Engaging Television

 

Assignment Summary:  Critical Analysis of Television Programs

For this paper you will write a critical analysis of a television series of your choice. Your first job will be to determine the audience for whom you are evaluating the series.  Audience matters.  For example, what I believe is useful and beneficial for myself to watch and what I think will be so for my five-year-old child will differ.  You need to define your audience as specifically as possible (see pre-writing activity). Your purpose then will be to explain to and/or persuade your readers how the series you have chosen will be beneficial or harmful for them and/or their children to watch.  Note:  you are not telling them whether or not they will enjoy it.  Instead, you are evaluating what effect regular viewing of this program will have on their life.  Another note: we are not considering whether or not this program should be censored.  That is an entirely different subject.  Instead, you are evaluating it to help your audience make a choice whether they personally should watch the program and/or allow their children to do so.  Before evaluating the program you need to determine what criteria you will be using in judging the worthiness of this program.  The criteria you choose are up to you.  Some examples of possible criteria are portrayal of gender, portrayal of race, value or morals conveyed by the program, the use of violence, educational content, increased understanding of human nature, political ideology, etc.  This list is by no means complete.  In your pre-writing you will have to define specifically what your criteria are and what a series would have to do in order to meet or not meet your established criteria (see pre-writing below for additional information.)   You will need to watch and take notes on at least three different episodes of the series.  You can do more if you like.  For this reason, you should probably chose a series that appears on a daily basis.

The paper should be 4 to 5 pages in length.  One very important note:  you should not summarize the plot of the episodes.   In addition to evidence from the series itself.  Your paper will need to include information from three outside sources.  For this paper, you may not use internet sources.  The articles you choose do not need to relate directly to the series you choose, but can relate to your criteria.  For example, if you are discussing gender in the series, your article could be a general one about the problem of sexism on TV.  You will also need to include a Works Cited page.  As always avoid lifeless, formulaic writing.

Pre-writing: Audience Scenario and Evaluation Criteria

This pre-writing activity will prepare you for writing the essay.  In 1 1/2 to 2 1/2 pages, you will need to define your audience and establish the criteria that you think is most important for determining whether the series you will evaluate we be useful or harmful to your audience.  It will need to by typed, and remember a final paper will not be graded without the accompanying pre-writing assignment.

Audience Scenario
Use the questions on the "Audience Considerations" Handout as a starting point to define as specifically as you can who you imagine your audience to be.  Be as creative as possible--think up as many details about your audience as you can.

Evaluation Criteria
Choose three or four criteria that you believe to be most important to your audience.  Specifically and fully explain why you believe that each criterion you select is important.

Audience Considerations

One of the key questions in writing always needs to be who are you writing for.  Your audience will effect both the style and content of your writing.  When you approach a writing task, you should ask yourself questions about audience, similar to the following:

One of the key questions in writing always needs to be who are you writing for.  Your audience will effect both the style and content
     of your writing.  When you approach a writing task, you should ask yourself questions about audience, similar to the following:
     1.  What size of an audience are you aiming at?  Approximately, how many people are involved?
     2.  How much does your audience have in common with each other and with you?
     3.  Do you personally know the members of your audience?  How well?
     4.  Does your audience watch the program you are evaluating regularly, occasionally, or have they never viewed it?  How
            much television do they regularly view?  Do they watch programs similar to yours?  If not, what types of programs are they
            likely to view?  How critically are they used to viewing television as a whole?
     5.  What age range does your audience fall into?
     6.  What is the family situation of your audience?  Single with no children, married with young children, divorced with teenagers,
            etc.?
     7.  Where is your audience located?  You will approach high school students from New York City in a different manner than
           high school students from Lannett, Alabama.
     8.  What are the political leanings of your audience?  Would they have voted for George W. Bush or Ralph Nader?

Tips for Essay One--What Goes In*

A basic structure of your first essay might look something like this:

The Introduction:  In this opening paragraph, you want to introduce your topic and the material.  For this essay, use this
paragraph to tell your readers what television series you will be discussing, including the network and time that the series may be viewed.  Your introduction should give an indication of your intended reader.  You will not go into the detail about your audience that you did in the short essay, but your intended audience should be clear.  Also, remember that the introduction must catch the reader's interest.

The Body of the Essay:  The most logical structure for this kind of paper is to address one criteria at a time.  Make sure you have topic sentences that specify the criteria you are discussing.  Include specific examples from the series being evaluated to support your analysis.  Also, remember that you are evaluate the benefit/harm of the series, not whether or not your audience will enjoy watching it.  Remember, not everything we like is good for us.  As you are evaluating, always keep your audience's interests in mind.

Quotations:  You will need at least one quote from each of your three sources.  You may include more; however, information from your sources should constitute no more than 10% of your essay.  When quoting, be sure to put your quotations in context.

The Conclusion:  In your conclusion, you might give your readers some sense of what action you want your audience to perform based on the information you have given them.

Content Issues:

     Can your reader find the series you have discussed?
     Do you cover the issues listed above, as well as the evaluation criteria you established in your pre-writing?
     Is the essay coherent?  Do you manage to tie all the parts together with a fairly strong introduction and conclusion?  Are
     there linking phrases and/or transitions used within the paper to add coherence?

Mechanics and Format:

     Is the essay in the proper format? (margins, font, etc.)
     Are the quotations necessary to your purpose here?
     Are there grammatical errors?
     Do you include a works cited page so your reader can find the sources?

Evaluation Paper:  Peer Review

I. Read the draft through slowly and answer the following questions by writing brief explanations of your answers.
A. Introduction:
     1.   Does the introduction capture your interest?  Remember most of the world is like you:  If not interested in the first paragraph, they will read no further?
     2.  Does the introduction provide necessary background about the program being evaluated?
     3. Is the thesis clear and precise?  Do you know how the writer feel about the program and why?
     4. What specific audience will s/he be evaluating for?

