Friday, September 28, 2007

Assignment Guidelines

General

-Clarity, transparency, succinct
-correct use of citations and bibliographies,
-introductory summary, clear point of departure, conclusion or summation
-course-driven vocabulary and copia, overall presentation, and the presence: meaning have a thorough knowledge of the background info, and make sure to do a little extra research to bring something more to topic (ie: why are some points included or excluded? Well rounded view?)


Particular

-“compare and contrast” two articles on same subject from ToC and from Dictionary
-similarities, differences – how treated. Why? Be CRITICAL (take a viewpoint)
-structure suggestion: if you want, start out with the more empirical comparisons (length, citations, etc.), then move into conceptual form of piece
-Examples: McLuhan, Oral culture; Orality, Primary & Secondary


Topics

-beginning stuff not as present in Dictionary (because Canadian); may have more material with propaganda, Chicago school (though would be interesting itself to examine Canadian exclusion from Dictionary)
-can go ahead in readings if something is of interest, may find more material later on (ie: Frankfurt School, ideology)

Questions to ask yourself:

Are they longer/shorter, shallower/deeper, clearer or more obscure, do either seem to have an explicit bias on the article, or hidden agenda? If so, why?


Do the entries seem to be sympathetic/unsympathetic, neutral, respective/dismissive?


What is emphasized, de-emphasized, omitted or glossed over?


Do the articles agree/disagree; how are they similar/different (in both topic and style)?

Point: to learn the limitations of sources, dictionaries and encyclopedia, while observing how emphases in treatment can shade what's being said.

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