FILM 4280 – Research Paper Assignment
Submitted by Jason Mittell

 

Paper Assignment:

While the research paper for this class has a number of different steps, the core assignment that you’ll be working to fulfill is to write an argument-driven research paper that analyzes television genre in some significant way. The two main approaches that you might take are:

•           Focus on one particular aspect of a genre and analyze it using research. This aspect might be a turning point in the genre’s history (like the quiz show scandals), a specific textual convention (like the laugh track in sitcoms), issues relating to social issues (like the treatment of interracial relationships in soap operas), audience practices (like protests over news coverage of the Gulf War), or consideration of a genre’s origins (like the music industry’s creation of music videos). In these cases, you’ll start with a genre and explore how it relates to issues of industry, audience, social context, and/or media texts around a specific aspect.

•           Take a particular case study of television and analyze how genre plays a part in it. Thus you might start with an interesting text (like the parodic Police Squad), a policy issue (like requirements for educational programming), an example of audience activity (like science fiction fan conventions), an industrial decision (like the creation of ESPN), or an important moment in social history and television (like news coverage of the Civil Rights Movement). In each of these cases, your paper would have to use research to argue how genre conventions, definitions, or processes are vital to our understanding of the case study.

One aspect of your paper might be justifying your approach to genre using the theoretical readings we’ve done in class. This is not a requirement, but an option. If you do choose to explicitly situate your analysis using these theories, you must cite the sources which you refer to in your Bibliography (full bibliographical information on all the articles is found on page 1 in your copy packet). These sources do not work to fulfill your research requirement of 8 sources or 4 secondary sources however.

Proposal:

The proposal is a typed, one-page proposal in which you lay out what you will do in your full research paper, due in class on March 15th. See subsequent pages for a model proposal. The ideal proposal should present your plan for writing your paper so clearly that if you were to give it to another member of the class, they would be able to use it as a blueprint for researching and writing the paper. The proposal will be worth 5% of your final grade, subject to lateness penalties as described in the course syllabus. All students must hand in a completed proposal in order to pass the course.

The core aspect of the proposal is an argument – you need to center your proposal on a central research question and propose a tentative thesis that will fulfill the paper assignment in looking at a television genre in relation to issues of industry, audience, social context, and/or texts. A proposal that does not propose a central research question or offer a tentative thesis is an ineffective proposal.

You need your proposal to indicate some sources that you will use to research your paper. As such, it is important that you begin researching in the library. Your proposal must identify at least 3 sources that you will use in your research paper – these may be either primary or secondary sources (or both). You must also provide a brief research plan for how you will find your other sources and a consideration of what each type of source will offer your paper. Please attach a partial bibliography to your proposal, with full citations of all sources that you have gathered so far – citations should be in either MLA or Chicago style.

Optional First Draft of Research Paper:

You have the option in this class to hand in a draft of your paper anytime up until April 10th to get feedback from Professor Mittell. The draft should be as completed as possible to get the most valuable feedback. The draft must be typed and in the format for the final paper.

Final Draft of Research Paper:

You must hand in your final draft on April 26th in class. Late papers will be penalized (per the syllabus) unless arranged ahead of time with Professor Mittell. NOTE – You must hand in your proposal and first draft (if applicable), as commented on by Professor Mittell, with your final paper.

This paper must meet the requirements of the assignment, including the research requirement, a central thesis driving your paper, strong writing style, and clear organization. Research must be clearly cited following either MLA or Chicago citation styles—detailed information about citation formats will be available through the class WebCT site. This paper must be at least 8 pages, typed & double-spaced—papers less than 8 pages will be automatically and severely downgraded. Your grade will be based on writing quality, a clear and well-supported argument, effective organization, integration and proper use of research material, original and insightful analysis, and fulfilling the requirements of this assignment. While you should analyze texts to support your argument, textual analysis cannot be the main evidence you use to present your thesis. Rather your argument must be supported by research as explained below. Remember all sources must be cited properly; instances of plagiarism, whether intentional or not, will not be tolerated and students will face academic discipline.

 

In writing your paper, here are some important guidelines to follow:

Research Requirement:

Your research paper must include at least 8 different sources in your bibliography. Of these sources, you must have at least 4 primary sources and 4 secondary sources. The 8 sources are only a minimum – strong papers will certainly use more than this.

In using sources, you should keep direct quotations to a minimum. Only quote from a source if it is important how the source says the point, not if you only are referencing the content. Thus it would appropriate to quote Newton Minow’s phrase of the "vast wasteland," but you shouldn’t quote a source that simply explains his position on television regulation. Rather you should always paraphrase your sources into your own words, tying their ideas into your argument and clearly citing your source. Block quotations (pulled out of the text of the paper) should only be used in exceptional circumstances where both the content and phrasing of the material is crucial to your argument.

