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English 101: Assignment Three
Due Dates:

Invention work: Description of issues Due: 11/4
Positions Due: 11/6

Drafts: First Complete Draft Due: 11/18
Second Complete Draft Due: 11/20
Polished Draft Due: Mon 11/25

Description: This assignment asks you to return to the concerns about place and history that you explored in Assignments 1 and 2. We have examined the ways in which history influences our thinking about spaces and events; now we ask that you return to the present to examine the various values, practices, and beliefs currently operating in relation to the space or event you're focusing on for this paper. This assignment requires that you locate and define the multiple perspectives currently operating in relation to the topic, map out the positions taken by various groups who have a stake in this discussion, define an informed position on the topic and situate your position in relation to the positions you have uncovered during your research.

This kind of analysis--in which you examine the interrelations of various attitudes, beliefs, and values operating at the same time within a culture--is called cultural analysis.

Goals: To allow you to see how multiple interpretations co-exist within a culture at the same time. Throughout this project, you will analyze these spaces by looking at the interrelations of these multiple perspectives. We hope that this project will help you to see how our thinking about ourselves and others is shaped both presently and in the past by these multiple interpretations.

Composition: After you have completed the invention work, you should be able to undertake a cultural analysis.

1. You should explain the framework that you are working from (which you developed in your Invention activities), why this framework is particularly well suited to studying this topic, and what investments it highlights. This will help to situate your writing in a body of theory and thinking and will illustrate how your position differs from others that could be taken on the issue.

2. The audience for your paper is your class.

3. The finished paper should demonstrate that you have researched the various positions and components, that you have developed an informed position from which to analyze the issue, and that you have analyzed the issue using that framework.

4. Your paper should present the issue in its full complexity, addressing and connecting the various components you researched. You will want to treat the components as a connective set of practices that tie together to form our interpretations of the issue or the cultural assumptions about the issue and highlight the tensions between interpretations as well.

Constraints:
Length: 4-5 typed pages using double space and 12-point font
Put your name on each page and number pages
Give your work a title