Written Assignment #3

Incorporating Other Voices: This paper is much like a research paper that you will write when you are enrolled in English 108: College Writing and Research. This paper will serve to transition to into this kind of writing. This assignment will require that you incorporate the voices of others as support for your argument. Because this is a research paper, you will need a concentration, or rather, a research question that you would like to explore. I will not assign topics, so you will have the freedom to explore something that you are interested in. However, what you choose must come from one of the three books we have read, or will read, for this semester. Take this time as an opportunity to investigate something that you are interested in.

Writing Assignment: For this assignment, you will select a theme that is listed in one of the books that we have read, or will read, this semester. Listed below include a number of themes that you may choose from; however, keep in mind that you do not have to choose something from this list. I welcome any ideas, so please contact me if you have something different in mind. For this assignment, the objective is not to take sides. I do not care whether you agree or disagree with the theme that you have chosen; instead, you will investigate it. You should assume a neutral role in this investigation. What is required of this assignment is three scholarly sources. You may use one of these sources as the text that you have chosen to investigate such as: Generation Me, The Hip Hop Reader, or Full Frontal Feminism. The other two sources that are required must be academic and scholarly. Therefore, I do not allow sources that are found in the Google search engine. If you wish to choose more than three, than you may transition the search process to Google; however, you must determine the source’s ethos.

Annotated Bibliography: For this assignment, you will write an annotate bibliography. I have listed three examples in the O/P drive, will upload them to the class blog and will include them in the email as an attachment. If you look in the course syllabus, I have also listed two links that may be of value. We will be going over search engines and reviewing sources’ ethos.

Possible Themes to Investigate:

Generation Me: Why Today’s Young Americans Are More Confident, Assertive, Entitled – And More Miserable Than Ever Before by Jean M. Twenge

· Explore the societal expectations and implications of men? Of women? How have societal expectations changed for men? For women? What do these societal expectations imply of men? Of women?

· Explore self-esteem curriculum for children in America’s schools. What lessons are included? What is the overall objective? Tell us about these lessons; what are children getting out of them. Think about the expectations and implications of these programs.

· Look into the issue of anxiety, depression, and loneliness. How does this affect GenMe? Either compare or contrast the Baby Boomers and GenMe. Look at the progress we have made, but why are there such higher rates of anxiety, depression and loneliness?

· Explore this theme of “change.” How did it differ from the Baby Boomers and GenMe?

· Explore sex education either in the State of Missouri or any other state. OR look at the differences between comprehensive sex education and abstinence only education. Where is the money going? Which is effective and why?

· The rise of STDS.

· Explore the advancement of minorities, women and gays and lesbians. I encourage you to narrow this down to one community. While you will examine the progress this community has made, what limitations and restrictions do they still continue to encounter?

The Hip-Hop Reader by Tim Strode and Tim Wood

· The Roots and Stylistic Foundations of the Rap Music Tradition by Cheryl L. Keyes – Write an essay in which you reflect on Keyes’s discussion of the West African bardic tradition. In your essay, show how the bardic tradition helps us understand the role of the hip hop artist in her or his community.

· The Roots and Stylistic Foundations of the Rap Music Tradition by Cheryl L. Keyes – Using two key terms from Keyes’s essay – nyama and nommo – to examine hip hop in terms of its power to move or persuade. The particular influence of the language of hip hop need not necessarily be positive.

· Elvis, Wiggers and Crossing Over to Nonewhiteness by David Roediger – The controversy around the word wigger shows the power and importance of diction or word choice. Consider writing a diction paper of your own. Choose a highly charged or evocative word and explore its meaning. Describe its etymology (its historical roots) and then construct an argument about the word’s use and significance. You may choose to use hip hop or another cultural form to give context and specificity to the word (see also Michel Marriott’s Rap’s Embrace of ‘Nigger’ Fires Bitter Debate).

· The Hip-Hop Nation by Toure – Write an essay putting Toure’s essay in dialogue with Kleinfield’s Guarding the Borders of the Hip-Hop Nation. Give your paper the following focus: Does anyone own culture? Is it right to say that any one ethnic or racial group should be in charge of something like the Hip-Hop Nation? Ultimately, what will you do in this paper is decide whether you agree with or object to Toure’s conclusion in The Hip-Hop Nation?

· Look up the “N” word in the Oxford English Dictionary. What is the word’s etymology? How has this word been used historically, from its early uses to its present day manifestations? How is the “N” word used in hip hop culture? How is hip hop’s use of the word unique or new? Write an essay debating the use of the “N” word in hip hop or ordinary conversation.

