EN 1010 / Reinwald / Spring 2015
Essay # 1 Assignment Sheet
Due: Monday, February 16th before class
Texts:
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Ways of Seeing Essay 1
Photograph (or Still from Orphan Black)
Context of photograph (or Episode the still from Orphan Black is from)
Mini Assignment #1 and #2
Prompt: In Ways of Seeing, John Berger asserts that “the way we see things is affected by what we
know or what we believe.” Your task for this essay will be to engage with this statement using first an
image from Orphan Black, taken out of context, and then that image put back into context in the
episode. You should use Berger’s first essay on images and reproductions to formulate an argument
about the production (and reproduction) of knowledge. You should consider how your description and
analysis of the image changed after you watched the episode and what that tells you about the
production of knowledge.
Some questions to consider: What are the limits of seeing and knowing? How does Orphan Black being
a TV show, an art form that is designed to be reproduced on millions of TV sets around the world,
complicate or contradict Berger’s argument, which focuses exclusively on high art? Consider the
different contexts of the still versus the episode; i.e. how does the translation from image to film change
the way you see the still? What are the ramifications of changing context for the production of
knowledge?
Length / Grade Weight: 4-5 pages / 10%
Due Dates:
 Mini Assignment # 1 (Description of Still) – Due Wed 1/28 by midnight, (will be mostly done in class
that day)
 Mini Assignment # 2 (Description of changing context after watching episode) – Due Mon 2/2 at the
beginning of class, uploaded to HuskyCT (you need to have access, whether a physical or digital copy,
in class)
 First Full Draft – Due Wed 2/4 at the beginning of class, uploaded to HuskyCT and one physical copy
printed for me. Note: must be at least 3 full pages.
 Small Group Conferencing Assignment – Due Mon 2/9 at the beginning of class – emailed to your
peers and uploaded to HuskyCT (you should put all your materials into one document for me)
 Final draft due Mon 2/16, before class, uploaded to HuskyCT
Specifics: You are not required to engage with every question in the prompt. You do not even need to
answer any specific question in the prompt (although, if you do plan to go off-prompt, please speak to
me about it first). What you do need to do is to use your experience of contextualizing an image from
Orphan Black to critically examine Berger’s argument about knowledge in context. This may feel like a
big task, and to that end, it has been broken down into steps for you (see mini-assignments). Please pay
strict attention to all due dates.
EN 1010 / Reinwald / Spring 2015
Format: Follow basic MLA format for citations. Include a Works Cited Page, also MLA format. Use 12point Times New Roman font, 1-inch margins, no extra spaces between paragraphs. Your periods must
also be in 12-point font. Margin/punctuation trickery will not be tolerated (and I will be able to tell).
Please keep the following in mind:
 Your rough draft must be at least 3 full pages or I will not read it or comment on it.
 Be sure to accurately and neutrally convey Berger’s ideas. Your goal is to critically engage with
them, and you cannot do so if you are not ethically and accurately engaging with Berger.
 Make sure you properly cite and punctuate all quotations and correctly attribute and cite
paraphrasings. If you are unsure how to properly cite and/or punctuate quotations, please see me.
 Keep your audience in mind as you are writing: you should not think of this as an assignment
that will be graded for me, your professor, but as your first foray into professional, academic
writing for a wide audience. You may be asking how to tailor your paper for this academic
audience, what that means, and these are question you will continue to ask yourself throughout
your career. In class, we will try to tease out some answers to this question.
 “A” papers will demonstrate sophisticated critical thought and will contribute in some way to the
ongoing conversation in this classroom and beyond.
 Critical thought and textual engagement are much more important than stylistic concerns;
however, clear writing leads to clear thinking, and, consequently, grammar and style are
important. Your papers must be grammatically correct, written in a formal and academic tone.
For an “A” paper, it is not enough for the paper to merely be grammatically correct: sentence
variety, word choice, style, and above all the demonstration and execution of critical thought, are
all part of an “A” paper.
Mini Assignment # 1 – Due by midnight, Wednesday 1/28
Find a still from Orphan Black that you are unfamiliar with (if you have already watched Orphan Black,
you should find a still you don’t recognize). You should first describe the image and then analyze it.
What is going on? What do you think is happening? What does the image tell you about the show? What
is it designed to provoke in the viewer?
Length: about ¾ page, double spaced
Mini Assignment # 2 – Due before class, Monday 2/2
Now that you have watched the episode from which the still has been taken, describe the image again
and go into more detail about what is occurring in the image. Discuss how the way you see the image
has changed based on what you now know about the episode – in other words, how the context has
changed as your knowledge has changed, and why that matters. How can you apply your experience to
Berger’s text in a way that allows you to say something new? You should consider this mini assignment
your opportunity to do some pre-writing / pre-thinking for your essay.
Length: 1-2 pages, double spaced