What Represents Your 21st Century Great Gatsby? And Why?
In place of a final written assignment, you are invited to create an alternative genre, multimedia, or multimodal project that synthesizes what you have learned about argument writing in Expository Writing to represent your 21st Century Great Gatsby.
In other words, you will design + present a project that translates what you have learned about drafting & revising written arguments into a genre/format that is NOT a written argument. Writing is involved in other ways (in the script of a presentation—which explains how your project illustrates + supports the argument you design using images-colors-size-images-sound-video-words +/or other components that are not words.
Elements of the Essay
Motive, Stance, Thesis, Keyterms, Analysis, Assumptions, Sources, Evidence, Stitching, Rhetorical Structural Moves, and Style
Writing Strategies
Hook, Focus, Organization, ACE, Synthesis, They Say, I Say, Counterargument & Refutation, Diction, Lens, and Quotation Weaving
The Final Argument Project has 2 Parts
1. Final Project: A dramatic or poetic performance, a sculpture, a visual, or audio-visual object that proposes & supports an argument to support Your 21st Century Great Gatsby. Presentations should relate-refer to-riff on course texts/themes (topics, focus, arguments, keyterms, quotations), and/or draw upon papers you wrote in Units 1-2. Your project can be a multimodal or alternative genre/format/version of the argument from your Research Paper.
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- Computer-generated: short documentary or short film; computer game, commercial or infomercial, blog, web page, game, podcast, meme, .gif, or other form/genre digital/internet/computer generated project.
- Performance: poem, speech, song, dramatic monologue, short play, impersonation, puppet show (sock or shadow), manifesto, infomercial, commercial, interview, advertisement, etc.
- Artwork: illustration, chart, map, sculpture, painting, graphic novel or cartoon/comic strip, installation, diorama, collage, or game (i.e. board game, computer game, role-playing game), costume or poster, advertisement, print or multi-media publication. (i.e. magazine, flyer, weekly paper, etc.)
You must be familiar with + have a solid understanding of the genre or format you choose to represent the argument in your Final Project. So, do not write a soliloquy if you don’t know the formal conventions of this genre of poetry (i.e. blank verse, unrhymed iambic pentameter). Do not write and perform a Rap if you can’t sing, lack rhythm, or can’t alliteratively string words together in complexly meaningful, metaphorically, multiply significant ways. Don’t draw something if you can’t draw.
*OPTIONAL: you can submit a “mock-up,” sketch, or draft—to Canvas if you would like feedback before you present your project in class on May 4th.
2. Final Presentation: an in-person live or pre-recorded presentation, or a streamed live or pre-recorded presentation on Zoom, that explains how the project proposes + supports an argument about Your 21st Century Great Gatsby.
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- Feel free to assume an avatar or persona in your Final Project and/or for the Final Presentation, dress in costume if applicable.
You can cast “extras” if the Presentation requires participants other than yourself. - The presentation will be evaluated by its focus, organization, clarity, delivery, and diction.
- Feel free to assume an avatar or persona in your Final Project and/or for the Final Presentation, dress in costume if applicable.
The Final Project + Presentation is worth the same as the Unit 1 Writing Assignment and will count as 10% of your final grade.
Below are examples of Final Argument Projects from former Expository Writing Students. There are videos made by former students in the Final Project Assignment in Canvas. You can also Click HERE for more Final Projects from former Expo students.
