Use previous writing you have if possible, research essay, but it could run long

Use previous writing you have if possible, research essay, but it could run longer. Some people may need more words to support their claims and purpose. If a significant portion of your essay qualifies as more creative than intellectual, you can always write an introduction to the project that justifies and explains your methodology and intentions.

Some examples:

A student interested in playwriting and performance could compose monologues for characters who represent archetypes or stereotypes that we’ve examined this semester. Research could involve reading a model text (like Ntozake Shange’s For Colored Girls Who Have Considered Suicide / When the Rainbow Is EnufLinks to an external site.), then, following the format of that volume when writing the speeches (or persona poems) by representative characters such as a superhero grandma, a nontraditional “cat lady,” a not-so-evil stepmother, a Yoruba goddess, and a nonbinary applicant to a woman’s college. Each of these characters comes from a different assigned reading so writing from their perspectives could allow a student to demonstrate familiarity with a variety of sources. Your characters might disagree on definitions of and characteristics of “women.”
Students more comfortable with academic writing could analyze the representation of a particular character from different types of media. A student interested in fairy tales could read more of Sabrina Orah Mark’s essays from The Paris Review.Links to an external site. Then, s/he/they could access the Surlalune Fairy TaleLinks to an external site. website in order to find variants on classic tales that Mark references. The SurLaLune site provides annotated versions of the classic tales along with illustrations, histories, links to similar tales and contemporary revisions as well as bibliographies that could lead you to scholarship. If you only know the Disney versions, the SurLaLune website could be a valuable resource. You could write an essay that examines the representation of stepmothers in various folkloric narratives, for example.
If you would like to compose a short story as part of your project, you might incorporate research by adding endnotes (the way editors of Norton anthologies do). You might write a story that features non-traditional female characters. The story should contain a satisfying plot as well as character development, but could involve themes or character types that were introduced in different weeks. That story could be accompanied by a PowerPoint presentation that provides background on the narratives that influenced your story. The PowerPoint could include illustrations of your own.
These three examples are intended to give you an idea on ways to combine creative and research elements. Methodology will depend on your skill set. Feel free to exercise talents (oral storytelling, photography, mixed media assemblage) that you don’t usually incorporate in an English class. If you’re trying a new technique or if you’re just feeling uncertain as to whether your intended design will meet expectations, you may contact me either in person or online. Don’t procrastinate or you’ll risk putting too little into a project that is worth a significant amount of the course grade.
Some students may already be familiar with using our library’s databasesLinks to an external site. to access full-text articles, but may not be familiar with the databases that allow access to eBooks. I recommend ProQuest Ebook Central and Ebsco eBooks Academic Collection.
Please note that I have set the link to allow a greater variety of file types; however, it may be necessary for some individuals to submit especially large files (like those involving videos or high-resolution images) directly to my email. If your project includes poetry with unusual lineation or static images words along with text, you can maintain your intended format by saving the file as a PDF. Be sure to look at the version you upload to check the layout before I grade your work.
Also, this semester, you also have the option of working with various apps that are available via Adobe Creative Cloud. If you are creating web pages or video, you can send the necessary links to my email, but you should still upload the written text through Turnitin so that you can consult the originality report. You are required to incorporate some form of research in this project so I should see documentation. Please let me know if you have trouble finding guidelines for documentation. If you use images you found online (instead of using your own photographs, for example), you should document those images. (If you are using the library databases for research, they will provide citations, but you will need to click the appropriate box to identify MLA as the format.)
Even if you do send a link to a web page you have created, even if you send me a video in a zip file, you should still upload a copy of the written component via the Turnitin link. MLA documentation is required for all projects so they should demonstrate some research.
Do not choose a mode because you think it won’t require much effort. Don’t try to avoid the Turnitin originality report or AI checker. If I need to look in more than one location for different facets of your project, please alert me to this fact by inserting a note in the comment box in Canvas after you upload the word-based file there. With so many finals to grade from multiple classes, I would like to know if I need to check elsewhere for links to visuals before I begin grading.