Write an essay that leads your reader through an evolving thesis about an issue that has mattered to you this semester. This essay should be a response to the Inquiry Question that you have been developing which in this case I chose the question: “Why do Disney films negatively affect children’s development?” To help you invest your reader in your issue, you will incorporate a representative test object which in this case I chose the Disney movie, “Mulan” that relates to your issue in a thoughtful way. Your essay should analyze details and should use sources as lenses to further this analysis. The sources that I want you to use are The ted talk by Stokes, “How Movies Teach Manhood”, Cinderella and Princess Culture by Peggy Orenstein, “Damsels in Distress: A Textual Analysis of Gender roles in Disney” by Nandini Maity, “The evolution of Disney princesses and their effect on body image, gender roles, and the portrayal of love” by Rachael Michelle Johnson, and “Disneys Female Gender Roles: The Change of Modern Culture” by Barber, McKenzie.
You should be using the Disney movie Mulan to show why this movie is a good alternative to show kids. The essay should also talk about what does this realization does to the mind of a child? To help you with your essay, you can talk about gender roles, the characters in Disney films, and so on. Make sure to use all the sources that I have listed!
Conclude your essay with an unmistakable So what? about the claim that you have evolved over the course of the essay. If you embrace the hard work of meeting these aims in your essay, you will write something much more ambitiousand rewardingthan a report or informative piece about your issue. Your essay will be a reasoned, readable, and rich encounter with your ideas. It will be an opportunity for readers to follow you as you make meaning with them about your issue and your claim. In short, it will be exactly the kind of deliberate engagement with a complex question that we mean when we talk about inquiry.
Strategies:
Evolving your thesis. Let your claim develop over the course of your essay by staging deliberate conversations with your sources. Think of the specific moves you will make so that readers will not only see the merit of your claim but also participate in a process of thought that leads them there.
Using your sources. Review your MT4 and the relevant readings in WA. See what happens when you put different sources together, or when you use them as lenses to extend and complicate your analysis. Remember that the best reason to have any kind of source in your essay is that you need it to do a specific kind of work for you (and for your reader).
Focusing your analysis. Work with your evidence the same way you have been doing so all semester. Focus on concrete details. Use 10 on 1 in order to say more about less. Select the best textual details and make them speak to your claim. Your reader will reward you with the best thing they can give you: their sincere attention.
Criteria for Evaluation:
Does the essay evolve a thesis as a response to the inquiry question from MT4? Does it offer an insightful, non-obvious consideration of the course-related issue it examines?
Does the essay incorporate appropriate sources to support, complicate, and extend its claim? Does the essay create a deliberate conversation among these sources for the reader?
Does the essay analyze its sources in order to develop its claim, focusing on specific details and making them speak? Does the analysis lead readers to a clear so what? about the claim?
Does the essay exhibit clarity and coherence? Do its ideas progress logically through the use of transitions, attributive tags, and appropriate word choice? Does it adhere to MLA format and citation standards and contain few, if any, grammatical, spelling, or punctuation errors?