Communication 200 Paper—Historical Context Paper
ASSIGNMENT: Pick a communication “text”: an article, speech, radio clip, movie, TV show, photo, work of art, etc. The text must date from pre-2000. Write a two-page paper describing the context within which it was made. Your goal is to reflect on how the historical context helps us better understand the historical text.
QUESTIONS TO CONSIDER:
1. What are the events that happened around the time of the text that help us understand the text itself? 2. What is the background of the creator (or creators) of the text?
3. What should we understand about the cultural/social/political context of the text?
4. Any other related “texts” that would help us understand this test?
***IMPORTANT: You’re writing about the context of the time period in which the text was made, NOT the history of what the text is about.
PICKING A TOPIC: To help you brainstorm and narrow down a topic, I recommend that you:
1. Skim the syllabus. Think about the topics we have already covered and the topics coming up.
2. Skim the text book. Same thing. See if anything jumps out as interesting.
3. Pick something specific, not broad. “Nineties television” is too broad. Researching the entire series of
Seinfeld, for example, might be ok. But it might be better to pick a specific episode to discuss. You could write an interesting paper about the original Star Wars trilogy, but you also might have a slightly easier time focusing on just one of those films.
Research Question and Annotated Bibliography
Before you submit, make sure your bibliography includes:
2 primary sources
5 secondary sources
annotations for each of those sources
TIP** So, for example, if you wrote about The Godfather, your paper should not be about the Mafia in the 1940s and 1950s (what the movie is about) but about the 1970s (when the movie was made). You can talk about what is in the movie, but only as it might relate (directly or indirectly) to the early 70s.
Another example: if you wrote about Don McLean’s song “American Pie,” your paper should not be about “the day the music died” in 1959 or other events mentioned by the song, but rather the 1970s (again, when the song was recorded). Your paper might be about why the song was a hit in 1971-72, even though it was about events that happened before.
One more example to drive the point home: if you wrote about the 1990 PBS Civil War documentary by Ken Burns, your paper should be about the context of 1990, NOT about the history of the Civil War.
2 pages, size 12 font, 1-inch margins on all sides
Double-spaced (But never double-space a heading.)
Your paper should be carefully edited and polished.
Submit your final paper as a Word document or pdf on Blackboard. Please note: Blackboard cannot read Pages files.
Your paper will drop 1/2 letter grade for every day it is late
Use paragraphs to organize your thoughts
A works cited is optional and does not count toward the length of the paper. If you do rely on outside sources, it is always proper to cite them, somehow.
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