MANY PEOPLE SEEM TO HAVE LOST THEIR….
SYLLABUS FOR THE KNPE/PHED 167 TERM PAPER ASSIGNMENT, SO, AGAIN, HERE IT IS ……..
KNPE167/PHED 167 – THE TERM ESSAY
The term essay provides the chance for you to work in depth on something interesting and important. The first key to a good essay is interest—your’s. Make certain to choose a topic that will hold your interest and justify the amount of work you do.
THE ASSIGNMENT:
Please prepare a 1500 word (roughly 6 pp.) historical or sociological essay on a topic of your choice that is relevant to the course and will allow you to build a solid argument (thesis). Please consult a minimum of five academic titles—books and/or articles from academic journals. Material from the text and articles from current newspapers and popular magazines, as well as Internet sources, should be used as supplemental to the academic sources. If an academic article appears on line, say in the electronic journal, Sociology of Sport Online, it is fine. Please use the Chicago Manual of Style (see course syllabus) for form and usage. The professor prefers endnotes or footnotes, but prizes consistency. Citing sources in text in parentheses is also fine. Again, be consistent.
Please provide a bibliography at the end of your paper under the heading “References”. Again, see the style guide for format. Make certain to type, double-space, in 12 point type. Do not hand in your paper in a folder. Use staples, not paper clips. Keep a copy of your notes and keep a hard copy of your paper.
THE ESSAY:
The essay comprises one of the least appreciated art forms of the early 21st century. It provides the best chance a professor gets to see how a student thinks. Hence the essay comprises a thinking assignment as much as it does a writing assignment. The point of the paper is not to demonstrate how much you know. Rather, as in exams, the point is to show your ability to put what you know to use. Evaluation (your mark) will reflect how well you think about what you know and how well your writing demonstrates this capacity. Writing well is important, and again I commend to you William B. Strunk and E.B. White, The Elements of Style, and William Zinsser, On Writing Well (both available in Stauffer Library).
Several kinds of essays exist. Some merely seek to explain a situation or issue. Others analyze a particular issue. Others construct an argument. You should focus on the latter type of essay. In other words, choose a topic that is debatable, that is, a topic that may be assessed from more than a single point of view. Your job in the essay will be to defend your position, perhaps to modify it, and to answer (refute) different or opposing ways of looking at your question.
THE PROPOSAL:
Each student will prepare a proposal of one page to be completed by reading week, and to provide the basis of discussion with your teaching assistant and allow the TA to give you significant feedback. Here are the main points to consider in your proposal. What is your topic? Why is it important? What have authorities said about it? What will you place your emphasis? Remember and note well Geoff Smith’s admonition to all, including himself (“Focus, Focus, Focus!”). List at least five articles and books, explaining why they will be useful to you.
A couple of notes on reading: For books, the California “flash”: Read the preface, introduction, and conclusion first—get a sense of the superstructure. Then use indexes wisely and well. In reading chapters and articles, read the chapter and article without using magic markers (I find it helpful to make brief marginal annotations lightly in pencil, to be erased later, not too many). When finished with a chapter or article, close the book/journal and in your own words with the source closed make up a note card (5 x 8” works well for me) of the main points. If you cannot do this, read the material again, same way. You do not need a magic marker or highlighter for this. These things are as addictive to the high school student and undergraduate as nicotine is to a smoker……throw them away (as you might a cigarette or a crutch after spraining your ankle or tearing your ACL) and think! I challenge you! In any event, eventually you will have a collection of index cards that – if well done and thoughtfully arranged – will write your paper for you.
FOCUS, FOCUS, FOCUS!
The biggest problem for undergraduate writers is to arrive at a topic that works. You must get used to the idea of focusing on one aspect of the problem, question, or issue that interests you. After you have chosen your broad topic, do a bit of reading to garner ideas about particular aspects of the topic that interests you. Brainstorming in groups may help you sharpen your ideas and questions. Remember that you need to narrow your focus—a short essay cannot possibly deal with all aspects of an issue. Also remember that you should adopt a primary historical/sociological focus, rather than, say, a psychological or biological perspective, although such perspectives might be used as support for the larger analytical focus.
