Paper 2: Identity/Culture Analysis
Situation
You are writing an article for The Journal of Popular Culture, today’s most prestigious journal dealing with
popular culture. The journal’s front piece says
The popular culture movement was founded on the principle that the perspectives and experiences of
common folk offer compelling insights into the social world. The fabric of human social life is not
merely the art deemed worthy to hang in museums, the books that have won literary prizes or been
named "classics," or the religious and social ceremonies carried out by societies' elite. The Journal of
Popular Culture continues to break down the barriers between so-called "low" and "high" culture and
focuses on filling in the gaps that a neglect of popular culture has left in our understanding of the
workings of society.
For the article you are writing, you will be looking at the intersection of a piece of your identity and a piece of
popular culture to consider how the images which surround us influence, or at least attempt to influence, who
we become and to further show how these messages are accurate, limited, or damaging.
Purpose
In writing this paper, you will develop many skills needed for further academic writing in this course and other
courses:
 The ability to create an effective, arguable, and interesting thesis sentence
 The ability to use concrete, specific details to support the thesis and engage the reader
 The ability to locate individual experience within the public sphere using public rhetoric
 The ability to design and effectively implement a logical organizational pattern
What You Have To Do
Look at your identity lists you created in Journal 14. Choose one of those identity markers. The more specific
the marker, the easier your job will be. Then look around you at the images that surround you, at music, at
advertising, at movies, at television, at magazines, at billboards. Choose one of those elements of popular
culture and look at how it portrays your identity marker. For example, I might pick “mother” as my identity
marker. Then I might pick movies as my popular genre of choice. Since that is still way too big (how many
movies have mothers in them??), I need to narrow further. I might then go with kids movies, and narrow still
further to Disney movies, and still further to animated Disney movies, and still further to Disney movies from
1991-1995 (there were four—Beauty and the Beast, Aladdin, The Lion King, and Pocahontas). That would
certainly make a more manageable paper, although it is still huge. I must narrow it still further to one or two
films! I would then look at those films, make a claim about the way mothers are portrayed in them (or in the
case of Disney, not portrayed in them), and turn that claim into my thesis statement. I would then support that
thesis statement with evidence from the movies themselves.
It may be helpful to think of this assignment in this way: If a Martian landed on Earth and looked at only your
piece of popular culture, what would it think about your identity marker? In other words, by looking only at
those two Disney movies, what would that Martian think “mothers” are? That claim will be your thesis. The
how do you know will be your support.
Format
The essay must be typed, double-spaced, 3-4.5 pages, in a readable 10-12 point font, with 1” margins. Format
your paper using MLA style.
Due Dates
Peer draft (bring 4 typed copies of your paper draft):
Williamson draft:
Assessment Sheet: Identity/Culture Analysis
Please staple this sheet to the back of your paper when it comes to me for Williamson Draft. You may also use this sheet as
a guide to check your draft’s readiness for assessment. When I return this paper, areas that need revision will be
underlined. Every time you turn in a revision of this paper to me, include all drafts on which I have previously commented
and ALWAYS include this assessment sheet. Please put the revision packet together in a manila folder with the newest
revision on top.
FOCUS:
The introduction begins with a hook designed to attract the audience’s attention, and the introduction also provides
a clear sense of purpose for the essay. The introduction contains a thesis sentence that clearly tells the audience
which identity marker you are targeting and which popular culture element you are dealing with. Your thesis is
narrow enough to establish a manageable scope for the paper. The paper never strays from that thesis. The
paper is tailored in its tone and language to an educated, sophisticated audience.
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DEVELOPMENT:
There are clearly stated reasons given to support the thesis, reasons that would be readily accepted by your
audience. The paper brims with specific, convincing textual examples from your popular culture element that would
convince readers your thesis is true. Analysis of the evidence explains how the examples support the topic
sentences. The paper meets the minimum length requirement.
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CRITICAL THINKING:
The paper demonstrates that the writer has thought deeply, carefully, and critically about his or her popular culture
element and identity marker, both on the individual and cultural levels. The conclusion places the paper firmly in
the public sphere by connecting the writer’s personal, individual experience to the shared experience of others who
share that identity marker while allowing readers who do not share that identity marker to enter into the paper as
well; readers leave the paper with a greater understanding of the popular culture element examined, the implicit
and explicit cultural claims made by those cultural text(s), and the identity group to which the writer belongs. The
paper demonstrates command of the primary text(s), insight gained from a close and careful reading of the text(s),
as well as careful attention to what these text(s) are saying.
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ORGANIZATION:
The overall organization pattern of the body paragraphs is clear and easily understandable. Paragraph organization
is determined by most effective placement and body paragraphs begin with transitions that logically connect the
last reason discussed to the next reason. Each topic sentence highlights one reason and explicitly shows how that
reason answers your implied thesis question. Paragraph integrity is consistent throughout. Each tie back sentence
sums up how that paragraph ties back to the main point of the paper. Sentence level organization avoids
repetitious structure and makes logical connections from one sentence to the next. Quotes and paraphrases are
integrated seamlessly into the text.
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EASE OF READING:
Clarity, gracefulness, and readability Prose is clear, avoids wordiness, chop, grammar tangles; reader doesn’t
get lost and seldom has to slow down and reread.
Excellence of editing and proofreading No comma splices, run-ons, or fragments; no spelling errors or typos;
no apostrophe, semi-colon, colon, or comma errors; no pronoun or subject-verb agreement errors; no usage
errors; no parallelism errors; no verb tense errors; correct MLA page format and work cited page.
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