B. The Body:
     1. What criteria has the writer chosen?
     2. Do you agree that these criteria are the most appropriate for the chosen audience?  Why or why not?
     3. Does the writer provide sufficient evidence? Where might s/he add additional evidence?
     4. Has the writer convinced you that the program meets or does not meet his/her criteria?  Why or why not?
     5. Is the essay organized in a logical manner?  How might the organization be improved?
     6. Does the writer make effective use of topic sentence and other guides?

C.  Use of source material:
    1.  Does the essay contain an appropriate amount of evidence from sources--both the series and outside sources?
    2.  Are the quotes formatted correctly?
    3.  Are the quotes put in context?  Has the writer explained how they relate to the point being made?
    4.  Is the Works Cited page done correctly?

D. Comment on the strengths and weaknesses of the draft:
    1. Strengths
    2. Weaknesses

Workshop**

In this workshop, we will examine your essay on two levels.  First, we will look at the level of content--the 80% grade. Second, we will look at language--the 20% grade.
Content:
1.  Read the introduction.
a.  Draw a wavy line under the parts that address your audience specifically.  Do you talk to them or about them?  If no indication of audience exists, write what you need to add in the margin or on the back of the paper.
b.  Examine the appeal of your introduction to your audience.  If you were a member of this audience, would you read passed the introduction? In the margin or on the back of the paper, write what you need to add to convince your audience
to read further.
c.  Put square brackets around your thesis statement.
-Does it specifically state your own opinion on the topic, i.e. is it clear whether you believe the series is beneficial or harmful and why you feel that
way?  If not, revise your thesis either in the margin or on the back of the paper.
-Is it at the end of your introduction?  If not, draw an arrow from your thesis to where it belongs.
2.  Go through the entire paper and circle the parts that just say what your written sources said (whether by quotation, paraphrase, or summary).  How much of the paper is circled?  Write sources at the top of the page and a percentage.  If it is more than 10%, you have too much.
-For each use of source, underline where you introduce the author of the source.  If no such introduction exists, add one.
-For each use of source, put a wavy line under where you state the idea that the quote will be used to support.  If no such statement exists, add one.
-After each source, check the source documentation.  Remember, if you got it from an online databank, no page # is needed; however, make sure the comma is inside the quotation marks, as follows:   "I have a dog."  If you got it from a print source, you do need to page number, as follows:  "I have a dog" (29).  Make any necessary changes.
3.  Put square brackets around the topic sentence of each paragraph.  Does it relate to the thesis?  Does it contain an idea (as opposed to a statement of fact)?  Answer these questions in the margin. Then make any necessary changes.
4.  Go through the entire paper and analyze your use of evidence.  Put parenthesis around the parts that use specific examples or specific detail from the series to support your ideas, rather than general statements.  What percentage of the paper is in parenthesis?  If it is not at least 40-50%,
you do not have enough evidence. Indicate where you need to add additional evidence.


Language

While you should keep in mind all the issues we discussed in relationship to concise sentences, you should concentrate on two issues in particular in this essay.  First are "there" clauses; by this I mean clause that begin with there and are followed by any form of the verb "to be," i.e. there is, there are, there have been, there might be, there should have been, etc.  The second is passive verbs.  Go through your entire essay, and put a line on top of any such constructions.  While occasionally, such constructions are necessary and unavoidable, this is rare.  Rewrite any lined section, unless you have an extremely good reason not to.

The next language issue I want you to concentrate on is punctuation with coordinate conjunctions, for, and, nor, but, or, yet, so.  Circle all such words and check for the appropriateness of the punctuation.  Make any changes necessary.

Reminder:  The paper you turn in next Thursday should be 30-50% revised from the draft you analyzed today.

Grade Comment Sheet:  Evaluation Essay

A. Introduction:
     1.   Does the introduction capture your interest?
     2.   Does the introduction provide necessary background about the program being evaluated?
     3.   Is the thesis clear and precise?  Do you know how the writer feel about the program and why?
     4.   Is the essay's purposed audience clearly implied?

B. The Body:
     1. Is it clear what criteria the writer has used in evaluating the series?
     2. Are the criteria are the most appropriate for the chosen audience?
     3. Does the writer provide sufficient evidence?
     4. Is the paper organized in a logical manner (i.e. is there a sense of purpose to the organization?
     5. Do the paragraphs contain one idea and one idea only?
     6. Do the paragraphs have topic sentences which give a sense of focus to each section of the paper/each paragraph?
     7. Are there transitions at the beginnings and/or endings of the paragraphs to make the movement from one idea to the next smooth and logical?
     8.  Does each paragraph work to support the thesis?

C. Language
        1.  Does the paper contain appropriate sentence structure and variety of sentence construction?
        2. Is the language economic (i.e. avoiding repetition and wordiness)?
        3. Is the language vigorous, especially overusing the verb "to be" and avoiding the passive voice?
        4. How many mechanical errors are there (i.e. spelling, punctuation, grammar)?

D. Conclusion
        1. Does the conclusion offer a clear sense of closure?
        2. Does the conclusion answer the "so what?" question?

E.  Revision Process
        1.  Do the various drafts demonstrate the writer's understanding of the writing process?
        2.  Is the essay thoroughly revised?

F.  Use of source material:
     1.  Are the quotes formatted correctly?
     2.  Are the quotes put in context?
     3.  Is the Works Cited page done correctly?

G.  Additional Comments/Overall impression:
        1.  What are the essay's biggest strengths?
        2.  What are the essay's major weaknesses?
 

* Tips was developed in conjunction with Angelic Rogers-Webb, Auburn University.
**Workshop was developed in conjunction with Marta Kvande, Auburn University.