Project!!

Table of Contents ECON 321 Research Project, Step 3 1 0. Basic information [No marks] 2 1. Rough draft of your narrative [Regular] 3 1.a. 3 2. Self-critique of your narrative [Regular] 4 2.a. 4 2.b. 5 3. The Story Circle [Challenge] 8 3.a. 10 3.b. 10

What’s your topic?

What was the ‘main economic point’ you listed in Research Project Step 2?

(No marks – this is just to make it easier for the TA to know what they’re looking at.)

In the previous research step, you were asked to come up with a beginning, middle and end for your story. You were also asked to come up with the ‘main economic point’ of your story. For this question, put them together. Put together your beginning, middle and end into a single narrative (which should be no longer than 1.5 pages). Edit it slightly to make sure that the main economic point comes through clearly.

The TA will NOT give detailed feedback on this draft (except as part of the feedback on Question 2). Detailed feedback on your essay is reserved for the final draft, with is the “final exam” for this course. For this question, the TA will be checking that there’s a complete story, with a beginning, middle and end, not longer than 1.5 pages, about the topic you listed, where the main economic point is easy to spot.

[Insert your narrative here – no minimum length, maximum length 1.5 pages]

This question is very similar to the first two questions of a regular 3-2-1 report, with slight tweaks (since presumably you understand all of what you wrote), and omitting the final ‘main economic point’ question, since we did that last time.

What are the three main points of your narrative?

i. First point

ii. Second point

iii. Third point

What are two things you think are missing from your narrative? (Maybe you need more information on a particular person or thing, or you need to find the source of a number, or there’s important context about the time period that you should communicate to your readers…) Take the first few steps toward fixing that. Just like you would in a regular 3-2-1 report, find a source (or multiple sources) that will provide the missing information, and briefly let us know what you found. You’ll be expected to incorporate this information fully into your final draft. Site sources used in APA format.

2.b.i

i. First thing missing from your narrative:

Why this missing information is important:

Source(s) you used to find this missing information (APA citations):

What you found out from the sources (briefly):

2.b.ii

ii. Second thing missing from your narrative:

Why this missing information is important:

Source(s) you used to find this missing information (APA citations):

What you found out from the sources (briefly):

“Emotion matters in the structure of narratives, economic and otherwise, and it reveals itself in stories.” -Robert J. Shiller, in Narrative Economics[footnoteRef:0] (2019) [0: The book, not the article.]

In the late 1960s, Joseph Campbell pointed out that many of humanity’s most popular stories share very similar structures[footnoteRef:1] - that in each of them, a protagonist goes on a specific ‘hero’s journey’ with multiple stages. Since then, novelists, screenwriters, motivational speakers, marketers and more have used variations on Campbell’s ‘hero’s journey’ to create relatable, effective narratives. [1: For a full discussion, see his famous book, The hero with a thousand faces (1968). This book was an inspiration for George Lucas when writing Star Wars.]

Now it’s your turn.

In this question, you’re going to use a simplified, streamlined version of Campbell’s “hero’s journey” called the Harmon Story Circle. It was originally developed by screenwriter Dan Harmon for use in plotting episodes of Community, Rick and Morty, and more, but has since become a very popular tool for writers of all types.

Instead of dividing a story into beginning, middle, and end, the Harmon story circle divides a story into 8 sections. Quoting directly from Harmon’s own discussion of the circle[footnoteRef:2]: [2: Harmon, D. (n.d.). Story Structure 101: Super Basic Shit [Web Page]. https://channel101.fandom.com/wiki/Story_Structure_101:_Super_Basic_Shit ]

“1. A character is in a zone of comfort

2. But they want something

3. They enter an unfamiliar situation

4. Adapt to it.

5. Get what they wanted

6. Pay a heavy price for it

7. Then return to their familiar situation

8. Having changed”

While developed for fiction, this tool can also help tell economic stories. Think, for example, of the story of the merger between the Northwest Company and the Hudson’s Bay Company (this example is based on information from Lecture 7):

1. The Northwest company is making profits off the fur trade, with a home territory in Athabasca and marketing based out of Montreal.

2. But they want to lower their transport costs.

3. They contact their rivals, the Hudson’s Bay Company, and try to negotiate for free passage through Hudson’s Bay Company territory. The HBC’s demands for cash or a buyout prove too high.

4. The NWC and HBC have a period of informal cooperation, but the Napoleonic wars and over-hunting bring this to an end. The NWC’s plan to buy HBC shares backfires and ends in their main supply territory at Red River being taken over by the HBC. Violence and deaths ensue.

5. Talks re-open. The NWC finally gets its free passage through Hudson’s Bay by becoming part of the Hudson’s Bay Company via merger.

6. Lives have been lost, half the trading posts are shut down, the NWC lost its name, and after the NWC’s attacks on the legitimacy of the HBC charter, the HBC’s powers within Rupert’s land are weakened.

7. The merged HBC goes back to focusing on making profits in the fur trade

8. But things are different: Indigenous and mixed-race employees have lost status, the HBC’s authority in Rupert’s land is weakened, and the Company is more highly scrutinized by the British government.

This is not the only way the story of the NWC & HBC merger can be split into those 8 points – it’s not even the most effective way this division could be made (see the Schroder video linked below for ideas about emphasizing the crossing of thresholds) – but just by imposing a familiar structure on the narrative, it makes it easier to understand and access.

If you’d like to learn more about Harmon’s story circle, I recommend the following resources (and accessing them in this order for maximum clarity):

· Harmon, D. (n.d.). Story Structure 101: Super Basic Shit [Web Page]. https://channel101.fandom.com/wiki/Story_Structure_101:_Super_Basic_Shit

· The Dan Harmon Story Circle: What Authors Can Learn from Rick and Morty [Blog Post]. (2018, July 22). https://blog.reedsy.com/dan-harmon-story-circle/

· Schoder, W. (2016, November 23). Every Story is the Same [Video File]. https://youtu.be/LuD2Aa0zFiA

· Cloud Kitten Chronicles. (2019, November 19). Dan Harmon Story Circle | A Simplified Plot Structure [Video File]. https://youtu.be/CoUSX4Y_WS0

Re-write your narrative in terms of the 8 points of the Harmon Story Circle, as I did in the example above for the NWC & HBC merger. I am not looking for another essay – just a bullet point, sentence or phrase is enough (again, like the example I gave). One mark per point, and note that for this question, I am allowing the TA to give half-marks where appropriate (so the possible marks for each point are 0, 0.5, 1).

Briefly answer the following question:

(2 marks) Do you think using the Harmon Story Circle improved your narrative, and made it so that general readers can more easily understand the economic point? Why or why not?

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