Questions and Topics We Can Help You To Answer:
Paper Instructions:

In at least 4 pages, MLA format, analyze a satirical work of your choosing and contextualize it with at least 2 secondary sources.

In this essay, you will identify one aspect of American society that is satirized in a text-based or visual source. You may choose to interrogate depictions of socioeconomic phenomena (like the gig economy, activism, college admissions, etc.) or individual vices (like greed, excessive pride, vindictiveness, or materialism), or, in cases where they are related, both. You will need to describe where, why, and how these critiques are made in the satirical text. Please keep in mind, for this assignment, that your reader is someone who is not in this class and has never read the texts. This means that you may need to spend some time summarizing and explaining key concepts and ideas and explaining to readers where those ideas come from.  In addition, keep in mind that you are expected to use the voice, tone, and diction appropriate for your intended audience.  This essay must be written in the third person, and should include in-text citations, author tags, and a Works Cited page.  Failure to include in-text citations, author tags, and a Works Cited page may be considered plagiarism.

Be Sure To: 
Provide a summary of the text
Identify what is being satirized in the text
Explain how the text is satirical (what methods/tools of satire are being used)
Explain how the medium of the texts lends itself to satiric expression
Consider why the creator(s) created this text (what is the purpose of this satire?)
Connect the text to real topics or issues in our public discourse
You need integrate material to analyze and evidence to support your claims about the text. If the source is text-based (like a story or poem), you will provide quotes; if the source is visual (like cartoons, comics, film, and television) can still use quotes but you'll also need visual evidence--screenshots of panels or stills will need to be integrated into the paper. Use secondary sources that help you explicate the purpose and methods of satire, how the primary source is satirical, and/or how the primary relates to a real world topic or issue.

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Paper Instructions:

Write a 750-1000 word essay about a topic in which you argue for the existence of a particular phenomenon by stating a generalization about the topic. Then you will support that generalization (in the form of a thesis statement) by choosing to write a single-example illustration essay or a multiple-example illustration essay  

Purpose: Throughout Unit V, we have discussed the conventions of the illustration essay. The purpose of this assignment is to measure your mastery of those conventions by putting your knowledge to practice. In a larger context, the purpose of writing an illustration essay is to convey an idea to the reader by providing illustrations (examples) that will solidify the existence of a topic.

Process: For the illustration essay, you will complete the following steps:

Choose a topic: See the methods for developing a topic and the suggested list of topics in 
Decide if you want to write a single-example or multiple-example essay: 
Collect illustrations: See Unit V, Lesson 1, for more information about different kinds of illustrations.
Craft your thesis statement: Note that you want to craft your thesis according to whether you choose to write a single-example or a multiple-example essay.

Stylistic details: All essays must meet the following requirements:

750-1000 words.
Write in Times New Roman, 12 pt. font.
Include one-inch margins on all sides.
Use double spacing (top-to-bottom every page, to include above and below titles and centered words).
Include an APA title page (for all essays) and reference list that includes all of the sources used in the essay.
Include a header.
Include page numbers (upper-right corner only).
Adhere to APA convention and documentation style 
At least one source is required. All sources used must be cited.

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Paper Instructions:

A Room of One′s Own″ was first published in 1929. In it, Virginia Woolf makes connections between material conditions and gender roles and the ability to be successful in life? Do her arguments remain relevant today, 90 years later? For instance, have women achieved equality? Do poor people now have the same opportunities as rich? Are there pressures on people today that Woolf didn′t anticipate? Please be specific and you must use quotations from Woolf′s text to illustrate your points. You do not have to do research for this paper. Your own knowledge of the world should probably be enough to craft a short argument like this; however Woolf and any other sources you do use, must be cited in the paper and documented at its end in MLA style. Watching the dramatization of Woolf′s essay will help you a lot with this assignment.

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Paper Instructions:

Requirements and Overview

The purpose of this paper is to execute the student’s proposal by writing a 7-10 page paper on the topic they chose and wrote about from the proposal. The use of graphs is not necessary, but visuals are encouraged.

