Assignment: Evaluating Monsters

An evaluation combines the skills of close critical reading with the skills of argument. Evaluations are very common in the real world. Someone is always ready to tell us what could be done differently, or better. An evaluation is a researched argument, mainly focusing on a small range of primary texts: a movie, a book, a short story, a TV show, a product, a text, a painting, a picture, etc. An evaluation offers a judgment, after a close critical reading. The criteria for this judgment should be fleshed out with support and evidence drawn from the primary texts. Evaluations are fun to read and write. They can be contentious and are often infected with personal opinion.

Requirements

• 1,000+ Words
• 1+ Image(s)
• 2+ Primary texts
• 3+ Scholarly sources
• MLA Style
• Clear thesis and introduction

Grading Criteria

• Critical Thinking
• Clarity of Thought
• Analysis of Monster
• Use of sources and works cited
• Images and Title

Prompt

For this assignment, you will use one or more theses from Monster Culture, as well as primary texts you choose to evaluate a type or category of monster. In other words, you will pick a monster to research representations of, in two to three primary texts, finding stories, images, or other takes on the monster we have not discussed at length. Your purpose is to critically evaluate a monster and make a well-reasoned argument.

For example, you might look at the Chupacabra as it has appeared in a short story, a TV show, and a movie. As you identify representations of your monster, also examine people’s responses to those representations by looking up reviews, articles, and blogs. When you have finished gathering your data, analyze it and develop a thesis about the differences the media makes in both the representations of the monster and the responses to it.

The seven theses we read from Monster Culture can be one of your scholarly sources. You will need to locate two  to three primary sources where your monster is represented in order to be able to do a close critical reading of the monster. You will also need to find two or more scholarly sources to help support your analysis of the monster.

The monster can be any that we have looked at in class or entirely of your own choosing.

1. You will explain and define the monster through the seven theses we are using in class.
2. You will choose primary texts where the monster is represented in order to do a close critical reading of the monster and the responses.
3. Finally, you will form an evaluation and offer a judgment about the monster.

Sample Evaluations

The Realm of the Pale Man

Medusa! Monstrous Creature Representative of Feminism

I am Fire, I am Death, I Smell a Barbeque

These Humanoid Machines Are After More Than Just Your Manufacturing Job

Parts of the Assignment

• Annotated Bibliography 25 points
• Rough Draft
• Peer Review
• Final Draft 150 points