For this assignment, you will write a research-based essay that you present as an Adobe Express Webpage, building off the skills developed during the previous two units. This project asks you to undertake academic research in order to find outside sources that support your argument. It is up to you to choose your specific topic, but all research papers will consider and construct an argument about A Tale of Two Cities.
This assignment will allow you to demonstrate your ability to meet the following learning outcomes:
- Build on the close reading and analysis techniques established in Units 1 and 2
- Learn how to join the scholarly discourse concerning your object of study
- Understand how to devise a focused research question and craft a nuanced, scholarly argument
- Compose a scrolling essay that demonstrates creativity, as well as an understanding of multimodality + remediation
What are we writing about?
Your research project will consider and construct an argument about some aspect of A Tale of Two Cities. You are welcome to make connections to the other primary texts we have read this semester; however, your argument should centralize Dickens’ historical novel and a minimum of two scholarly, peer reviewed sources.
Make sure you pick a research topic that is personally interesting to you. You are being given a lot of freedom in terms of choosing a topic, so use this opportunity to research something you want to learn more about! Is there a particular lens you like applying to a text? Are there certain aspects of the text and/or course theme that you have gravitated towards all semester? How does the historical novel change/influence how we understand the French Revolution? What role does the historical novel play in communicating, preserving, and/or retelling history? Use these questions to start thinking about potential topic ideas.
To put it the most simply, for this paper, you will need to do research to find the answer to a specific question or set of questions about your topic that you will then present in a clearly stated thesis. A strong thesis will clearly outline the argument you are making, as well as act as a roadmap for the rest of your paper (i.e., your supporting claims and evidence) to follow. Your thesis will be supported throughout your paper by the evidence (multimedia elements + 2 scholarly sources) that you have collected during the research process. Remember, as we have talked about in class, you want to introduce your evidence, cite it appropriately, and explain its relevance and/or importance to your argument.
What makes this project different from a traditional research paper?
Instead of turning in a final draft as a word document, you will use Adobe Express to present your final project as a scrolling essay. Your scrolling essay will weave together multiple forms of media to make its case and will create a more engaging experience for your reader. You can embed powerful images, videos, headlines, and more alongside your text (linguistic) argument. This collaboration of media can powerfully bring your essay to life for the audience, helping them appreciate its immediacy and relevance. How can you motivate them to think even more critically about this topic by incorporating images, videos, etc. into your project?
PROJECT LOGISTICS
In addition to the completion of early process work (pre-writing preparatory activities, including your research proposal, that are in the weekly module Canvas pages + participation in in-class workshops), there are two major submissions for this project:
TEXT DRAFT: Submission of a complete text-based draft
- Your text draft, due INSERT DATE by the start of class, should be a minimum of 1,200 words. This minimum word count does NOT include your Works Cited.
- The essay as a whole should be presented in MLA format with a proper header (including a specific and unique title) and in 12-point Times New Roman font, double-spaced. Please submit your essay as a Word doc or PDF.
SCROLLING ESSAY: Submission of the remediation (aka the final, multimodal, scrolling essay version). The multimodal version is what will receive feedback and be graded using the below rubric.
- After turning in the text-based draft of your review, you will then remediate or transform the content of the written review into a multimodal, scrolling essay in Adobe Express. The final remediation will be due THIS DATE by the start of class. Be sure to include a Works Cited at the end the essay.
- You will create your scrolling essay using the webpage function in Adobe Express. Click here to learn how to create a webpage in Express.
- TO SUBMIT YOUR FINAL REMEDIATED SCROLLING ESSAY: Please publish your scrolling essay (by clicking the share button > publish to web) and submit the link to the assignment dropbox on Canvas.
A note on Generative AI: You are welcome to use Generative AI (DALL·E, Adobe Firefly, etc.) to produce images for your scrolling essay. You are also welcome to make edits or revisions to your text using Grammarly. All other content must be generated on your own. If you do use generative AI for this assignment (as permitted by Dr. Stecher and as outlined on this assignment sheet), you must provide attribution by including the following disclaimer at the end of your text draft and scrolling essay: “Portions of this assignment were created with generative AI assistance. These portions include [INSERT DETAILS HERE]. I affirm that the ideas herein are my own and that I am wholly responsible for the content, aesthetics, style, and voice of the following essay.”