Paper 1 ­ Metaphor​
(1000­1200 words, due Wed. February 3) 1. Craft an argument about how metaphors make meaning one area of common experience. 2. How to do this? a. Find a text that is as close to ordinary language as possible (not a peer­reviewed journal article, maybe). Consider a magazine article, news article, or a well­written blog post. This text must contain enough metaphors for you to spend a few pages analyzing them. b. Analyze the metaphors using what we have discussed so far (heaps, Orwell, Lakoff & Johnson). How do the metaphors structure our understanding? What images do they suggest, and what analogies do they suggest? What do they hide or leave out? How would different metaphors change our understanding? Possible areas of common experience: ● Fashion, Sports, Fitness ● Social Media, Movies, Video Games ● Politics, Environment ● What else? Format. Your final, revised, edited, proofread draft should be written in academic essay form, focused on a single main idea or topic (don’t answer more than 1­2 of the questions above). The structure should include 1) an ​
introduction​
that leads to a thesis that states the main idea of the paper and why it is important, 2) ​
unified support paragraphs​
beginning with topic sentences that state the subject of each paragraph, 3) a ​
conclusion​
that gives readers some idea about what to do now that they understand your main idea (in other words, don’t just restate your thesis or topic sentences). Remember this! The five­paragraph essay is dead, dead, dead! ​
Write as many support paragraphs as you need to explain your idea clearly. More importantly, avoid five­paragraph­style theses and conclusions that enumerate points in a disconnected manner. An example of such a dead thesis might be, “Social media uses metaphors of liking, friendship, and personal communication.” A better thesis would make a clear statement of your position that someone might reasonably argue against. For example, the dead thesis might be revived by focusing on the one main idea that all of your main points share: “The fundamental metaphor of social media is sociality, which structures advertising content within the framework of family and friends’ personal communications.” The thesis states an idea, not a list, and your evidence in body paragraphs shows a logical process of explaining how your readers can arrive at the same conclusion. What’s the point of writing this essay? The point is to start writing immediately, developing ideas and working through the process of getting them onto paper. This essay is also diagnostic, allowing us to start seeing how our writing needs to improve. The most important things to do for this paper are to have an idea­­have something to say­­and to say it clearly. Use the grading criteria listed in the syllabus as a checklist for revising. Doing so will improve your grade considerably. Schedule ­ Due in Class, Wednesday, February 3