ENG1302 Performance of African American Dancers Research Paper Paper 4 (Final Exam) will be a “research” based paper, but with a slightly different spin: Y

ENG1302 Performance of African American Dancers Research Paper Paper 4 (Final Exam) will be a “research” based paper, but with a slightly different spin: You will be conducting research to pair with evaluative writing.

Generally, there are two purposes for evaluative writing:

1) To determine whether something has succeeded or failed.

2) To improve or refine something

I also think with the help of some careful research these two points can be combined–After writing about how something has failed you could devote time to discussing how it could be improved. Even if something is successful there’s often room for refinement, thus, I think (2) really is a natural progression from (1). Keep this in mind as you begin your Evaluative paper.

For your paper I am giving you the freedom to choose what you research and evaluate. Here are some examples of what you could evaluate:

A musical album
A meal at a restaurant (I wouldn’t want a paper on a Big Mac–think more along the lines of an independently owned restaurant.)
Fashion line from a TV show or magazine
A live play
A dance performance
A new vehicle
A sports performance (Evaluate your favorite team’s play on a particular week/game)
A video game
A philosophical/political topic
A book

(Doing a film will not be allowed as we’ve already written a movie review.)

What interests you? I want you to write about something that you care about–something that you’re interested in.

And I want you to incorporate at least THREE outside sources. For example, if you want to evaluate the latest Kendrick Lamar album, I’d want you to read multiple album reviews, interviews and even some biographical context and incorporate three sources into your paper in order to create a dialogue between yourself and “the outside world”.

For those of you what want to push the research to the next degree, you could even do some “field research”–If you’re a fan of a local sports team you could interview the coach, assistant coach, etc. on how they thought the team’s performance was for that game and incorporate that into your paper. You could even do this with a meal–talk to the waitress about your dish or even request to briefly speak with the chef to discuss the ingredients and their vision for the restaurant and how your dish embodies that vision.

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