english multimodel essay

Multimodal Analysis (Judge Dredd) Thesis due 10/28, drafts due 11/4, final due 11/11 through Turnitin

A multimodal analysis is similar to the visual analysis you just wrote; however, it asks you to look at all

the modes of a given text. In this case you will be looking at a comic book, so you will need to use all

the modes of the comic book medium you have learned about over the term. For this essay you are

writing an analysis of Judge Dredd: America. Your focus is political commentary, broadly defined. As

we have seen texts often can have political commentary, and this comic book is no different. There are a

number of different angles you can take with this paper, from examining the depiction of the Judge

system, or the pro-democracy terrorist organization Total War, to examining the implications of

Bennett’s body switch or the theme of family. You can also focus by examining only one of the three

stories in this book, such as the Judges’ roll in “The Fading Light,” or you could look at one aspect that

carries over the entire book, such as the use of America as a person’s name. I would suggest keeping a

journal while you read the book, write down anything that interests you (you can also bring that to class,

it will help stimulate discussion if you have something that interests you).

As Judge Dredd is a comic book you will need to access the ideas in McCloud to help you with this

paper. As you begin reading look for how Moore and Lloyd use the gutter, panel frames, color, pacing,

time and space, and icons to work with the text to create this story. Your essay must deal with some

aspect of McCloud’s work (that means you need to use an idea from McCloud to explain your argument

in the essay). Along with McCloud and Judge Dredd you need at least one (1) other source for your

essay, preferably something academic.

You should be familiar with most of these by now:

 Double spaced, 12 point Times New Roman font. Disable “Add extra space after paragraph” in Word 2003 and after, 1” margins

 A header with your name, the assignment name, the class, and the date.

 A title, centered under the header.

 Your last name and the page number in the upper right hand corner of each page.

 Four (4) full pages in length, NOT including the Works Cited or Consulted. I lower the final grade of a paper by 1 grade level (a B+ becomes a B) for each half page you are under the total.

 You must cite each work in proper MLA.

 A works cited page that has a proper MLA bibliographic entry for each work.

 A works consulted page with any works you looked at but did not cite (OPTIONAL).

As with the previous papers, failure to turn in the thesis or the drafts will result in a 10 point reduction

on your final paper grade, failure to turn in both will result in a 20 point reduction.