Due Dates

11/19: Draft due (for peer review workshop)
11/24: First Submission due
12/12: Second Submission due

Each submission of this paper counts for 12.5% of your grade (for a total of 25% of your grade). When I grade the second submission of this paper, I will consider whether you have significantly revised the paper, and you can receive a lower grade on the second submission if there is no evidence of significant revisions.

Throughout the semester you have been researching a topic, examining works that might serve as chapters in your anthology, and considering the purpose and audience of your anthology. Now is your chance to pull it all together by composing the preface to your book. Your preface should be 2000-2500 words long. You will also compose a table of contents for your book. The preface will serve to introduce readers to your text, map out the various arguments your text includes, explain how these arguments clash or overlap, and explain the purpose of the book.

Your anthology must contain at least eight (8) pieces from other authors (that is, your book must have at least eight chapters). Those pieces must come from the Detroit Anthologics database. If you would like to use sources that are not in the database, you must have them approved by me no later than 11/17.

As you write the preface, think about the issues we have considered all semester long:

* Who is the audience for your anthology? Is it geared toward a particular discipline, or is it an interdisciplinary project? Why?

* What is the purpose of your book? This is where you might include some personal experiences. Why did you choose to pursue this topic? What do you hope others gain from reading your anthology? What drove you to do this research?

* Why did you choose to include the pieces that appear in the book? You could have chosen any number of scholarly articles or book chapters, but you chose these. Why? Defend your choices, and be specific.

* Who are the authors and what qualifies them to speak on this issue? This does not mean telling us about the scholarly degrees each of your contributors has. Since this is a scholarly anthology, most of your contributors will have PhD's. Instead, you should be much more specific. What qualifies this scholar to speak to this particular topic? What makes them an expert on it? You could mention their previous publications or any other information that explains why this author is qualified to speak on this topic.

* What are the various overlaps and collisions that happen between the texts you have brought together in this anthology? We have learned many ways to analyze arguments, and your task is to make sense of the pieces you've chosen by using the tools of rhetorical analysis. In addition to this analysis, you'll need to synthesize these arguments. We've practiced creating synthesis trees to group similar arguments together, and you need to synthesize and group the arguments you've chosen.

* What is the state of the debate? Chapter 15 of Having Your Say explains how to make a "state of the debate" argument, and this is what you'll be doing in your preface. Have you explained the patterns or gaps in the debate you're discussing? Have you looked from arguments or ideas that can be grouped together? Have you identified arguments or ideas that have been overlooked by those taking part in the conversation you've constructed?

* How is your book organized? Why? Each chapter of your book will consist of an author's work (and nothing else), but you can group these chapters into sections. This will help your reader make sense of the various arguments you've compiled in your anthology. You will be creating a table of contents, and that TOC should make it clear how you've organized the text (the order of the chapters, whether it is broken up into sections, etc.)

* What other books are similar to your anthology? How is your anthology different? Remember that your book is part of an ongoing conversation. You should discuss other texts that cover similar ground, and you should consider how your book is similar to or different from these texts.

Grading Criteria
You will receive a zero for the assignment (that is, I won't even read it) if you fail to meet the following requirements:

* You must name your word documents as follows

"lastname_section number_preface.doc" (e.g. "Smith_14_preface.doc")
"last name_sectionnumber_toc.doc" (e.g. "Smith_14_toc.doc")

* You must have eight sources
* You must have a table of contents
* You must provide in-text citations and have a Works Cited page in MLA format (see Chapter 22 of the textbook)
* You must complete one peer review and have your paper peer reviewed by at least one classmate

You will turn in your preface and a table of contents as separate documents. Each submission of this paper accounts for 12.5% of your grade (the entire assignment accounts for 25% of your grade). When grading this assignment, I will be evaluating the following:

* Is your paper formatted correctly? (MLA format: one-inch margins, double spaced, citing any texts not included in your anthology on a 'Works Cited' page.)
* Have you addressed the questions listed in the assignment description above?
* Have you appealed to the audience of your text?
* Have you explained the purpose of the text?
* Have you explained how the arguments clash and/or overlap?
* Does the preface show evidence that you've thoroughly researched the topic?
* Have you chosen appropriate pieces for your anthology?
* Is your proposal written effectively and coherently with very few grammatical errors?
* For the second submission: Have you significantly revised the paper? (Significant revision means that the paper looks different and has been reworked. This is much more than fixing sentence structure and grammar. It involves rethinking the arguments and content of the paper).
* Was the paper turned in on time? (Reminder: I do not accept late work.)

