Reading response

ADDING TO THE CONVERSATION

Essay #3

For this essay, you will explore a subculture you belong to and support a specific claim made about your subculture. You will conduct research using our library databases. The research should guide you into the paper and give you substantial facts and concrete evidence to work with, as well as other voices and opinions about the subculture you choose. You will research an aspect of your subculture that relates very closely to your personal experiences. Therefore, your personal stories and your research should complement (or complicate) each other; your research may help you to expand your knowledge of your culture, but your experiences may also challenge scholarly accounts of that culture. You will become a source in this paper. You will still be moving continually between claims and evidence— between concrete, vivid details of experience and your answer to the “So what?” —but the evidence will also come from your personal experience.

You will need to find primary and secondary sources:

Primary Sources are contemporary accounts of the topic you are writing about. They are usually written by a person who experienced it. They can include diaries, memoirs, scientific academic journals, speeches, interviews, blogs, websites. They can also be newspaper or magazine articles, audio or video recordings, research reports, social science books, and literary works.

Secondary Sources interpret and analyze primary sources. They give the reason why. They comment and build upon primary sources. They are usually published works, such as journals, articles or books.

For your final paper, you should cite a minimum of five sources: at least two primary sources and two secondary sources. Three of your sources need to be academic sources. You will need to look into many more sources to get a feel for what people are saying about the issue and to make sure the sources you do quote are representative, especially significant, or for some other reason worthy of inclusion in your paper. When you write, consider who your audience is, the context for your essay, and what your purpose is. For example: What does your audience want to know? Why? What can they gain? Remember to ask yourself all sorts of questions while conducting your research and in the beginning stages of this essay.

A place to start is to have a list of questions you have about your topic, and then conduct research to find sources that will answer those questions. Begin by writing down notes of the rituals, hierarchies, language practices, and significant artifacts of your subculture. You may want to start with one piece of evidence from your personal archive (such as a photo, a significant quotation, a letter, a ticket stub, etc.) as a way into your paper or as a focal point. Think about what this subculture provides to its members. How does your subculture differ from others?

You should make sure your topic is narrow enough to really explore in that space. Remember, you are not reporting back on a conversation going on somewhere else, but asserting yourself within that conversation. Write something valuable that benefits the conversation about your subculture.

Length: 7-8 pages