Types of Sources:

Primary Sources

Primary sources are the traces of the past that can serve as historical evidence. In studying television genres, the primary sources that you’ll most likely use include trade journal articles, critical reviews, feature articles, interviews, relevant news items, and media texts themselves. Primary sources always come from the era which you are studying—if you’re writing a paper about a 1960s TV show, you must use primary sources from the 1960s. Trade journal articles are especially useful for examining the history of media industries, as trade journals are periodicals that are aimed at an audience of workers inside the entertainment industry. Articles will discuss the developments within the industry, strategies that companies are using regarding a particular program or film, evaluations of the success of a given film or program, and interviews with industry "players." Common trade journals include Variety, Hollywood Reporter, Broadcasting and Cable, and Billboard. Popular press sources are useful to media research in many ways: providing reviews of films or programs to give you an idea of how they are being critically received, publishing interviews and profiles of personalities involved with a particular film or program, investigating certain aspects of media in depth often from a specific political perspective (e.g. liberal, conservative, etc.), or providing social context surrounding a given program or film. Be careful that you consider the source of a given article—a specialty magazine aimed at horror film buffs (like Fangoria) will provide a very different perspective than a general periodical like Newsweek, so be sure to consider the target audience and biases of given sources.

You should seek a balance among your primary sources, looking to draw material from as diverse a collection of sources as possible. Media texts themselves can be useful, but do not count toward your research requirements for this paper, although they should be cited in your bibliography.

Secondary Sources

Secondary sources are books or articles that are written about particular topics of any history. They are usually written "after the fact," considering a topic in retrospective analysis. Typical secondary sources are scholarly articles or books, mainstream histories or criticisms about past events, biographies and memoirs, and documentary retrospectives. Secondary sources offer analysis of their topics, usually by people looking backward on the topic and trying to understand the past. Secondary sources can range in focus, including a close examination a particular text, an essay exploring a historical issue or moment, a comparison of a number of texts united by a genre or theme, a response to previous writing, or a theoretical exploration of concepts within the study of media.

Secondary sources help a research paper in a number of ways: raising issues specific to your topic as explored by previous analysts, providing historical or contextual background for your study, addressing larger concepts in media which you can apply to your specific study, and forming a model of organization and style for writing your own secondary articles on media (which is what all of your research papers will be!). When studying an obscure or recent media topic, often times there will be no secondary source available that specifically addresses your topic; in these instances, use secondary sources to supplement your understanding of the related issues, providing information about industrial organization, historical context, social issues, specific artists, or the text’s genre. Some topics will have secondary sources that directly address the specific topic that you are writing about. While most of the books and articles for this class may be useful secondary sources for you (and should be cited if you do draw from them), class assigned materials will not fulfill the required secondary sources. Encyclopedia articles are potentially useful secondary sources, but are too broad to count toward your research requirement. There are a number of scholarly books on reserve in Pullen Library for this course that can count toward your research requirement—please check on GIL for relevant titles.

 

Developing a Paper Proposal

Every class and every teacher has different requirements for planning and preparing a research paper, but one common approach is writing a proposal or proposal. Even if it is not part of an assignment, it is an extremely useful tool to help you focus and develop your research papers; students are recommended to develop the habit of writing proposals of this sort before writing any research paper. A proposal is a brief summary of what you will accomplish with your paper and how you plan to achieve this goal — think of it as a basic game plan for your research paper. Your proposal should do the following:

•           clearly explain what your topic is and what specific aspect(s) you will examine

•           give some relevant background information on your topic

•           identify what basic research question is driving your paper

•           sketch out a preliminary thesis statement and argument for your paper

•           provide some of the sources you will use to back up your thesis

•           suggest a plan explaining how you will gather and use additional sources

•           explain how this project will clearly fulfill the requirements of the assignment

Proposals will differ based on the specific assignment, but the primary goal of a proposal is to write out your strategy for research and writing. A proposal is an early attempt to answer a lot of questions that you have not sufficiently considered and researched; thus it is not a firm promise to follow the plan you lay out. The proposal serves two major purposes: it forces you to think about and answer these questions early in the writing process and it gives your professor an opportunity to provide you with feedback and guidance to help refine your research and writing. Hopefully many things will change and develop from your proposal to the first draft of your paper — the proposal is a tool to allow you to begin writing your thoughts and strategies before you write a draft of the paper. While it may seem like a chore to write out your ideas so early in the process, nearly all writers find that their essays improve dramatically when they have developed their arguments and research plans early and gotten feedback on a proposal from their professor.

Proposal Example

(Note – this proposal is not appropriate for this particular assignment, focusing on television genres, but it is a good model for a television research paper.)

Megan is a student assigned to write a research paper exploring the relationship between a radio, film, or television text and its media industry. Here is an outline of the process she followed to develop a proposal:

•           Choosing the Topic — Megan knew she wanted to write on children’s television programming because that was one of her favorite program types and she thought that she might want to go into the field after college. She wrote down a list of programs that might be legitimate topics to research; when she listed Sesame Street, she got excited because she remembered an interesting article she’d read a while ago about the show’s anniversary. Since it felt right, she chose Sesame Street as her topic.

