Karen Gaffney
English Composition I
Essay #3 Assignment
Wed., Nov. 6


Thurs., Nov. 7
 Bring revised working thesis and working outline for Essay 3
 If you didn’t get a chance to share your pop culture yesterday, bring it
today to share with the class
Mon., Nov. 11


Bring 3 printed copies of your draft of Essay #3 for peer workshop
Your draft should be at least 3 pages long
Tues., Nov. 12



Bring your draft in an electronic form
Receive and discuss Essay #4 Assignment
Receive Research Topic Sheet for Essay #4
Wed., Nov. 13
 Instead of meeting as a class, meet with me individually in my office to
discuss your essay
Thurs., Nov. 14

Mon., Nov. 18
 Essay #3 due. When you submit Essay #3, it should be in a folder with
the following: peer workshop sheets, rough drafts from peer workshop, the
rough draft with my comments, and any other paperwork for this essay.
Please mark your final draft “FINAL” so I know which version to grade.
The final draft should meet the following criteria: 5 pages, double-spaced,
word-processed, proofread, spell-checked, 1 inch margins, Times New
Roman, font size 12, page numbers, in-text citation MLA style, with a
Works Cited page (this page does not count toward the 5 page requirement)
 For every day you submit your essay late, its grade will be lowered a full
letter grade and you lose the opportunity to revise.
 Meet in the library’s computer lab for introduction to research
 Bring Research Topic Sheet filled out
 Bring Essay #4 Assignment
Bring in a typed, working thesis for Essay 3
Bring whatever pop culture you’re working on to share with the class
Bring your draft in an electronic form
Purpose:
In your first out of class essay, you focused on placing two texts side by side and argued about a
particular relationship between the two texts. Then, in your second out of class essay, you took
that analysis a step further by exploring how your reading of one essay impacted your reading of
another essay. Now, you’re ready to go even further. Rather than focus on two texts from your
book, I am asking you to take one previously assigned text (from any time in the semester) from
your book and apply it to a specific piece of popular culture.
This is not a research paper; please focus only on the one essay from your textbook and the one
piece of popular culture. Your research paper may actually grow out of this assignment, if you
choose, but don’t get distracted by research just yet.
1
Try to focus on a piece of popular culture that is fairly specific: a single episode of a TV show, a
tv commercial, a song, a print advertisement, a website, a single magazine, a billboard, a greeting
card, etc. You might decide that it serves your argument better to bring in two items that are very
closely related, like two episodes of the same tv show, or two greeting cards, or two print
advertisements, but try to stay very focused. I would discourage you from focusing on an entire
movie, for example, because that can be a little overwhelming. However, if you talk to me in
advance about coming up with a very focused argument, then it might work.
Regardless of what type of popular culture you wish to focus on, you must be able to watch it
over and over. If you choose an episode of a tv show, you must have it recorded or accessible
online so that you can watch it repeatedly and develop specific evidence (like quotes).
The most important thing to keep in mind is that you want to make a clear, focused argument
about how the essay from the book can be applied to the popular culture. The essay you choose
might already talk about popular culture directly, it might talk about popular culture very
indirectly, or it might not talk about popular culture at all. You have lots of options. The thing to
keep in mind is that you need to be very clear about what you’re arguing and why it’s significant.
Questions to consider as you decide on an argument:
 What would your author say about your pop culture?
 Do you think your pop culture proves or disproves your author’s argument?
 How does your author influence your understanding of the pop culture?
If you want to use one of the structures we’ve used before, feel free to do so. In that case, you
could set up your author as “Author A” and your pop culture as “Author B,” or you could set up
your pop culture as “Author A” and your author as “Author B.” You have lots of options. Again,
the most important thing is that you have a clear and consistent argument. This assignment will
not include a template for a thesis or an outline. That is something you need to get more
comfortable doing on your own. However, we will discuss possible templates in class so that you
can figure out how to create the best template to serve your argument.
Other reminders:
 Your thesis should be an argument; do not state the obvious.
 Your reader has not read the essay nor seen or examined your pop culture. (This is
practice for the research essay in which you need to be able to explain everything for
your reader.)
 Create clear topic sentences and fluid transitions that will help your reader follow your
logic. Your topic sentences should introduce your specific area of support and link it to
your argument. If your topic sentence states a fact, then it is easy to fall into the trap of
summarizing throughout the whole paragraph, rather than analyzing.
 You may weave in personal experience if you feel that it would strengthen your
argument. However, the focus of your essay should be on analyzing a relationship
between the two texts.
 Make sure you are bringing in specific examples from both the essay and the popular
culture in order to prove your argument.
 Feel free to use “I.”
 Include proper in-text citation MLA style and a Works Cited page MLA style.
2