Analytical profile

Analytical profile: Researching an “Other” (4 full-5 pages) -Scroll Down for the Assignment Checklist- W2 Mindfulness of the Creative Experience - Tiffany Wong When we begin to move into longer research papers, we find ourselves immersed in various primary sources (​firsthand evidence about an event, object, person, or work of art that can include experiments, statistical data, interviews, surveys, fieldwork)​ and secondary sources, which d​escribe, discuss, interpret, comment upon, analyze, evaluate, summarize, and process primary sources. For this major assignment, I am trying to assess where your analytical writing skills are, and if you are ready to move on to research level writing. In accordance with the theme of the class, I want you to choose a person you believe is creative and analyze their processes and experiences based on the concepts we’ve read in Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi’s ​Creativity​ and ​Flow.​ ​If you have direct access to this person, you may want to consider doing an interview with them to create a primary source for your essay. If you don’t have direct access to this person consider researching secondary sources such as ​articles in newspapers, popular magazines, book or movie reviews, or articles found in scholarly journals that discuss or evaluate this person. As we get deeper into our research for the class, I’ll want you to use more scholarly articles to contextualize your writing, but for now, less academic sources are fine as long as you can summarize, paraphrase, and/or use in-text citation in a way that doesn’t constitute plagiarism. ​Please refrain from using Wikipedia as a source in your writing, and we’ll talk about why in class. For this profile, I not only want a summary and description of this person, their work, and their achievements, but also an ​argument and analysis​ of how “what they do” relates to the themes from the reading such as, but not limited to, the ​autotelic personality​, ​cultural creativity, personal creativity, the systems model, flow​, ​pleasure, enjoyment, consciousness,​ ​field, person,​ and domain​.​ To do this it helps if you start with an argument or a claim you want to make about this person’s creativity or lack of creativity and use examples from readings and research to support or refute your claims. It often helps to pretend the reader is unfamiliar with Csikszentmihalyi’s concepts and spend some time paraphrasing concept definitions before using them in your analysis. It helps if you not only choose someone you think is creative, but if you also choose someone you admire or whose work inspires you. It generally helps to choose only one person, although you can choose a group if you desire that challenge. It may help to come up with a short list of people and then choose one. As long as you consider that person to be creative, you can choose anyone from Albert Einstein to Mother Teresa, your high school biology teacher to your great uncle respectively. ​My only requirement is that you do not write about yourself, because that falls within the genre of reflective writing which is different for what we are trying to accomplish here in this assignment.

Use appropriate citation (MLA or APA) so I can clearly see which ideas are yours, Csikszentmihalyi’s, or other sources.​ Again as you make claims about your subject’s creativity, it helps to assume the reader doesn’t know as much about the Csikszentmihalyi theories on creativity as you do. Spend some time introducing key concepts and defining them, as well as making claims about your person’s creativity and supporting them with evidence. It is completely up to you how you structure your paper. Although some strategies may work better than others, depending on your thesis statement. If you are not sure how much to balance your profile to analysis, or analysis to profile, try for a 50/50 blend. This is not a hard fast rule, but just a general guideline. Questions you might consider are: Will I use analysis first then move into the profile, or start with the profile and then move into analysis? And how might I disperse profile and analysis throughout my entire essay? Lastly, if you are having trouble adding analysis to your profile, try ​starting with the ​Creativity​ and ​Flow​ readings and then see  how the themes relate to your subject versus the other way around. In addition to the double spaced 4 full-5 page paper include a Work Cited page.​ Use the readings as guides and examples, but understand that what I require for this profile, in particular, is more academically rigorous because of the depth of the analysis and citation style. Below is a short list of people to consider if you’re stuck on where to start: David Sedaris - Humor Writer Ursula Le Guin - Sci Fi Writer Rachel Carson - Environmentalist Jane McGonigal - Game Designer Kathleen Hanna - Musician Neil Gaiman - Comic Book Writer Carl Jung - Psychoanalyst Alan Turing - Computer Scientist Shel Silverstein - Poet Emma Goldman - Activist Ada Lovelace - First Computer Programmer Marina Abromavic - Conceptual Artist John Coltrane - Jazz Musician

Analytical Profile: Checklist ❏ I read the entire assignment thoroughly twice, and I understand what is being

asked of me in this essay. ❏ My name, instructors name, class title, and date are in the upper left hand corner

of my essay. ❏ I have come up with an original title for my essay. It is not labeled Analytical

Profile. ❏ I have a strong opening sentence that isn’t a quote from someone else and

doesn’t uses a dictionary definition. I start most topic sentences of a paragraph in my own voice whether or not I choose first or third person.

❏ I do not use Wikipedia or a dictionary definition anywhere in my essay. When I write sentences, I use--

❏ Correct grammar, syntax, and punctuation ❏ A variety of sentence styles and lengths ❏ Complex compound sentences ❏ Correct spelling

When I write paragraphs, I have (P.I.E.)-- ❏ A Point ❏ Information ❏ Elaboration, examples, and evidence

When I use in-text citation, I make sure I ❏ Introduce texts I use ❏ In-text cite direct quotes correctly ❏ In-text cite summary and paraphrases correctly ❏ Don’t over or under use outside sources. The majority of this essay is

using my own words and language ❏ Am not plagiarizing ❏ Have a properly sourced Work Cited page

Overall, my essay ❏ Has a sense of focus, a purpose, and a thesis statement ❏ Makes an argument or claim about my subjects creativity ❏ Gives background information about my subject that supports my claims

about their creativity ❏ Isn’t just a very long list of my subjects achievements ❏ Does a good job of balancing profile to analysis ❏ Logically flows from one idea or concept to another ❏ Has an equally strong introduction and conclusion ❏ Was edited before I turned in my final draft