Assessment 1 – “Controlled Research Argument”
|
At the centre of this assignment is practicing how to engage with a specific argument from a secondary source. This is a very important skill in academic writing. In this assignment, we
go beyond simply quoting from a piece of published research. You will apply the ideas/claims of one piece of critical writing to a new situation, and present further arguments of your own in response to it.
|
1. Re-read carefully the following article.
This article will form. the basis of your controlled research assignment paper – this an essay that addresses the claims found in a limited number of critical sources.
• Clay Calvert, Emma Morehart, and Sarah Papdelias. “Rap Music and the True Threats Quagmire: When Does One Man’s Lyric become Another’s Crime.” Columbia Journal of Law & Arts 38 (2014): 1-27.
2. Write an essay that presents your own argument in direct response to one of the claims made in this article.
• Your controlled research paper should identify a claim in the Calvert, Morehart and Papdelias article. This is your starting-point: your task is to challenge or advance this claim, using examples from real music or relevant examples or cases (either the ones we covered in class or others that you find on your own).
• This essay will involve identifying a narrowproblem or issue put forward in the article, putting forward an original claim of your own in response to this issue, providing evidence, and linking this evidence to your claim.
At the centre of this assignment is practicing how to engage with a specific argument from a secondary source by applying its ideas/claims to a new situation, and by presenting further arguments of your own in response to it.
Length: 600-800 words.
Weighting: 20% of final grade.
Due: Sunday, 9 March, 11.59pm (via Moodle)
Formatting and Submission of Assignment 1
Please follow these guidelines for formatting and author information – this is a good guide to follow for all submitted essays at university:
• Include title, author name/student number and date on first page
• Double-spaced
• Consistent 3 cm (approx.) margins
• Font: Times New Roman, 12pt (or similarly professional font in readable 12pt size)
• Citation system. You may choose any standard citation system/style (e.g.
MLA/Chicago/APA) for your references, provided that you are consistent in its use.
Please follow these guidelines for electronic submission
• Submit assignments via Moodle – there is a link provided
• A good filename convention: <Surname-Assignment#-Date> e.g. <Adair-Assignment1-11Mar2025>
Here is an example of how the essay’s formatting might look, following these rules:
Free Speech Under Threat: The Problem of Pop Music
In their 2014 article “Rap Music and the True Threats Quagmire”, Calvert, Morehart and Papdelias offer a number of suggestions for how courts should approach cases where a supposed threat was made via rap lyrics. The authors argue that courts should assume that all listeners understand something about the context of rap music when deciding if it is “reasonable” for a subject to have felt threatened. They write that courts should “attribute some minimal understanding of rap’s conventions—the understanding that a hypothetical reasonable person would have—to the rap-ignorant target.”1 This essay will …