Term paper guidelines

ENGL A236F English Language Media and Popular Culture

Dr Michael Cheuk
Housekeeping
• No tutorials next week (Chinese New Year holidays)

• Please refer to Zoom recording (link will be uploaded next week)

of cultures in terms of quality and value. But the
cultural hierarchy is not meaningful if we accept
Term paper question
that all cultures, both from “high“ and “low”
parts of hierarchy can be valuable and creative
and meaningful.

In this paper, please review the above

viewpoints  “all cultures are potentially
meaningful, creative, and valuable.” Do you
agree or disagree?

with one case study anything that supports

your argument eg novel, film, podcast, TV show,
social media..

Due date: 11 April 2024 (Thurs; 23:59)

 fairly compared? Who decides what is the standard of value of culture?

Term paper guiding questions these are questions to help you

• 3. Which cultural critic has most notably argued that cultural richness is possible in every level of the
brainstorm
hierarchy? Dothe paper,
you agree notcritic’s
with this questions
view? Why that
or whyyou
not? answer one by one

• ***Raymond Williams: culture is ordinary all cultures have two aspects: creativity and tradition . As
such all cultures are potentially valuable because all cultures have creativity and tradition, on their own
terms. All cultures have their own way of expressing creativity, and own tradition to build upon.

• 4. What is your case study to support your argument for or against the cultural hierarchy? Why have
you chosen this case study?

•  Choose an example that can HELP with your argument

•  eg if you support “culture is ordinary,” pick an example that is less commonly viewed as valuable. Eg 50SG

•  eg if you are against ‘culture is ordinary,” pick an example that is commonly viewed as valuable, and suggest why
you still think it is problematic… Eg Shakespeare is commonly viewed as valuable, but more critics are suggesting
Shakespeare’s plays contain racism, sexism, colonialism..
 Excerpt from “Culture is Ordinary” (p.3-4)
• A culture has two aspects: the known meanings and
directions, which its members are trained to
tradition/familiar

• ; the new observations and meanings, which are offered and

tested creativity/unfamiliar

• These are the ordinary processes of human societies and

human minds, and we see through them the nature of
culture: that it is always both traditional and creative  all
cultures have creativity and tradition, these features are very
common, nothing special, “ordinary”

• ; that it is both the most ordinary common meanings and the

finest individual meanings.  all cultures have creativity and
tradition on their own terms (each culture expresses
creativity, and builds upon tradition, in their own ways)
Question: What are the creativity and
tradition of 50SG and Action Comics #1?
• Tradition (existing practices and ideas) of 50SG:
• - Novel  metaphor of everyday life
• - Romance genre fiction  same themes and endings and language
• - Twilight  a romance fiction with vampires

• Creativity of 50SG:
•  a romance fiction with physical expression of sexuality and tensions of
control and dominance
•  it is the first popular novel to be distributed online in Western context
•  it offers insights about trauma and sexuality..
•  50Sg also offered an example of moral panic in society..

• ***All cultures have creativity and tradition on their own terms..

• Tradition of Action comics #1:
• - Comics ( gutters and closure)
• -Biblical stories (eg Samson) and Ancient Greek mythology
(eg Hercules)

• Creativity of Action comics #1:

• - Superheroes as representing American values (truth,
justice, and the American way)
• - Propaganda (eg during WWII against Nazi Germany)

• ***All cultures are valuable but on their OWN terms

• We use the word culture in these two senses:
to mean a whole way of life – the common
meanings; to mean the arts and learning – the
special processes of discovery and creative
effort.

• Some writers reserve the word for one or other

of these senses  common sense (only some
cultures have creativity and tradition, not all
cultures). But what is missing from this
common sense?

• ; I insist on both, and on the significance of

their conjunction. The questions I ask about our
culture are questions about our general and
common purposes, yet also questions about
deep and personal meanings. Culture is
ordinary, in every society and in every mind. 
 Evaluation criteria and submission instructions
The paper will be evaluated based on its

Persuasiveness (examples) , clarity (clear sentence structures), grammar (Word spelling and grammar check).  basic writing skills

***Of course you can enlist the help of Chat GPT, but my advice: only use it for language purposes, not for content..

application of course concepts, creativity,

***Good content for this paper refers to creative use of course concepts…

***Most important is consistency…

1500 words

Typed, using a 12-point standard Times New Roman

1-inch margins
Use double spacing
• ***Most important is consistency…

• 1500 words

• Typed, using a 12-point standard Times New Roman

• 1-inch margins
• Use double spacing
• Use MLA format throughout  APA also fine just be consistent with
formatting..  as long as your paper is consistent in style, it is easy for
readers to read.
• Cite your sources
• Have a Works Cited page with at least 5 credible resources (No Wikipedia)
• Submit to Turnitin via OLE (No plagiarism)
 How to avoid plagiarism?
(source: https://guides.library.ucla.edu/citing/plagiarism/avoid
• Don't procrastinate with your research and assignments: Plan your research well in
advance

• Commit to doing your own work.

• Be 100% scrupulous in your note taking: Clearly label in your notes your own ideas (write
"ME" in parentheses) and ideas and words from others (write "SMITH, 2005" or something
to indicate author, source, source date).