Due Dates

11/5: First Submission due
11/10: Second Submission due

Submission details: Submitted prior to class on 11/10 as a Microsoft Word document to: jimbrown@wayne.edu
-Document name must be "lastname_sectionnumber_bookproposal.doc" (e.g.: smith_14_bookproposal.doc, smith_18_bookproposal.doc)
-Subject line of email should read: "Book Proposal [Last Name] [Section number]" (e.g.: "Book Propsal Smith Section 14")

Book proposal
The book you are compiling will have a particular purpose and will be for a particular kind of audience. For these reasons, you will have to seek out the appropriate publisher for your book and pitch your book to that publisher. Your proposal will take the form of a letter to the publisher that you think is the best fit for your book. Your book proposal will be about 1,000 words (roughly two pages, single-spaced) and should include the following:

* Your name (remember, you are the editor) and the name of your book
* An explanation of why you've chosen this publisher
* A discussion of why your book is an exciting and unique contribution to a textual conversation
* The names of the authors who will be contributing to your anthology and an explanation of why you chose them
* A description of the book's content and its purpose
* An explanation about what is new or different about it
* Your intended audience for the book (i.e., who would buy it?)

Grading Criteria
The book proposal accounts for 15% of your grade. When grading this assignment, I will be evaluating the following:

* Is your book proposal formatted correctly? Does it look like a letter?
* Have you explained why a publisher should be excited about or interested in this project?
* Have you provided evidence that you've researched book publishers?
* Have you clearly articulated the audience and purpose of your anthology?
* Have you properly gauged your audience for this book proposal? Have you shaped your message for that audience?
* Is your proposal written effectively and coherently with very few grammatical errors?
* Was the paper turned in on time? (Reminder: I do not accept late work.)

Due Dates

9/10 (prior to class): Written synopsis submitted as a Microsoft Word document to: jimbrown@wayne.edu
Submission details:
-Document name must be "lastname_sectionnumber.doc" (e.g.: brown_14.doc)
-Subject line of email must include your name and section number - 14 or 18)

9/10 (in class): 3-minute Research Presentation

Assignment Description:
To provide us with a starting point for our research into various questions involving Detroit, each member of the class will find a piece of scholarly writing (a journal article or a book chapter) and give a short, informal presentation on that piece of writing. Presentations will be no longer than three minutes. This initial wave of research will give us a launching point for our semester long project of researching and examining arguments made in or about Detroit.

Your source for this presentation must be a scholarly one. That is, it must come from a scholarly journal or book. In class, we will discuss the difference between a scholarly article and other kinds of articles (magazine articles, newspaper articles, etc.), and we will also discuss how to find scholarly sources. For this assignment, you will be using the ProQuest Research library database. See the ProQuest research guide for details about how to use this database.

You will submit a written synopsis of the source you've found to me (via email), and you will present the contents of that document to the class. Your document and your presentation will have to be concise and informative. Here are the things you must cover:

*Name of the author
*Credentials of the author
*Title of the book or journal in which this piece appears
*Title of the article or book chapter
*Brief summary of the argument (about 200 words)
*Explanation of how this piece might fit into an anthology about Detroit.

Grade Criteria
This assignment accounts for 5% of your final grade. When grading this assignment, I will be evaluating the following:

* Did you choose an appropriate piece? Is it a scholarly work?
* Did the presentation provide all of the information listed above?
* Did the presentation fall within the 3-minute time limit?
* Did you follow the electronic submission directions?
* Was your written synopsis submitted on time (prior to the beginning of class)? Reminder: I do not accept late work.

Due Dates

9/29, 10/8, 10/15, 10/27: S-A papers due prior to the beginning of class, submitted as a Microsoft Word document to: jimbrown@wayne.edu
Submission details:

-Document name must be "lastname_sectionnumber.doc" (e.g.: brown_14.doc, brown_18.doc)

-Subject line of email must include your name and section number - 14 or 18)

As you collect possible texts for your anthology throughout the semester, you will be composing 1-page summary-analysis (S-A) papers. These papers will be extremely useful when you write the preface to your book. In fact, some of the work you do in these papers might be copy-pasted directly into your preface (though, your preface will certainly have to be much more than a copy/paste job).Your papers will be no more than one page, single-spaced and will have one-inch margins. Please include your name in the upper left-hand corner. One page gives you about 500 words to both summarize and analyze a text (this is not a lot of words). About 300-350 of those words will summarize your chosen text and about 150-200 of those words will be a rhetorical analysis of the text. Keep the following things in mind as you write your s-a papers:

Summary
Summarizing a text is not as easy as it sounds, especially when space is limited. The summary section of S-A papers should very concisely and carefully provide a summary of the argument. Please note that you are summarizing the argument and not every bit of information in the article. You should be looking for the main idea that guides the author's argument in the article/chapter. This will require you to set aside your own thoughts and opinions about the piece while you provide a summary of what the author is saying. Because you are limited to 300-350 words, you won't be able to mention every single point the author makes. Your job is to decide what's important and to provide a reader with a clear, readable, fair summary of the text. Such a summary may require you to quote the article, but remember that you'll have to find a balance between quoting the author and putting things in your own words.

