Essay Two: Textual Analysis

In Essay One we practiced the skills needed to describe a subject using specific details. This essay asks you use those kinds of details as examples in support of a focused claim about a topic.

For example, if you were describing Donald Trump, you might fill pages and pages with details about his business expertise, his reality TV career, his casinos, his personal life, his sense of style, his political opinions, or any number of related topics. But so what? Why are you providing this information? What claim (or conclusion) about Donald Trump are you trying to make?

You might argue that Trump is one of the truest examples of the American Dream. Or, instead, you might argue that the media mocks him unfairly. Or that the media gives him more attention than he deserves. Or that he is a financial genius, a bad role model, a good role model, a negative force in American politics, a good presidential candidate. You could argue almost anything, as long as you support your claims with convincing evidence.

This assignment asks you to do just that: examine a contemporary text, draw a suitably precise (and arguable) conclusion about it, and convincingly support that conclusion with specific examples.

For our purposes, a text is any act of public communication. This includes books, articles, stories, essays, magazines, speeches, films, newspapers, websites, songs, albums, television programs, online videos, podcasts, buildings, plays, paintings, poems, cartoons, illustrations, advertising messages, Twitter feeds, and many other types of messages.

Keep in mind that choosing a more general topic will require you to narrow your focus more. “The Film Career of David Lynch,” for example, is far broader than “The Impact of David Lynch’s Transcendental Meditation Experiences on the Opening Credits of Twin Peaks.” (Please note, also, that although the second example is quite specific, it is still only a topic. The job of the writer here will be to make a claim about this topic.)

We will discuss and practice these concepts in upcoming classes. Your job for the time being is to begin studying potential topics in order to identify precise subtopics about which you have something significant to say. I urge you to ask for feedback on potential topics.

Logistical information (i.e.: length, format, due date) will be announced.