Please note: Please choose one topic from the list below. You can propose your own topic related to themes of this course, but check with me FIRST!

Due Date: Draft (if you wish formative feedback) by February 23
Final version by March 9 (pushed back a week)
Value: 20%
Form: Hypertext (following class discussion of our web page design, etc. and attendance at workshops you will be responsible for creating your own nodes)

Exploring issues of evolving conventions across media

1. Trace the development of certain conventions from its early days of print / or early versions up to whatever form it is taking now in an electronic medium or a print medium:

the table of contents
copyright, etc.
illustrations
fonts

Providing more analysis of one communicative form we looked at/will look at:

2. Provide a critical analysis in terms of either its form or content (or both) of one of the following examples :

academic essay
the public letter (e.g., King's "Letter from Birmingham Jail")
"letter to the editor"
blogs
oral presentations (i.e., provide an analysis of the kinds of advice given to students)
rules of punctuation or grammar
argumentative hypertext or fictional hypertext
advertisements (e.g, "branding")
news story
Powerpoint
Software manuals, etc
Romance Novel / other genre of popular culture
Folktale

Showing what happens to the "story" when it migrates from one medium to another (e.g., a novel into a movie). It would be a good idea to start with Grossberg's discussion of "narrative analysis" (see article in kit).

3 Compare and contrast a work done originally in one medium which has been 'translated' into another medium. (Jane Austen's novels turned into movies is a good example-or LOTR.)

analyzing variations of a story and/or the ways in which it can be interpreted

4. The musical "The Wizard of Oz"** (which started out as a children's book) has been subject to many interpretations. Discuss some of these theories and suggest why this text is so open to various interpretations.
** you could pick another example

Exploring the evolution of a genre

5. Look at the evolution of the radio soap opera to to-day's tv soap. Analyze not only the shift in content, but also the ways theories about soap operas have changed (use the article "Soap Opera and Women's Culture" which I can give you as one of your texts.)

6. Compare and contrast a "traditional" movie in one genre with a recent rendition. Take an early "film noir" and a recent film noir; an early Frank Capra comedy versus a Woody Allen movie.. (You might consider the availability of the director's notes, the script, etc. when making your choice.)