spaced, and thoroughly edited for spelling and grammar. Composition
counts! For compositional guidelines, you might consult a guide for writing
research papers in MLA
style. Look here
for citation style.
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The final paper shall account for 40% of the final grade. The final paper shall be due no later than during class time on Tuesday December 12; early submissions are welcome. No extensions will be granted for the final paper. |
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