Assignments for English 1B in greater detail

Assignments for English 1B
Fall 2009

We are practicing skills which you developed in English 1A. The difference is we are looking at literature and analyzing other genres, in our case: poetry, fiction, music, theatre, visual arts, and dance. Since this is hip hop culture the political is always a consideration as the genre emerged from a political context, but then this is not unusual—aesthetics plus politics. In order to do justice to the topics you chose to explore, the writer cannot ignore the history of the genre nor its current discourses or new roots.

I will be looking at the writing, but more than this I will be paying attention to the scholarship, which is why each essay has to include a citation from a scholarly article—7-10 plus pages from a scholarly source.

Your essays can use multiple styles…be creative. However, I need to know that you know how to write an essay, so save the creative work for last (smile). And if you plan to deviate from the norm, don’t surprise me, share the idea with me first.

We will be reading the following essays from Total Chaos: On Pure Movement (59), From Dope Spot to Broadway (78), On Lit Hop (92), The City in Public (149), Black Talk and Hot Sex (178), Native Tongues (278), Inventos (255), Toward a Hip Hop Aesthetics (349) and perhaps others.

We have already read three essays and their corresponding introductions: Cape Flats Alchemy (262), Got Next (33), A Brand New Feminism (233), plus an essay on Graffiti Arts and Hyper-masculinity.

For each article students will write, minimally, a three paragraph response incorporating three citations from the article: an in text citation, a free paraphrase and a block quote. These will be cyber-assignments. I will give you the dates as we cover the genres. You can certainly read ahead and read other articles, especially those which help inform your essay topics.

Again, if you have questions please ask and see me at my office hours. If an essay is not a passing grade, C, or better, then you have to revise it. You cannot revise your midterm or final, which is the Hip Hop Fiction essay.

1. Women in Hip Hop with a side-bar on Hyper-Masculinity: October 1

2. The Graf or Writing Movement, October 6 essay is due for peer review, Oct. 8 presentation

3. Dance or Bi-boying, Bi-Girling, October 13/15

4. DJing, Oct. 20/22—

5. MC or Poet/Rapper Oct. 27/29, Nov. 3 presentation

6. Nov. 5/10 Project reports in small groups

7. Nov. 12/17 Fiction presentations (all)

8. Extra credit: Hip Hop as a Global Movement, Hip Hop Theatre, Hip Hop Spirituality (turn in by or before Nov. 12).


Assignment:

Start with an artist who exemplifies the genre you wish to talk about. This person will provide the frame for you to tell the story of the development of the genre. This person will help you illustrate your point as well as focus the essay which is just a reflection on a larger topic.

Choose 3-4 key points you wish to develop. Give us a brief bio of the person, why they decided or how they found themselves using hip hop culture as their lens, include a sample of their work, compare and contrast it with both historic and contemporary examples….

Within each essay give a definition of hip hop culture and how the element emerges, reflects, fits into and expands this philosophical landscape.

If you are speaking of women in hip hop—the topic is broad so your introduction could be a historic overview and then you can focus your paper on the artist of your choice who illustrates attributes you’d like to consider in the paper.

Even though you are focusing on one artist, place your artist within the context of the work…which means you have to center the person within her genre surrounded by her peers…show how the work the artist produces expands and enlarges the scope of the discipline.

You can look both nationally and internally. In at least one paper, I want the focus to be on an artist who is from Northern California. The person has to be alive. If you chose to write about graffiti or writing I’d encourage students to borrow Style Wars, it is a great history of the Graffiti movement. You can also use material from Piece by Piece and the essay I gave you to read.

Can’t Stop, Won’t Stop is a great resource and of course so is Total Chaos, both are by Jeff Chang.

This weekend, Saturday, Sept. 26, at East Side Cultural Center in Oakland there is a day long conference on hip hop dance beginning at 11 AM. If you plan to write your paper on hip hop dance, I’d suggest you attend the event, take notes and get some interviews about the genre. Traci Bartlow is the event coordinator.

Start with the Initial Planning Sheet (handout), next develop an outline that includes research (each essay also needs to include one scholarly essay). Each essay also needs to incorporate one direct quote, one block quote and one free paraphrase. The rest of the writing needs to be original.

The essay is to be 4-5 pages long with a works cited page and a bibliography. All of the relevant essays previously read, all the films watched whether used in the essay or not need to be cited in the bibliography.

I’d like to see outlines and Initial Planning Sheets for the essays a week in advance: Sept. 24 for October 1; October 1 for October 6 peer review; October 8 for October 13.

Initial Planning Questions:

What is your topic?
Who is your audience?
Why do you want to write about this topic?
What question do you want your essay to answer?
What major writing strategy will you use?

See the handout for an example.

Each student needs to identify the 3-4 research essays they plan to write and get into me this Thursday, Sept. 24, no later than Friday, Sept. 25. Everyone has to make a presentation on the novel. We are going to read a play in class, I hope. I also hope we’ll be able to attend a play or some other event together. Machiavelli was great. You can visit www.centralworks.org to read the play.

I hope this helps. We have a study hour on Thursdays 12-1 in L-235. I am also available during the week—see the syllabus for office hours. I am also available by appointment, via email and on the phone. If you email me and don’t get a response, call me. I didn’t see the email.

An outline I like is:

Thesis (use a complete sentence)
First major point
Evidence (detailed evidence, that is article name, citation you’d like to use, if known…).
Evidence (stats, examples, definitions, analogies, consequences)
Evidence…(testimony…)

Second Major Point
Evidence…

Third Major Point
Evidence…

Fourth Major Point (and so on...)
Evidence…

Concluding sentence