· Hip-Hop Women Shredding the Veil by Marcyliena Morgan – Research the State of Missouri v. Celia case and write an essay that builds on Morgan’s own analyses. Go into more detail than Morgan does, and, based on your research, construct an argument that either conforms or complicates Morgan’s claims.

· Hip-Hop Women Shredding the Veil by Marcyliena Morgan – Research either of the other two cases that Morgan cites, the K-BOO case or the controversy involving the rapper Nelly and the uproar he created because of a planned concert at Spelman College. Use your research to help explain some of Morgan’s more difficult claims, such as the following: “{There} are two intertwined themes without African American women’s discourse. One is associated with representing individual and group identity and the other with representing racial, gender, and class injustice.” How does such a claim manifest itself in the two cases cited above.

· When Black Feminism Faces the Music and the Music is Rap by Michele Wallace – Write an essay that looks at female rappers and their response to mainstream hip hop’s depictions of women. Since Wallace wrote her article have any women MCs emerged who are “speaking in their own voice,” as she puts it? One artist you might consider looking at is the Brooklyn-based MC, Jean Grae.

· Examine lyrics by women rappers such as Jean Grae, Queen Latifah, Lil’ Kim, Foxy Brown and Bo$$. Can you find continuities among their different positions, attitudes and rhymes? How do the lyrics of the female MCs complicate the picture of a woman’s place in hip hop?

· Compare the songs “Ether” by Nas and “Take Over” by Jay-Z. How do these songs—the words of which constitute a lyrical “battle” between the artists—use gender as the basis of their respective arguments? More specifically, how is masculinity constructed and deconstructed in each song?

· Watch a music video. Describe the men and women. How do they look and act? What roles do they play? Based on your description of the video, what does it mean to be a man and what does it mean to be a woman? List the unwritten rules of gender that underlie the depictions that you see and describe.

· Gangsta Rap and American Culture by Michael Eric Dyson – Dyson’s essay invokes debates about gangsta rap that were particularly intense in the middle of the ‘90s. he brings up figures such as Bob Dole and C. Delores Tucker. Research one or both of these figures in relation to what they had to say about gangsta rap. Write a paper that lays out explicitly the nature of their criticism. What were the exact terms of their criticism? Is Dyson fair in his representation of their views?

· Gangsta Rap and American Culture by Michael Eric Dyson – Much of Dyson’s essay is directed against conservative politicians and cultural critics who, he suggests, fail to perceive the breadth and depth of issues that gangsta rape at its best deals with. Write an essay in which you choose an album by a gangsta rapper or group (Ice Cube, NWA, Snoop Dog, Tupac Shakur, etc.) and use it to test some of Dyson’s claims.

Full Frontal Feminism: A Young Woman’s Guide to Why Feminism Matters

· Examine the laws that are being proposed all across the country in regard to women’s reproductive rights. Think about the implications of these bills. How and why does it set women’s rights back?

· Examine how the term feminist has been used and in what conversations. How has the meaning of this word changed? What does the term feminist imply? What about its stereotypes?

· Examine the insults that are used to reference women: mangina, pussy, girl, slut, whore, bitch, cunt, skank, etc. Normally these terms are used to insult men. Examine the context that these terms are used. Focus only on one. You may choose to examine a movie and see how the terms are used. What does it imply?

· Examine the stereotypes surrounding feminists.

· Examine surgeries that women undergo for male consumption. Think about the implications of these surgeries.

· Examine GOP’s attempt to redefine rape. What does this mean for women? What may this bill imply if it passes?

· Examine rape trials. What about the blame and shame game? How do they attempt to place blame in the victim’s hands.

· Examine the world of weddings. What does this suggest of women and their role? For this concentration, you may choose to look more closely at a bridal TV show or magazine.

· Look into men’s organizations that are aiding in the fight for women’s rights like Men Can Stop Rape.

Objectives of the Written Assignment:

1) Select a theme that you wish to investigate.

2) Write an annotated bibliography and adhere to MLA style.

3) Understand the difference between summary and analysis.

4) Summarize the text for your audience.

5) Investigate and draw on support from scholarly, academic sources.

6) Construct a Works Cited page adhering to MLA format.

Keep in mind that this may not be the exact order of your written assignment.

Easy Writer	Pages
Conducting Research	176 – 182
Evaluating Sources & Taking Notes	184 – 193
Integrating Sources & Evaluating Plagiarism	197 – 202
MLA Style	206 – 245
Sample Student Research Essay, MLA Style	245 – 252
Organizing an Argument	34
MLA Style	206 - 207

Format of the Written Assignment: For this written assignment, you will follow MLA format to set up your paper. This format can be found in Easy Writer, pages 206 – 207. The written assignment must be four to five pages in length. A works cited page will be required with this assignment.