This assignment is broken down into 2 phases:
Phase 1: Add your profile of a community storytelling project, with annotations, to PoetryGenius, due 2/27 ; revision due 3/4; (5 points)
Explore this list of community storytelling projects. We recognize that this is a very partial list of storytelling projects. We invite you to find others, and suggest them to us if you think that they should be added to this list!
Choose one storytelling project that interests you, and that you’d like to explore more. Spend time getting to know the project, reading everything you can about it, and as part of this process make sure to read/view/listen to as many stories from the project as you can.
Your next step is to write a profile of the project, which you will be adding to the PoetryGenius platform, following the format explained below. In serving as the editor of this project’s profile, you are playing the role of an anthology editor.
Here are the specific questions you need to address in your profile (you do not need to address them in this particular order, and you may choose to elaborate some of this information in the annotations, which are explained below):
• ORIGINS: Where/how did this project begin? Who started it? Why? You might include here any relevant social, cultural, political, or historical information that will help contextualize the birth of the project. I.e., was it begun in response to a particular historical moment or phenomenon?
• WHAT: What is this project about? How does it work? Who decides what stories are added and how does that work?
• WHO: Who is the primary intended audience for this project? Who participates in the project as a storyteller?
• TO WHAT END: What is this project hoping to accomplish? What is it striving for? Why does it exist?
• EXAMPLES: Throughout your profile, be sure to include examples from actual stories in the project that will help to illustrate your descriptions of the project.
As you work on your profile, consult [RapGenius’s style guide for Digital Writing]. Your profile will become a part of RapGenius’s worldwide wall of history. You want it to be your cleanest, clearest writing. At the same time, writing in this digital platform is not the same as writing a formal academic paper. We are following the conventions of RapGenius’s platform for this assignment, which are explained in the style guide linked above. For example, citations can be done as a link to the source (if it is an online source), rather than as an MLA citation.
Components of your entry in our anthology on the PoetryGenius platform:
1. Profile (described above); to add your profile to Rap Genius go to "Add New Text"
2. “About” section. This is a brief (approximately 500 words) summary of the project you’ve chosen. This is equivalent to the “headnote” in a traditional printed anthology, which serves to orient the reader quickly to the text (in this case, the project) and to place it in context. Your “about” description of the project should be a thumbnail description of the storytelling project, including brief versions of when and how the project began
3. Annotations
Annotations point to specific places in a text where something happens that the annotator finds important. They help to amplify the meaning of a text for readers. Annotations on PoetryGenius can be visual, verbal, or a combination.
In your annotations of your community storytelling project profile, you are going to highlight and explain specific historical, cultural, or political references that are important to better understanding the storytelling project’s emergence and existence.
Some of your annotations might also define a confusing or obscure word, phrase, name, or place; explain an idea; or provide a link to a sample story from the project that illustrates what you are talking about.
Make sure that you are including links to the sources for any information from others that you rely on in your annotations.
Consult the libguide developed for this assignment as well.
General Tips on Annotations from RapGenius
On February 25th, Librarian Lucretia Mcculley will visit our class and discuss the use of references to develop your understanding of your storytelling project. After this, your profile and annotations will be due on PoetryGenius on 2/27, with a revision due 3/4.
To add your profile to the PoetryGenius platform, click on the "Add a Text" tab and follow these instructions.
Phase 2: From Profile to Analysis: Short Analysis Essay (due 3/6, revision due 3/18); (10 points)
Drawing on the expertise in your storytelling project you’ve exhibited in your profile in PoetryGenius, you will write a brief (3-4 page) analysis essay that explains whether and how the stories created as part of the community storytelling project you’ve profiled do or don’t further the mission of the project.
The central goal of this essay is to practice your analysis skills, and to demonstrate your ability to use evidence from a text (in this case, the texts will be the stories collected as part of your project, as well as the descriptions you find about the mission and purpose of the project itself).
Whereas the profile you wrote about the project is descriptive, telling us ABOUT the project and helping us to get to know the project, this analysis essay is evaluative, allowing us to see what you think about how effective the project is, according to its own criteria. In other words, does it do what it says it wants to do? Do the stories live up to the project’s mission? How/how not? To answer these questions in your paper, you will need to develop a solid, evidence-based understanding about what the mission of the project is, and you will need to use examples (quotes and/or summaries) from the project’s actual stories to illustrate your evaluation. Keep in mind that evaluation essays do not need to be strictly either/or. It is likely that you will think there are ways the project you are writing about does a great job furthering its mission, and that, at the same time, there are ways it is limited or constrained. A sophisticated evaluation paper will illustrate these nuances.
You will be handing your final version of this essay in in hard copy in class on Tuesday, March 18th. Your essay should be typed, double-spaced, in times new roman font, 12 point, and needs to follow the MLA style of citation. This means that it must include a listing of "works cited." (Note: This is a change from an earlier version of the assignment, which indicated that you would be posting your posting your revised analysis paper to PoetryGenius.)
