Political issue Instructions for Issue Analysis
Failure to follow these instructions means you must correct and resubmit
your assignment, with a 10-pt penalty.
CONTENT
1) Select one political issue.
2) Select two cartoons that make different or conflicting points about that issue. See D2L for links to political cartoon websites. (You might end up selecting the issue based on the cartoons—that’s perfectly fine!)
3) Research the issue via news articles, editorials or guest columns. (NOTE: Editorials are the views of the editorial staff of a newspaper and do not designate an individual author. For example, cite as “Chicago Tribune Editorial”.)
4) Relying primarily on one news source, write a 5 dbl-spaced pg. analysis that:
a) Discusses key aspects of the issue, why you chose it, and why you chose the cartoons that you did
b) Explains what each cartoonist is saying with imagery, symbols or captions, and how the images make certain points. Do not merely describe the images—the goal is to interpret what the cartoonists are saying, and to discuss how they make their arguments with images rather than words.
c) Explains how the cartoonists’ perspectives correlate and/or conflict with your news source. (Feel free to refer to class readings or lectures as additional sources as well.)
d) Explains whether you agree or disagree with the cartoons’ messages. Be sure that you have relied on the facts included in your newspaper source and other class sources, and that you’ve covered all aspects. Do not get carried away on an uninformed, reactionary rant.
e) Articulates your own informed conclusions about the issue
STRUCTURE
All assignments must include this instruction sheet as the cover page
Page 1 of your analysis must include a heading with your name, the names of each cartoonist, the title, author, and date of your attached source , and the name of the publication that your source comes from
All components of your assignment—your analysis, two cartoons, one news source, and this instruction sheet—must be stapled together. I will not accept papers held together with clips, folded corners, or binders. Pasting in the cartoons/source is also fine. Bottom line is that the final product must be securely stapled.
Explain how the cartoonists’ points of view match or don’t match those of your news source. (You can also use readings or lectures from class as additional sources.)
Says if you agree or disagree with what the cartoons are trying to say. Make sure you’ve used the facts from your newspaper source and other sources from class, and that you’ve covered everything. Don’t get carried away with an angry, uninformed rant.
Political issue Instructions for Issue Analysis
Each page of your analysis must have a header or footer with your name and page numbers. You must write your name on the attached cartoons and news sources.
The accompanying news source must be complete, i.e. no cut-off pages, paragraphs, words, etc.
Your analysis, cartoons and news sources must be printed legibly. Use “printer-friendly” option for news sources when available. Fix formatting problems such as cut-off words or lines, crazed spacing, etc. Minor hand-written corrections are acceptable.
You must proofread your work carefully. Do not insult your efforts or your instructor with careless writing. (See the syllabus for my policies on writing.)
NOTE on political cartoons: Think of them as “4×6 inch editorials” that comment on important political issues with images instead of words. Some messages are depicted in a very straightforward manner. Others are subtle and nuanced, and can be tricky to figure out. Often a single cartoon will make multiple points. Political cartoons often simultaneously ridicule and make a serious point about an issue/person, so to take care to catch both the humor and the critique. Political cartoons are not simply intended to convince you on a particular point, but to make you think further about an issue. This is one of the main goals of this course. Another goal is to get you to think and write about a political issue in a well-informed way. A third goal is for you to have fun—in order to think seriously about political issues without losing hope or sanity, we must be able to laugh about them from time to time!
http://www.gocomics.com/explore/editorials
