Final Critical Essay

Final Critical Essay (25% of course grade)
draft due in class and Canvas 12/2 -- final draft due to Canvas 12/9


Context and Goals

This semester, we have emphasized how composition theories operate within past and present narratives of higher education, institutional discourse, and educational polity. To support our two-fold purpose -- looking outward at certain developments while looking inward to a more critically reflective practice -- the final critical essay invites you to build theory on an issue of your own choosing surrounding composition and its public, disciplinary, practical, or institutional politics.  

By now you realize that our understanding of  building theory means “engaging with and intervening in a theoretical conversation in a more informed way.” And for many of our theorists, this has involved studying genres and modes; examining histories of writing; considering intersections of writing and civil rights, or writing and community engagement; asking questions about privilege and access; defining epistemologies for learning; developing ethics for relating to writers and/or for assessing writing; studying social linguistic and literacy theories; challenging theories of identification (of self and other); opening up concepts of audience and aim; or studying the rhetorics underlying certain writing practices or perceptions of what it means to write in private or public spheres. While some of them were in the business of selling what they already knew, thought, or believed, you have probably noticed that most theorists have tried to build theory in the spaces left by a dilemma, a paradoxical question, or a seemingly unsolvable problem. This is what I am asking you to do.

Here are the overarching goals for this assignment:  
  • To identify a question and articulate an intervention that is interesting and vital. Of the many questions we raised, which ones have stuck with you? Which topics, issues, subjects, or authors intrigued you the most, and why? What dilemmas seem unresolved, yet need some resolution? You might poke open an existing conversation, contextualize some old problem as a new problem, apply another concept to it, or draw our attention to some aspect of a particular question that you think has gone unnoticed. Whatever you do, that intervention will ideally advance your own and others' thinking, rather than simply opine or defend a position
  • To specifically and coherently demonstrate your sophisticated understanding of at least five (5) of our critical texts throughout the discussion. That's a reasonable number, although your intervention may require additional texts (i.e., reference texts for definitions or background, as well as relevant case studies).
  • You won’t be asked to reinvent the wheel, but you will be asked to engage heavily with our course texts, as a way of managing the intellectual conversation among all of your sources.
  • Consequently, to strike a balance between accurately representing other theories/theorists and synthesizing them together to make a new work.

Some
Resources

  • Our course readings, your best source for terms and bibliographies
  • Our course links (at right), especially Howard's commonplace bibliographies and our critical glossaries
  • CompPile, a crowd-sourced database of rhetoric and writing studies scholarship
  • JSTOR, if you need it (accessible via FSU library login) 
  • Relevant reviewed periodicals, blogs, and journals of online opinion for case studies (offered without endorsement of any particular viewpoint, and with a caution to avoid bad journalism if/when you encounter it!)

About the Essay (and how I'll evaluate it)
This is an essay rather than a research paper, and we will remain committed to that genre. Essay writers do communicate with readers about subjects larger than themselves, but the way they investigate those subjects is by employing various techniques (e.g., exposition, reflection, narration, etc.). In fact, many critical essayists interweave multiple sources, questions, and views. They unpack, but they also perform, and they ultimately lead their readers to a deeper, more focused place of understanding. They strive, but might never completely finish discussing an issue. They find a reasonable point at which to creatively abandon it, once they have done all they can.

Discovery and Claim
For a Critical Essay, "claim" does not necessarily mean "position" (as in, the traditional pro/con, agree/disagree, good/bad, right/wrong sense of argumentation). It means a discovery that can only be arrived at through careful synthesis. Ideally, this discovery would be nuanced rather than obvious, and if it is complex, your claim statement may bleed over several sentences. This is perfectly natural. But please don't make us wait until the end of your essay in order to realize that discovery!

Coherence and Framing
To "essay" means to endeavor, to try towards, so your essay should unfold that discovery in a series of smaller claims that orchestrate, rather than merely summarize, the critical texts you discuss. How you organize these claims will ultimately reflect the argument you want to make, but try hard to serve a reader who wants to know what's at stake in your work and what they should take from it. Be sure to give it some kind of framing statement in the beginning that helps readers understand why they are reading, and some concluding statement at the end that leaves them fulfilled while wanting more.


Textual and Contextual Evidence
Develop your discovery by drawing heavily on the critical text(s) you have chosen, and use examples accurately and well. Feel free to use examples drawn from class, but please do not just echo the examples back to me without demonstrating that you can extend them. Rather than just relying on what you think is "common knowledge," use some of our course resources to provide essential background.
Please include in-text (parenthetical) citations throughout your essay where needed, including where you paraphrase concepts. You'll want to avoid regurgitating stock answers in your discussion. And you'll want to avoid making broad generalizations, no matter how "true" they might seem. (Instead, make specific and contextualized observations wherever you can.) 

Audience Construction
You are constructing an audience who needs to see that you can carefully handle textual evidence, so be sure to educate them wherever possible by taking the time to define key terms.
You probably won't need excessive metadiscourse (i.e., “I think/feel/believe" statements in every other sentence) to carry your argument forward, because the way you manage the conversation among your sources and examples will serve as evidence enough.

Language and Style
Please write with clarity and honesty. Your essay can be confident and still carry a balanced tone, with strategically neutral language and strong sentences. Your use of terms should be thoughtful, even elegant. Try putting dense or complicated language into your own words, and be sure to report names and titles accurately. As always, paragraphing, spelling, and polish do matter.

Title and All Other Parts
Ideally, your title will reflect what you are trying to argue and may even contain layers of meaning. Formatting will all be complete. You submitted a proposal to me via e-mail on Oct. 19 for my immediate feedback, and you brought a completed draft to class on Dec. 2.

  • Word-processed or typed, single-spaced (~4-5 pages, but can go longer if needed)
  • Legible 11- or 12-point serif font, and formatted to include 1-inch margins. 
  • MLA parenthetical citations throughout the essay, and MLA works cited page, with images or exhibits embedded through the essay where needed for illustration.  
  • If you intend to compose a highly visual essay, I'll expect the page length to increase.
  • No cover sheet is necessary, but your name, due date, and course information should appear somewhere on the first page. Please create a header or footer with your last name and page number on all remaining pages. 

Feel free to ask questions if any part of the assignment is unclear or if you become stuck while working through an idea.

-Prof. Graban