FINAL PROJECT

PROPOSAL

  • Draft a 2-page proposal for your final project. The final project may be either a critical essay or creative project.
  • You may engage with texts we’ve read in class, or texts we have not read in class (but if the latter — I need to approve!).
  • Your proposal is largely informal and subject to change as your ideas evolve. Mainly, it should indicate
    • the text(s) you intend to engage with,
    • an idea or argument or curiosity you wish to investigate, and
    • the genre of your final project. Is it a critical essay? a creative inquiry? an adaptation? a performance piece? etc. Explain how this modality will allow you to understand your chosen text(s) in a useful/new way.
  • Your ideas should be focused enough to be workable. Broad topics like “feminism” or “gender” or “death” or “violence” are outside of the scope of this project (or any project, ever). Instead, narrow your scope to the tiny details or oddities which are particular to that text.
  • Separate from the 2-page proposal, include a preliminary bibliography of 3-5 sources that will help you craft a thoughtful, interesting, and literarily relevant discussion of your chosen text. The bibliography is required even if you do not plan to write a critical essay. What are others saying about your text? How can you refute/build on those ideas?

PROJECT

Your method of analysis largely determines what kind of secondary sources and/or creative resources you might use. Regardless of whether your project is critical or creative, it must make some argument, explicit or implicit, which helps us understand your interpretation of this text. 

Your final product must relate, in some way, back to the original text. Whether you create a collection of original poems, an adapted audiobook, a queer-camp stage script, etc. etc., we should be able to identify the text(s) with which your project is engaging.

  • You have a range of modes to choose from for this project. You might create one of the following (or something completely new!):
    • Screenplay
    • Short video (a few minutes)
    • Longer film (more than a few minutes)
    • Short Play
    • Short Story
    • Novella or Chapters from a Novel
    • Collection of Shorter Poems (at least three)
    • Long poem (something in the range of a three pages or more)
    • Website (blog, social media site, etc.)
    • Artwork (painting, sculpture, etc.)
    • Dance or Other Embodied Performance
    • Critical Essay (8 pages for ENG 175 students, 15-20 pages for ENG 275 students)

Additionally, you will write a 3-page (for ENG 175 students) or 4-page (for ENG 275 students) critical introduction that contextualizes your piece and explains your choice of genre. Is it for the purpose of satire, humor, a modernization of a work, a consideration of the original plot and/or characters in a different genre, etc.? Think about what your new work might reveal about the original. Think about how your work will engage the previous text and entertain new readers.

In the introduction, you will also provide an overview of your project—including how you devised the project and completed the work. The introduction may be a continuation of your proposal, and should include a reflection on your process.

If you choose to write a critical essay, you are not required to write a critical introduction. If you choose to write a critical essay, here are some helpful tips to consider:

  • If you choose to develop your proposal into a critical essay, you must select a topic that is workable in 8 pages (for ENG 175 students) or 15-20 pages (for ENG 275 students). 
  • It is highly unlikely that your idea will be so blazingly original that nothing else is published on or close to it. Aim instead to complement and perhaps challenge the current state of knowledge. Be informed enough by the thoughts of others while developing a sense of your own voice and style and its place in ongoing collective debates about historical texts and contexts.
  • Argument Advice
    • Since you are writing neither simple summary nor mere description, you will need to propose a specific thesis that is the kind of interesting idea with which someone could possibly disagree—something worth arguing and requiring some evidence to be convincing.
    • I expect a well-stated thesis in the introduction, so you need to have figured out what you’ve concluded about your topic in order to write the most effective introduction and thesis. Count on revising and rewriting.
    • Often, I find that an early draft of my conclusion makes the best material for a stronger introduction in the next draft. This may be because the draft conclusion tends to be more specific and better frames what you have in fact argued throughout the text.
    • The more effective an introduction and thesis, the more time/space one has to explain, illustrate, and elaborate the points in one’s argument.
    • Assume that your audience is less interested in slowly discovering what you have to say and more interested in seeing how you defend and argue what you’ve already stated in summary in your thesis.

FINAL PRESENTATION

Sign-up for the final presentation here.

During the final exam, we will host a literary salon to celebrate the end of this course. Each student will prepare a 5 minute presentation on their final project.

Your presentation should include some of the information from your proposal and/or critical introduction, including:

  • the text(s) you engaged with,
  • an idea or argument or curiosity you investigated, and
  • the genre of your final project. Is it a critical essay? a creative inquiry? an adaptation? a performance piece? etc. Explain how this modality allowed you to understand your chosen text(s) in a useful/new way.

Finally, you are encouraged to give us a taste of your final project: give us a brief spoken word performance, walk us through your favorite close-reading in your essay, play us a scene from your B-movie production.

Your presentation must be accompanied by some kind of visual aid to help us follow along, whether it be a PowerPoint, Keynote, Prezi, or physical handout.