Sample Projects

Before reading sample projects, I had a general idea of the kind of topic I'd like to pursue, but not quite the format I'd like to use. For the moment, I'm considering combining my research on anti-intellectualism and my research on Doctor Who. So, I was hoping that the projects I'd read through would at least answer the question of the medium in which I'd like to go about my project.

Alicia Reinersman's Fantasy Theme Analysis of Instagram was in a standard paper format with an abstract, but it introduced the popular themes of Millennials, "Generation Y," and instant gratification, definitely a topic that has been in the news, on social media, and is so often dismissed. When I talk about intellectualism and anti-intellectualism, the only difference is that I don't exactly apply it to anything, I just give an extended explanation of it because that's what I feel that I'm most qualified to do. When Reinersman talked about Karl Marx on rejecting capitalism and how it applies today, I think about the repetition of history and to what extent we are responding to artifacts such as pieces of literature (1984 for example) and historical figures (politicians, actors, etc.). This is certainly something I'd like to at least touch on in my project. While I'm not sure that I want to write a paper such as this, it's definitely given me a lot to think about.

Grace Jung's website and companion piece fit so well with her personality and the way she explains things. The website was accessible, very easy to use and easy to read, and she used a lot of great resources like her interview. Also, her companion piece was framed as though the reader was interviewing her for a position. I'm not sure how well that makes sense. She used a great deal of personal anecdotes, she used numbers and statistics, and there were more subtopics within the idea of first impressions than I first realized even having taken similar classes. In the same manner, in singing, there are more things that a classical or otherwise trained vocalist needs to think about while performing other than simply the act of singing. There's a lot of technique, elements of style, posture, dynamic, things one might also apply to public speaking and speaking to any authority figure. The audience might forget in the midst of a performance that all these techniques are at work, but a prospective boss might expect an interviewee to be familiar with at least some of the ideas that Jung brings up. The idea of a website aligns closely with what I'm thinking of ultimately doing with my topic. I don't know if that is what is best. I'd like to pick something that [like Jung's] aligns best with my personality and that is framed in a way that fits the "personality" of my topic.

Kim Guy's collection of poems was incredibly interesting because it was literally a type of narrative, speaking of ways to get to know a person. In terms of organization, this was ideal. It was separated into different parts of life and each section had a reflection and a poem. This is the same kind of way I'm doing my series on Doctor Who. I have a brief biography, a quick summary of an episode, and then a collection of graphics (see example below), each with a quote, that I created for the purpose of summing up a collection of meaning that can be taken from this artifact of media (in this case an episode of a show). To some extent the quotes in those graphics are ways that people learn from history or just learn about the ideology of an interesting character. In the same way, Guy's poems show her audience things that she's learned about herself throughout her life.