COMM1085
Take-Home Assignment #5: Evaluate a Text

WHAT Demonstrate your ability to organize and develop your opinion on a topic in a clear and compelling way		WHY The ability to explain your opinion logically, clearly, and convincingly is valuable in a variety of academic and workplace situations.
HOW Choose one of the prompts below. Complete each of the steps in the following template to produce a well-developed paragraph in response. While you might use Generative AI to help you brainstorm texts to write about, you are not permitted to use Generative AI to complete to any of the following steps.

Writing Prompts (choose one)

1. Identify a movie, TV show, or book that portrays some version of life that you have also experienced. This might involve working a particular job, growing up in a specific kind of family unit, or belonging to a particular community or sub-culture. Compare this narrative to your own experience and explain whether this narrative portrays your experience accurately.
2. Identify a song that explores some aspect of romantic relationships. This might involve the experience of “falling in love at first sight” or the experience of going through or getting over a break-up. Compare the song’s perspective to your own experience and explain whether the song portrays your experience accurately.
3. Identify a role-playing video game that portrays or reveals some aspect of human nature. This might involve some insight about how people respond in a crisis or how people work together to achieve a goal. Compare this game’s interpretation of human nature to your own experience and explain whether this game portrays human nature accurately.

Note: since most role-playing video games place their characters in situations that are possible only in the realm of fantasy, it’s not necessary for you to claim you have experienced the exact same scenarios as the characters. Instead, try to base your argument on personal experiences that have some “essential” or “fundamental” connection or similarity. For example, although you have never launched a quest to dethrone an evil king, perhaps you can make a connection to the way some people compete for power within a corporation or social group.

1. Identify the option you have chosen and name the movie/show/book/song/video game you have chosen to evaluate.

In the box below, provide a link to something that will help me identify the text – e.g. a link to a trailer, Amazon page, or Wikipedia summary.

2. Plan your evaluation by brainstorming what you intend to stay. List the following in the space provided at the top of page 3:

• Essential details about your chosen text: e.g. what it’s called, who made it, when it was made, what genre or type of text it is, etc.
• A brief overview or summary of the narrative: i.e. what it’s “about”
• A brief description of the element that you intend to evaluate: i.e. the part of the text that you are going to argue is accurate or inaccurate
• Your argument / position in response to the prompt: i.e. how accurately it portrays the element you’ve chosen to evaluate.
• Your reasons for believing it is or isn’t accurate in its portrayal – e.g. what features of the text you think are realistic / not realistic

Demonstrate your ability to prepare for writing by using point-form notation style and logical organizational strategies (such as heading and sub-headings).

Consider using some or all of the following headings in your outline:

• “Text” you are comparing to real life
• Key details about the text (in case your reader is unfamiliar with it)
• Human experience, behaviour, or quality depicted by the text
• How the text depicts that experience or quality
• Your own experiences and observations about that experience or quality
• Your assessment of how realistically the text depicts human nature, experience, or behaviour in light of your own experiences and observations.

These represent suitable headings for your outline because the details you might include under each of these headings could combine to form a complete and effective evaluation of your chosen text.

3. a) Support your analysis with a text reference from the list of secondary sources provided in eConestoga. In the space below, choose one appropriate passage from one of one of the articles included in the list. Below, document the bibliographic information of the source text so you are prepared to cite it in your paragraph. Do not quote your movie/show/book/song/video game.
4. b) Explain why you chose this particular passage to include in your paragraph. In this explanation, you might describe how you think it will help you to support your argument and/or where you might include it in the order of your supporting sentences.
5. a) Write a paragraph-length evaluation of your chosen text, using the paragraph model that we have reviewed in class. Remember to focus on answering the prompt, which asks you to argue whether your chosen text portrays its topic accurately. If you simply describe what the text is about, you will be unsuccessful on this assignment.
6. b) Document your source by producing a reference in APA @ Conestoga in the space below.

 

5. Reflect on the process of writing this paragraph. In this discussion, you might choose to consider one or more of the following questions:

• What was it like to write an academic paragraph about a topic and/or text that is personally significant to you?
• Did you learn new things or think differently about the topic/text because you were writing for a more academic audience and purpose?
• What was it like to plan your ideas in point-form before writing? Did you find that part of the process difficult? Helpful? Both?
• What was it like to think in advance about the way you were going to incorporate a text reference? Do you feel more confident with academic text references now than you did before you completed the assignment?

 

Word Count: 1500-1600

No. of Pages: 6