Analysis
If the summary section focuses on "what" is said in your chosen text, the analysis section focuses on "how" things are said. This is not a section in which you give your opinion about the content of the text you've chosen. Instead, your job is to analyze how the argument of the text works. In this section, you should use the rhetorical tools we have discussed in class to dissect and analyze the argument (identifying spans and stases, examing various appeals, understanding how the argument characterizes opposing positions, etc.) Remember to reference chapter 18 in Having Your Say (which will give you some ideas about how to read critically).

Grade Criteria
The four summary-analysis Papers will combine to account for 20% of your grade. When grading s-a papers, I will be evaluating the following:

* Have you provided a copy of your source (either electronically or a paper version)? This is required.
* Is your paper formatted correctly (one page, single-spaced, 500 words max, name in upper-left-hand corner)?
* Have you chosen an appropriate text? Could this text be re-printed as part of an anthology? Is it long enough to be a book chapter? Does it belong in a book?
* Does your summary fairly represent the argument made by the author?
* Have you used quotations from the author when necessary and used your own words to summarize where appropriate?
* Have you devoted the appropriate amount of space to the two sections of the paper? Remember that the word counts I provide are just guides (not strict word limits), but also remember that both summary and analysis have to be adequately addressed in the paper.
* Does your analysis apply the tools and concepts we've talked about in class?
* Is your paper written effectively and coherently with very few grammatical errors?
* Was the paper turned in on time? (Reminder: I do not accept late work.)

Due Dates
12/8: Video Presentation Due
12/8, 12/10: Presentations

Submission Guidelines: Public URL of your Prezi submitted to jimbrown@wayne.edu prior to class on 12/8. The subject line of your email should read: "[Your Name] Prezi link" (e.g. "John Smith's Prezi link")

Description
Most of our work this semester has focused on how scholars discuss Detroit. Together, we constructed a research database that reflects much of that scholarly work, and our anthology projects are an attempt to make sense of that database. This project will take a slightly different approach by examining the public conversation about Detroit. For this assignment, our database will be YouTube. Thousands of videos on YouTube address the topic of "Detroit." Further, comments posted to videos and "video responses" are evidence that people are not only making visual arguments (with videos) but are also discussing the content of those videos. In many ways, YouTube is a database reflecting the public conversations about millions of topics, and it will be our task to make sense of the YouTube conversation about Detroit.

Much like your anthology preface makes an argument about the state of the scholarly debate amongst scholars, your YouTube presentations will examine YouTube clips in an attempt to understand the state of the public debate about Detroit. You will be using Prezi (http://prezi.com) for this project, and you will present your findings to the class on 12/8, 12/10.

Your task is to analyze the state of this debate, and this will require research. A YouTube page contains a lot of data beyond just a video clip, and it is your job to analyze that data.

Who posted your videos?
You will have to do your best to figure out who posted the video. This does not mean tracking down the name of the person who posted it. Instead, it means figuring out if that user has posted other videos and drawing conclusions from these findings. By researching a user's contributions to YouTube, you can get a sense for their motives and you can evaluate their ethos.

What is the context of each clip?
Some videos on YouTube are from news reports, TV shows, or movies. This changes the context of the clip, and it changes who the "author" is. So, your main task is to provide some context for who the "author" of this clip is. Was this footage shot by news cameras, or is it amateur footage? When was the footage shot, and when was it posted (this two dates can be very different)? Was it posted in response to another clip? Are there similar clips that this clip is in conversation with? Are there comments posted? Do these comments reflect the "conversation" surrounding this clip? What kinds of debates have arisen around this video? Is the clip in a category? Has it been tagged? (Note: Categories are groupings created by YouTube to sort videos. Tags are descriptive words determined by users.) How might this category/tag affect the context of the clip?

Who is the audience?
Can you you gauge who the video was intended for? How does it attempt to persuade that audience? What strategies are used to reach that audience? Does it succeed or fail?

Rhetorical analysis
What strategies are used in the clip? These could be visual strategies (camera angles, closeups), audio strategies (music, sound), or verbal strategies (arguments made by people in the video). Just as you've analyzed arguments from journals, you'll be analyzing the arguments made on YouTube. Revisit the tools we've learned in Having Your Say as you analyze these clips.

Grade Criteria
This assignment accounts for 15% of your final grade. When grading your presentation, I will be evaluating the following:

* Your presentation can be no longer than 10 minutes. Did you stay within the time limit?
* Have you discussed the rhetorical strategies of the videos you've selected?
* Have you done research on the clip? Who posted it? Who is the audience? What is the purpose? What are the responses (video or text)?
* Have you put videos into conversation with one another and reflected the "state of the debate"?
* Is there evidence that you've spent a significant amount of time on the project?
* Was the assignment completed on time? (Reminder: I do not accept late work.)