• ***When you are reading a paper, you also want to add your own thoughts to those ideas.
Make sure you mark clearly which ideas are from the papers, and which are your own.

• Cite your sources scrupulously.

Regardless of whether you found the information in a book, article, or website, and
Academic Writing: Sources
(adapted from https://awelu.srv.lu.se/ )

• One characteristic of academic writing is that it is based on previous research

within the field or within related fields. Citations need to be made to all sources
that have been used, according to accepted writing standards.

• Two types of sources:

1. Primary source (original sources, not interpretations made by someone else eg short
stories written by Chopin, Poe, Joyce)  your case study eg Action Comics#1  cite
your case study

2. Secondary source (value, discuss or comment on the primary source eg research

articles or books on matters related to Chopin, Poe, Joyce)  your research and
material you find from library or Google Scholar, Jstor, Proquest… include into citation..
 Why References?
(adapted from https://awelu.srv.lu.se/ )

• To acknowledge previous research in the field

Writers need to show their awareness of previous and related research within the field.
 tradition

• To position new research in relation to previous publications

A central aim of research is to expand knowledge. In order to show what is new,
scholarly writers need to position their work in relation to previous research in the
field.  creativity

***All papers, including your own, are valuable, but on their own terms (what sources
you are citing from? What do you add to those sources?)
 In-text citations: Author-page style

• In-text citations supply information on the source within the text. Full
information about the source is then provided in the “Works Cited” list.

• Showalter has shown that...(38)

• Anorexia nervosa was first identified as an illness in 1873 (Showalter 127).

• Quotations are referenced in the same way:

• In 1873, anorexia nervosa was first identified as "a new clinical syndrome
among adolescent girls" (Showalter 127).
• Citing a work by multiple authors
• The authors claim that surface reading looks at what is “evident,
perceptible, apprehensible in texts” (Best and Marcus 9).
• The authors claim that one cause of obesity in the United States is
government-funded farm subsidies (Franck et al. 327).

• In-text citations for print sources with no known author:

• We see so many global warming hotspots in North America ("Impact
of Global Warming").
Works cited
(adapted from https://awelu.srv.lu.se/ )
In MLA style, the list of references is
called "Works Cited". Examples of
various kinds of bibliographic posts are
given below.

In the Works Cited list, the entries are

listed in alphabetical order.

Hanging indentation (which means that

the second and subsequent lines of the
entry are indented) is often used in
Works Cited lists.
Class activity: Create a works cited list for the following sources using
MLA style
(adapted from https://guides.skylinecollege.edu/c.php?g=492914&p=3372391 )

1. A book with one author:

Author: Ronald Epstein
Title: Attending : medicine, mindfulness, and humanity
Publication info.: New York : Scribner, 2017
• Citation description:
• Author's last name, First name Middle initial (if any). Title of
book. Publisher, Year of publication.
2. For a book with 2 authors, list the first author's name (last name, first
name order) and the second author's name in direct order.
• Author: Ronald L. Mize and Alicia C.S. Swords.
Title: Consuming Mexican labor : from the Bracero Program to NAFTA
Publication info.: Toronto ; Tonawanda, N.Y. : University of Toronto Press,
c2011.
• Citation description:
• First Author's last name, First name Middle initial (if any) and Second
Author's first name last name. Title of book. Publisher, Year of
publication.
3. For a book with more than 2 authors, list only the first author's
name followed by a comma and the words et al.
• Authors: Charles R. Epp, Steven Maynard-Moody, & Donald Haider-
Markel.
Title: Pulled over : how police stops define race and citizenship
Publication info.: Chicago ; London : The University of Chicago
Press, [2014]
• Citation description:
• Author's last name, First name Middle initial (if any), et al. Title of
book. Publisher, Year of publication.
4. Chapter in a book with an editor
Editor: Kimberly B. Morland
Title of book: Local food environments : food access in America
Chapter author: Barbara A. Laraia
Chapter title: Local food environments and dietary intake
Publication Info.: Boca Raton : CRC Press, Taylor & Francis Group, [2015]
5. A journal article
• Article title: “I will never forget that”: lasting effects of language discrimination on language-
minority children in Colombia and on the U.S.-Mexico border
Authors: Luz A. Murillo, Patrick H Smith

• Source (Journal Title) :

Childhood Education. Spring, 2011, Vol. 87 Issue 3, p147, 7 p.
Publisher Information: Association for Childhood Education International
Publication Year: 2011

• Citation description:
• Author's last name, First name Middle initial (if any). "Title of article." Journal title, vol.
(volume number), no. (issue number), Date of publication, page numbers.
• 6. Online source
• Author: Ella Griswold
• Title: The Fracturing of Pennsylvania
Website: The New York Times Magazine
• Date: November 17, 2011
• Publisher/Sponsoring Company: © 2015 The New York Times Company
• URL: http://www.nytimes.com/2011/11/20/magazine/fracking-amwell-
township.html?pagewanted=all&_r=0

• Citation description:
• Author, or compiler name (if available). Name of Site. Version number (if available),
Name of institution/organization affiliated with the site (sponsor or publisher), date
of resource creation (if available), DOI (preferred), otherwise include a URL or
permalink. Date of access (if applicable).