Post-Escapist
New Media Writing Paper
Write a 7-10 page paper about a work of New Media from a "post-escapist" viewpoint.
Though the sample pieces we will read will focus on video games, you can write on any New Media genre.
Choice and Focus of Topic
Be as specific and focused as possible in your choice of topic. In writing, it's much more effective to make a lot out of a little, rather than to speak in sweeping generalities and summaries. Examples and details are not decoration or mere support, but the heart of your paper.
If you're writing about a video game, select a particular version of the game or focus on one aspect of the game to help you choose concrete detail.
If you're writing about some other form of New Media, make your points by describing a particular instance or example of that form in detail (a specific meme, for instance, and not memes generally), rather than talking about a digital environment or community in the abstract.
"Post-Escapist" Perspective
Post-Escapism refers to a way of looking at, writing about, and analyzing a piece of New Media, rather than the nature of the piece itself. In your essay, be sure to understand this approach and take this perspective consistetly. See this diagram as a reminder or preview of a class discussion on post-escapist approaches.
Being Informed by Class
While you may or may not include citations or quotations in your essay--according to your the genre and voice you choose--your essay should clearly be informed by the class readings and discussions: understandings of critical ideas and terms, knowledge of history, awareness of issues and debates, etc. Avoid writing about your topic as you might have before taking this class.
Three Dimensions of Writing
As a writer, consider your choices among the following dimensions of voice, authority, address, stance, purpose, etc.
- Personal subjectivity vs journalistic/scholarly objectivity
- Exploratory essay form vs. Persuasive argument
- Subject considered diachronically (across time) vs. synchronically (at one time)
Consider these dichotomies or binaries not as stark black-and-white choices, but as dimensions: sliding scales or spectrums that you could map on a semiotic field.
60-Word Abstract at the Top
At the top of your paper, in italics, write an abstract of 60-90 words which describes your essay's point or purpose, and how your essay combines and uses the following elements to achieve them:
- the New Media work you're discussing and how its represented by a specific instance or example
- a post-escapist approach,
- subjective vs objective viewpoint/voice,
- choice of essay or argument as an organizing purpose,
- details selected and presented to emphasis diachronic breadth or synchronic depth
50-Word Endnote at the Bottom
At the end of your paper, include a 30-60 word endnote that explains how the course readings, discussions, and projects informed your writing of the paper.
Readings
We will read a number of sample pieces from the book The State of Play as examples of "post-escapist" new-media criticism. In reading these texts, we will consider questions like the following to help us, as writers, to make decisions about our own pieces.
- How do these sample pieces of writing make decisions among these choices?
- How do they (and don’t they) vary their forms of voice, authority, address, stance, and purpose?
- How do these choices and variations help each writer to realize the meanings and effects he or she does?
- How would the meanings and effects be different (or impossible) with different choices?
- In what ways do these choices contribute to the writer's "post-escapist" viewpoint?
Guidelines
- Double spaced
- Pages numbered
- Citations as appropriate to the genre