As You Set to Writing

I thought I’d share some of the questions that have come up in conversation about the essay assignment. Consider these points of advice as you develop your project, and feel free to e-mail me any specific questions.

-How wide or narrow of a focus should you have? A more specific focus should lead to a much tighter and stronger essay. To take a wide focus on this assignment probably would give you too much to try to follow, examine, and digest. Try to focus on a particular story thread, one that develops over time and is reinterpreted or rewritten at different moments in different locations (textual / geographical / ideological). It might be more helpful to think about stories (which tend to be specific) than about issues (which tend to be more general). For example, health care reform is a broad issue. But “death panels,” the Rep. Joe Wilson “you lie!” shout at Obama’s address, or debate over the public option are much more specific stories.

-Does the story have to be political? No, it doesn’t. Politics makes for easy discussion because there are such polarized positions and approaches, political conversations are fairly accessible, and because most issues have political connections. But you are free and encouraged to pick whatever interests you. Just be sure to follow the story in more than one location and at more than one time. A story that only shows up in one place and only once or twice does not allow many opportunities for research and analysis.

-Can I offer my own take on the story? Yes. You might consider yourself as playing referee or judge at points in your essay. Having traced the multiple lives of a news story, you can then render a verdict on interpretation or give it your own spin.

-Do I need to use Harris? I think Harris is helpful here in two ways. First, he gives you ideas of how to come to terms with, forward, counter, take an approach, and otherwise interact with texts in your own writing. Second, he helps you pay attention to these moves in the writing of others so that you can then analyze those moves. I don’t expect for you to cite Harris, but I do expect for his work to inform your writing and analysis.

-Is there a required number of sources? No, but more sources would be better than fewer. You might consider three to be an absolute minimum. More important than number of sources is the number of points of view and times of publication. You should be good so long as you track a story over multiple locations and at multiple times. (The New York Times piece on “death panels” does a pretty good job of this kind of work.)

-What if I’m not finding many sources? Try LexisNexis. You can access it through the library’s index of databases. It allows you to search news publications by time, region, type of publication, etc. The News Dots feature at Slate is useful, too. And PolitiFact is helpful for debunking rumors in contentious issues, providing you a sort of reality check from which to write.

I hope that all helps. We will continue to develop your essays through the review process, so consider these first drafts to be true drafts as they are works in progress. But I do want you all to get a solid start. I look forward to reading your work.