GWST 1501 Essay 3: Blog Assignment

GWST 1501 Essay 3: Blog Assignment

Purpose: The purpose of this assignment is for you to write a blog post on an issue or topic that interests you using the concepts and analysis the you have learned in this course. The assignment enables you to research a topic of your choice and share your research and analysis with a broad audience on a public course blog.
Length: approximately 1000 words.
Instructions: For this assignment you will choose a current issue or topic that interests you. Some possible topics include #MeToo, the Black Lives Matter movement, a protest, art exhibition, or other event that you recently attended, a character or plotline in a television show or film, men and feminism, queer cultures, disability and sexuality, a music video, etc.. For this assignment you should begin by reading feminist, anti-racist, queer, or other critical/activist blogs on topics related to the course. Here is a list of blogs to get you started, but feel free to look at other blogs as well:
● Crunk Feminist Collective http://www.crunkfeministcollective.com
● Guts: Canadian Feminist Magazine http://gutsmagazine.ca
● Bitch Media https://bitchmedia.org
● Muslim Girl: Muslim Women Talk Back http://muslimgirl.net
● Feministing http://feministing.com
● This: Progressive Politics, Ideas, Culture https://this.org
You will write an informal essay in the style of a blog or magazine article on this issue. Although the writing style is informal, your essay should still provide a critical analysis of the issue drawing on course concepts, arguments, and research (details follow). You may include images, short videos, and external links in your blog post. You must cite all of your sources properly using MLA format and include a proper bibliography. Research:
For this assignment you will draw on at least 4 sources – two academic sources and two non-academic sources. You may use the internet or other forms of media (both mainstream and alternative) to find and research a suitable topic or issue. In addition, you are expected to draw on relevant course materials (texts and lecture notes). When drawing on both non-academic and academic sources for this assignment, please consider the following.
● Use non-academic sources to describe the issue/topic: It is recommended that you use 2 non-academic sources (e.g. newspaper articles, magazine ads/articles, blogs in the public domain, zines, film reviews, etc.) to briefly describe/summarize the specific topic/issue and to draw on relevant specific examples for your analysis. You may choose to quote or draw images from these sources to help describe and illustrate the issue/topic Please make sure to cite all of your sources properly.
● Academic sources: You are also expected to use 2 academic sources (i.e. journal articles and scholarly books [not book reviews]) to support your analysis. You can draw one of the articles from the course textbook, but you must include at least one additional source that is not from the course materials. You will need to do external research at the York Library (online is okay) to find at least one additional academic source. All material from academic sources should be paraphrased with appropriate citation.
Grading: Your blog post will be graded based on the following:
• Topic/issue: Is this topic relevant to the course? How well do you describe the topic/issue How creative are you in the selection of a topic? How well do you understand and illustrate the topic?
• Analysis: Does your blog post push the reader to think more deeply about the issue? Do you draw on course concepts and texts in a thoughtful and interesting way? Do you analyze the issue/topic through the lenses of the course? Do you think critically about intersecting identities and how they matter to this topic? Is your analysis critical, innovative, and original?
• Research: Do you use the arguments of other authors to effectively support your overall argument? Is the research relevant to the topic and integrated well into the essay? Does your research help you to think about the topic in original new ways?
• Writing/Presentation: Do you use the blog format to make the topic/issue interesting and relevant to a wide audience? Is your writing style and voice engaging and evocative yet also clear, concise and thoughtful? Do you use images/videos effectively?
Instructions for uploading the post:
There is a WordPress blog < www.gwst1501.wordpress.com > for the course where you are encouraged to post your blogs for your classmates and the general public to see. Why not share the link with your friends and family? Instructions for uploading to the course blog will be provided separately. Public posting of your blog is strongly encouraged but not mandatory.
In addition, everyone must upload their blog post to turnitn via moodle (as usual) for grading.