Basic Structure

Please start with a brief overview of the paper’s subject matter, from general to specific in ONE paragraph, and then at the end of the paragraph state the thesis statement. The following parts should be included:

Introduction: brief overview, the action planned, and alternatives investigated

Overview of alternatives: Presents a general description of all the alternatives.

Criteria: Identifies the standards by which the action or alternatives were evaluated and focuses on the criteria that are important to the reader.

Methods: Simply how the writer got the ideas and material presented in the report. Enough detail should be given to assure readers that the writer’s research is adequate.
Evaluation (usually the longest part): Evaluates action or alternatives in terms of the criteria. Presents facts and evidence that support each evaluative statement.

Conclusions: Explains the significance, from the reader’s viewpoint, of the writer’s facts and generalizations about them. States the conclusion planning using the “So what” question.


Specifications

Paper will have a Works Cited page and follow parenthetical documentation according to MLA guidelines. In-text citations should include a hyperlink to the source used.
Paper will be 7-8 pages in length.
Primary source used will be the topic or issue the student has been writing about.

Secondary sources: five to six from academic journals, credible professionals. These can be on social media IF the presenters are noted professionals, but video length needs to be at least three minutes. Other sources need to be at least four to five pages in length and should address the themes or issues student is addressing within a text and culture.
Must have a Works Cited page or the paper grade is ZERO.
No plagiarism whatsoever. Be familiar with the rules. Any plagiarized paper may result in a zero grade.

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Paper Instructions:

Read:  You should be at least halfway through Stephen King's novel, The Shining, and you will need to finish that novel by tomorrow.
View:   Go to the Readings, Images, Media section and click on the "Media Clips" folder.  There's a link there to a short scene near the beginning of Stanley Kubrick's 1980 movie adaptation of The Shining.  (Or you can just click on the link below.) 
Write:  Here's today's discussion question:
Compare the clip from Kubrick's movie to the novel. What do you see that is similar or different? What themes do you think are developed in the beginning of the novel, and how are these themes adapted in this scene from the movie?
As always, please be specific in your examples.  Quote from the novel and/or refer to specific elements of the clip--visuals, characters, dialog, whatever you think is significant.  
When you're ready to post, go to the new forum on the Discussion Board.  As always, you must write at least 300 words in response, and you must make your post by 11:59P.M..  Late or short posts will not receive credit.
Here's the URL for the clip:  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8RJm4iynxU0

Questions and Topics We Can Help You To Answer:
Paper Instructions:

Your essay should have the following parts:

Introduction which includes your thesis statement
Body paragraphs that state your reasons with supporting evidence
Refutation – acknowledge the opposing view, but explain why your position is the correct one
Conclusion

You will need In-Text Citations and a Reference page to list your sources. You must have at least 5 appropriate authoritative sources.

Formatting Guidelines:

Double Spaced, 1” margins, Times New Roman font in 12-point size, and formatted according to APA guidelines
Use APA format for title page and page numbers
Use APA format for In-text citations and References page
This assignment should be 8 pages not including Title page and References page
Avoid the use of 1st and 2nd person

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Paper Instructions:

Choose a figure representing an occupation from modern life & create your own brief (approximately 2 pg) Canterbury Tale. Use the background info on Chaucer as well as the text & film version of the tale you use as your guide, but feel free to put your own personalized spin on the contemporary twist you create. Important: Follow up your tale with a one paragraph explanation of the message/themes you intended to impart, & why you feel your tale would be engaging & relevant to a twenty-first century audience. What parting wisdom does it offer that would add value to the reader's understanding?

Questions and Topics We Can Help You To Answer:
Paper Instructions:

Choose a figure representing an occupation from modern life & create your own brief (approximately 2 pg) Canterbury Tale. Use the background info on Chaucer as well as the text & film version of the tale you use as your guide, but feel free to put your own personalized spin on the contemporary twist you create. Important: Follow up your tale with a one paragraph explanation of the message/themes you intended to impart, & why you feel your tale would be engaging & relevant to a twenty-first century audience. What parting wisdom does it offer that would add value to the reader's understanding?

