Cloverfield Analysis - Extra Credit Opportunity

This assignment is one that my Composition II students have been prepared for, but Comp I students can give this a shot.

Use the “How to Watch a Film” worksheet to guide you in your analysis and interpretation of the symbols. I'm going to tell you that if you write about "love" you will not receive any credit. Again, the visual symbolism will be incredibly important to look at here.

Requirements:

• Write a 600—1200 word MLA formatted analysis and response to what you think the movie Cloverfield is really about. Consider what the imagery reminds you of from the news and history and how the Cloverfield monster resembles another film monster that was created as a reaction to another historical event that took place on the opposite side of the planet from us Americans.

• Make sure your response includes direct references (evidence) to the film and American (and maybe Japanese) history support for your argument (analysis/interpretation).

• Excessive grammatical and punctuation errors will cause me to stop reading your essay and you will then receive no credit.

• Once you’ve written your analysis, print it and bring it to me or my mailbox or post it on your blog and email me with a link to the specific post(s) about each comic book. Again, do not send me the link to your blog, but the specific address of the post. Students in online courses may submit via email or Google Docs.

Submission: Responses accepted as hard copy or blog posts (Google Docs for online only students). Non-blog responses must be in MLA format, stapled, etc. Blog posts should have spaces between paragraphs and students will need to email me a link to their post.

Potential Points to Earn: 10 points for each piece of writing. You can write an analysis of up to three different comics from this year's selection.

Due Date: Extended to 7 May 2010

Don't forget to click on the "Extra Credit" label below to see other current and past extra credit opportunities.

Free Comic Book Day - Extra Credit Opportunity

Requirements:

• Saturday 1 May 2010 is Free Comic Book Day. Your mission, should you choose to accept it, is to find a participating comic book store and obtain any one, or several, of this year’s free comic books.

• Here comes the reading and writing part. In 600-1200 words in MLA format, you will rhetorically analyze the comic book (text) of your choosing. Remember, author, audience, purpose, rhetorical purpose, and rhetorical appeals used by the writer and artist (penciller), since comic books consist of both images and copy (see your notes and Visual Rhetoric PowerPoint if needed). Feel free to use the internet to find out more about your author. Remember to be as specific as possible when explaining your analysis (someone who likes The Simpsons might not like Japanese comics (Manga), for example, so be very specific), especially because comics are a written and drawn medium. Remember, you need to use evidence from the comic book itself to support your analysis. Excessive grammatical and punctuation errors will cause me to stop reading your essay and you will then receive no credit.
  

• Once you’ve written your analysis, print it and bring it to me or my mailbox or post it on your blog and email me with a link to the specific post(s) about each comic book. Again, do not send me the link to your blog, but the specific address of the post. Students in online courses may submit via email or Google Docs.

Submission: Responses accepted as hard copy or blog posts (Google Docs for online only students). Non-blog responses must be in MLA format, stapled, etc. Blog posts should have spaces between paragraphs and students will need to email me a link to their post.

Potential Points to Earn: 10 points for each piece of writing. You can write an analysis of up to three different comics from this year's selection.

Due Date: 5 May 2010

Don't forget to click on the "Extra Credit" label below to see other current and past extra credit opportunities.