As an example of the problem, you might choose “race and sport” or “violence in sport,” both of which are too broad to handle. Think of a specific part of one of these areas. Perhaps you might think of Jackie Robinson or Ben Johnson for the first, or the 1936 or 1968 Mexico City Olympics. In each instance you would analyze the way in which contemporaries defined race, how it figured in the unique situations noted, and what importance it had. Definitions are always very important—they help the reader appreciate your focus. For the second area, violence in sport, the problem is even more difficult. Think perhaps of some of the ways that society has “defined deviance down” in the last half century (change over time: always a good idea), and certain ways in which sport sanctions violence. Or perhaps you might be interested in imputed connections between constructions of masculinity and violence, say in Varda Burstyn’s recent best-selling The Rites of Men. Perhaps you recall the recent tragedy at Columbine High School at Littleton, Colorado. Perhaps you are interested in examples of hockey violence, or the scripted violence of WWF, or ways in which violence cuts across cultural lines at given times. I term this use of the sociological and historical imagination “horizontal integration” – the ability to see how certain aspects of sport are mirrored in politics, economics, religion, race relations, media studies and the like. For the historian (and, though less so, the sociologist), “vertical integration” is also important. Put simply, this phrase means assessing change and continuity over time, tracing the development of an issue, a question, a problem and noting the consistency and changes in its character. The essay that shows sensitivity toward vertical and horizontal integration will no doubt feature an interesting analytical framework.
Say, for example, that you choose the issue of violence in sport and you come up with the question: do so-called violent sports promote aggression in society?
Once you have begun to narrow your topic, you will want to look carefully at the research and begin to form your own answer to the question. In an essay the writer’s position (argument) is called the thesis. In this example your thesis might be: Sports like hockey and football help teach players to control their aggressive feelings. You will design your paper to support this position and rebuff the opposing position that such sports cause players to behave more aggressively off the field as well as on it.
You should direct your research toward building your argument rather than simply collecting information on the topic. Sit and think a moment: What evidence will you need to support your assertion? Is your evidence valid? What conflicting evidence will you need to refute? Might you modify your original argument somewhat in light of your evidence? It happens.
Do not lose sight of what sort of essay you are writing—historical or sociological, or a mix of both. Tailor your evidence in terms of your purpose. You will wish to make a sociological or historical case why your topic is important. You will, again, wish to think about sport’s place in larger cultural and social settings.
The thesis statement will help you set up the structure of your essay. In this example these might be the major sections of the paper (the thesis statement determines structure):
Introduction—introduces topic and thesis statement in vigorous, flowing prose. You define terms, indicate what other writers have said about your topic, determine major interpretations, indicate where your study fits into the larger sociological or historical picture. This section is key—it grabs the reader or lets the reader go. Most good papers are good because of the introduction. Write a working introduction, then the paper. When you are completed, then rewrite the introduction. Again, the introduction is like a key to a house. If it “fits” fine, if not, no one will get into the house.
a. Make certain to define what you mean by “aggressive sports”
b. Main point to support argument
–Evidence from research
c. Secondary point to support argument
–Evidence from research
d. Refutation of counter-argument(s) – some call this “disposing of the opposition”
–Evidence from research
Conclusion — Summarize and defend argument. Indicate broader implications of
Argument; what remains to be done? Suggestions for change. Answer the question,
“So what?”
IMPORTANT:
Always create an outline for your essay. Give yourself at least a half-hour of thinking before your write. Leave off at a point that allows a bridge to your next session’s work. Write a draft of your essay. Read the draft carefully. Cut as many “to be” verbs as you can, introducing active verbs, which give sinew to your prose and punch to your argument. Let someone else (a tough, smart person, whom you trust) read the draft and comment. Then rewrite. Finally, check for the little things (the big things tend to take care of themselves): spelling (spell check is not foolproof, especially for homonyms).
EVALUATION:
Marks reflect the following criteria:
1. Quality of argument: Is the argument logical? Do you support your thesis with appropriate evidence? Do you recognize the assumptions that inform your argument?
2. Research: Have you used worthy sources? Do you use Internet and popular sources appropriately?
3. Does the essay use a proper and consistent referencing format?
4. Does the author structure the paper well? Does the introduction set the stage? Does the argument flow from point to point, from paragraph to paragraph?
5. Does the essay exhibit vigorous prose, good grammar and usage, flow?
6. Does the argument show originality and flair, in presentation and in use of sources? Does the essay demonstrate creativity?
***Adapted for the first-year class by Profs Mary Louise Adams and Geoff Smith (both of whom are on your side).