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Paper Instructions:

Fiction is a Petri dish for the human condition. Authors of fiction are like scientist gods, sprinkling bits of humanity across fertile ground to see what takes root and how it grows. We all have a favorite piece of fiction—book, game, TV show, graphic novel, or film—that speaks to us about what it means to be human. Whether that favorite is comic, tragic, or something in between, it expresses something important to us about our existence and how we experience it.

This week, we are studying the concept of the social contract (the agreement between a given group of people about how they will function in relation to one another). Although most works of fiction don't explicitly mention a social contract, most of them do include some form of one. Think about the social contract as it's expressed in the world of the TV show Friends: A bunch of self-interested people find happiness through working as a team. Or the social contract as it's expressed in the more recent Breaking Bad: A lone wolf preys on a society that has failed him morally and financially. Each of these works of fiction expresses a world view in terms of how people are (or are not) responsible for one another.

What is your favorite work of fiction, and how is the social contract expressed therein? See if you can state the social contract in a sentence that relates the individual to the group as in the examples above. What does this work of fiction seem to want you to learn or remember (through laughter, horror, tears, or introspection) about the human condition via this social contract? 

This assignment is a little more free-form than our first two assignments. There is no set structure for it. However, it is an academic paper, so it should have an introduction with a clear thesis that leaves no mystery about what you will put forth; body paragraphs that are ordered and connected to support the thesis; and a conclusion which reflects on your findings. You should assume that your reader has a passing knowledge of your favorite piece of fiction, but you should briefly explain things like character (who's important and why), setting (time and place), and conflict (the reason people are interacting as they are) so that there are no unsupported leaps in logic. You should use examples as you need them to illuminate your assertions. You can find these examples in the fiction itself, for example, paraphrasing the climax of a novel or quoting important dialogue from a movie.

You MUST USE evidence from John Locke and/or Thomas Hobbes, whom we are covering this week (see our lesson and/or use outside sources), to support your ideas about the social contract in the work of fiction. Their ideas may or may not dovetail with the social contract as expressed in the fiction you're covering. You can use them as comparison, contrast, or both. You MUST CITE their works where you refer to it.

Your focus here should be explaining your favorite work of fiction in the context of the social contract. You don't have to convince your audience that this is the best work of art of all time, just that it holds specific ideas about how individuals do or should interact in a given group.

This assignment is three to five pages. Evidence (cited) from your work of fiction and support (cited) from Locke should be used to illustrate your ideas, not in place of them. APA format.

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Paper Instructions:

Persuasion paper about raising minimum wage in the United States. Some topics I would like to cover are: -Introduction -Thesis -The effects on small businesses -People who lose their jobs -Cut hours -Reduced low skilled employment -Self Checkout -Opposing View points -Living Wage -Keep employees happy, less turnover -Conclusion the essay should be in APA format with at least three sources. The arguments should be macroeconomic based and cover the effects on the economy.

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Paper Instructions:

"Getting to Yes" contrasts two basic types of negotiation - Distributive (win-lose) and Integrative (win-win). Given that as a basic approach, can you recall a negotiation you have done with one or the other style? There's a saying to "never do business with friends or family." In a way, win-win is an attempt to be "friendly" with the person/group you are trying to negotiate with in a specific context. Is that wise? 

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Paper Instructions:

Prompt 2 - Discuss Melville
After reading Melville's "Benito Cereno," discuss the following:

3. Is Melville's story making an argument against slavery, or is it making an argument about the lack of civility and humanity among the Africans, thus making a case for slavery?
4. Melville said that his work shared in common with Hawthorne dark truths that "in this world of lies" can only be revealed "covertly" and "by snatches." Why do this week's writers reveal truth in this way, rather than state is outright?