Final Paper Rough Draft

This rough draft of your Final Paper allows you to develop and refine your ideas and your writing before final submission. While the Final Paper is to be eight to ten pages, the rough draft should be a minimum of four to six pages. It is recommended that you develop this draft as fully as possible since doing so will likely help you in producing a high quality Final Paper. Below is the Final Paper assignment:

Throughout this course, we have explored how artistic expression is evident in our everyday lives, as well as how creative expression both shapes and is shaped by our individual and cultural identities. Each week we have also focused on specific themes which reflect the significance of art and literature in relation to identity, culture, and our everyday perceptions and experiences. The Final Paper is intended as an exercise in bringing together, or synthesizing, your reflections on the aesthetic works and themes and concepts discussed in this class. This is a comparative paper which analyzes two to three literary works from the course readings which share a common theme.

The paper must be organized by a thesis, or argument, which is the main point of the entire essay. When developing a thesis for a comparative paper, consider how a comparison of the works provides deeper insight into the topic of your paper. In other words, think about why you have chosen to look at these particular works in relation to one another.

You may choose from any of the topics and works listed at the end of this assignment description. Many of the listed themes overlap with one another, and you may find that in choosing one topic you also touch upon another. Doing so is perfectly acceptable as so long as your paper is focused and has a defined and well-supported thesis. If you are interested in writing about a course reading which you believe relates to one of the themes listed below, but that work has not been associated with the given theme, you may ask your instructor whether it is acceptable to write about that work in connection to the topic you have chosen. (Please note that many of the listed themes relate to more than three works – please limit yourself to only two or three. Doing so will allow you to give ample attention to each literary work you are analyzing.) Though the possible topics for the assignment are given below, what you say about the significance of the theme is up to you.

The draft must be four to six pages in length (excluding APA title and reference pages). It should include an original title, an introduction, supporting paragraphs, and a conclusion. Remember that the thesis statement must relate to the theme you have chosen and should answer the question “so what?” (What is important about the argument you are making? What meaning or value might it have to your reader and/or to society?) Also, be sure that your argument is supported by textual details and analysis. You may find it useful as you begin your analysis to review the literary concepts and analytical approaches covered in class. Also, in addition to supporting your arguments with examples from the two or three bodies of work you have chosen, you must also draw on the support of at least five other scholarly resources, two of which can be found in the Ashford University Library.

You may choose from the following topics and works:

1. Art and the everyday
• Schildkrout, “Body Art as Visual Language” (p. 86)
• Tan, “Mother Tongue”
• Artz, Munger, and Purdey, “Gender Issues in Advertising Language” (Retrieved from the EBSCOhost database.)
• Levine and Wolff, “Social Time: The Heartbeat of Culture” (p. 158)
• Van Buren, “The Doura Art Show” (p. 274)
2. Language, culture, and identity
• Tan, “Mother Tongue”
• Boroditsky, “How Language Shapes Thought” (Retrieved from the EBSCOhost database.)
• Levine and Wolff, “Social Time: The Heartbeat of Culture” (p. 158)
• Cisneros, “My Name”
• Hamilton, “A Feminist Voice Against Linguistic Sexism” (Retrieved from the ProQuest database.)
• Roger Ebert: Remaking my voice
3. Fashion, culture, and identity
• Ortiz Cofer, “The Myth of the Latin Woman” (p. 109)
• Steele and Major, “China Chic: East Meets West” (p. 355)
• Meeta Kaur, “Journey by Inner Light” (p. 44)
• Kulick and Macado-Borges, “‘Leaky’ Brazil” (p. 115)
4. The body as artistic and cultural expression/manifestation
• Linden, “Shamans, Healers and Experiences I Can’t Explain” (p. 363)
• Schildkrout, “Body Art as Visual Language” (p. 86)
• Meeta Kaur, “Journey by Inner Light” (p. 44)
• Kulick and Macado-Borges, “‘Leaky’ Brazil” (p. 115)
• Steele and Major, “China Chic: East Meets West” (p. 355)
5. Cross-cultural relations/Global society
• Nafisi, “Reading Lolita in Tehran”
• Keshavarz, “Introduction: What Does the Elephant Look Like?”
• Steele and Major, “China Chic: East Meets West” (p. 355)
• Meeta Kaur, “Journey by Inner Light” (p. 44)
• Levine and Wolff, “Social Time: The Heartbeat of Culture” (p. 158)
• Norberg-Hodge, “Learning from Ladakh” (p. 165)
• Gersi, “Initiated into an Iban Tribe of Headhunters” (p. 80)
• Ojeda, “Growing Up American: Doing the Right Thing” (p. 230)
6. History, culture, identity, and creative expression
• Maclean, “Seeing, Being Seen, and Not Being Seen” (p. 341)
• Nafisi, “Reading Lolita in Tehran”
• Keshavarz, “Introduction: What Does the Elephant Look Like?”
• Chopin, “Désirée’s Baby” (p. 380)
• Boroditsky, “How Language Shapes Thought” (Retrieved from the EBSCOhost database.)
7. Audience reception
• Nafisi, “Reading Lolita in Tehran”
• Keshavarz, “Introduction: What Does the Elephant Look Like?”
• Boroditsky, “How Language Shapes Thought” (Retrieved from the EBSCOhost database.)