•           Doing Background Research — Before writing her proposal, Megan knew she needed to gather information to furnish a basic knowledge of the show and help her develop an argument for the paper. She looked in a variety of places: in guidebooks like Total Television and The Encyclopedia of Television; in the textbook for her class (Tube of Plenty by Erik Barnouw); and on the Internet. All of these sources provided some good factual information about the program (when it began, who created it, etc.), but it was not enough to base an argument on.

•           Gathering More Detailed Research — Using the knowledge obtained through her background research, Megan was able to search the library effectively for research materials. Her background knowledge provided her additional search terms — instead of just looking up information on Sesame Street, she could look for research on the network (PBS), production company (Children’s Television Workshop), and creative personnel (Joan Ganz Cooney and Jim Henson). Additionally she learned that the show began in 1969, helping her choose what resources she should use to search for materials. Using these guidelines, she looked in GIL to find relevant books. This uncovered a number of books on public broadcasting in the late-1960s and early-1970s. She checked out these books and skimmed them for relevant information — she found many references to Sesame Street and its importance to the development of PBS. Because she found so much material, she felt that she had enough research gathered to write her proposal.

•           Developing a Thesis — By this time Megan felt that she knew enough about Sesame Street and PBS to have a pretty good idea of what she could argue in her paper. Through her reading of materials, she was struck that Sesame Street emerged right at the beginning of PBS and was the most successful program in the network’s early years. She felt she had the makings of a good argument — that Sesame Street was the key factor that allowed PBS to become a successful public broadcasting network. Is this a legitimate argument? She decided that it was because it clearly fit the assignment (relating a media text such as Sesame Street to the U.S. broadcasting industry), it was not obvious (not everyone would have known how important the program was), and she could defend it through research, not relying on evaluation and opinion. While Megan wasn’t sure that she, as a beginning undergraduate, could make such a bold claim, she felt that her research supported her position and that she could convincingly argue her case in her paper — an original argument paper always involves making a claim that is both bold and defensible using your research!

Now she was ready to write a proposal. Here’s what she gave to her instructor:
(note that your proposal should be double-spaced)

In 1967, the Carnegie Commission Report to President Lyndon Johnson recommended the establishment of a public broadcast service, advising funding through a tax on television sets as they were sold. Congress followed the report by establishing the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, but it did not endorse the proposed tax; PBS received only a minute fraction of its operating expenses from the government. Faced with the possibility of failure, PBS needed something to provide it with a clear identity and help it establish itself in the public eye.

In this paper I will argue that Sesame Street was the vital factor that allowed for the success of PBS. I will summarize the historical background of PBS’s struggle with financial problems and limited audiences, and detail Sesame Street’s creation by Children’s Television Workshop. Sesame Street, through an innovative approach to educational television that incorporated a multicultural cast, short segments to captivate children’s attention, and mature humor to engage parents watching with their children, effectively targeted a specific audience unlike any other previous educational program. I will show how the remarkable success of Sesame Street allowed PBS to capitalize on the children’s educational market, resulting in more PBS programs following the pattern and style of Sesame Street, an increase in viewership, and an increase in private funding and support for PBS.

To research this paper I will draw upon secondary accounts of the history of Sesame Street, including Getting to Sesame Street: Origins of the Children's Television Workshop by Richard Polsky (New York: Praeger, 1974), and reports about the program’s effectiveness, such as The First Year of Sesame Street: An Evaluation by Samuel Ball and Gerry Ann Bogatz (Princeton, NJ: Educational Testing Service, 1970). Additionally histories of PBS, like Public Radio and Television in America: A Political History by Ralph Engelman (Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage Publications, 1996), will provide background for the history of public broadcasting and the importance of Sesame Street. For primary sources, I will look to trade journals, found in Film Literature Index and LEXIS/NEXIS, for articles on the effects of Sesame Street on the television industry. Popular articles in magazines, accessed through The Readers' Guide to Periodical Literature and ProQuest will provide critical reactions to the show and its impact on PBS. By analyzing how the text of Sesame Street fits into the industrial history of PBS, we will be better able to understand the significance of this groundbreaking and long-lasting program that generations of children have grown up watching.

 

Megan’s professor was very impressed with this proposal because she:

•           clearly identifies her topic

•           proposes a clear thesis in the form of an argument

•           provides relevant background information

•           identifies specific sources that she will be using

•           outlines what other research she will undertake

•           suggests how her sources will be used in her paper

•           clearly points to how this paper will fulfill the assignment

A successful proposal should accomplish all of these goals. One way to test whether a proposal is adequate is to show it to other students in your class — if they feel that they could research and write a strong paper based on your proposal, then it is probably a strong proposal. If they have any questions that they would need to answer before doing more research and writing, then you should address those issues in your proposal.

Megan turned this proposal into an excellent research paper with a clear argument, solid research, and a strong focus on the relationship between a television text and the television industry. She would not have been able to write such a good paper without an excellent proposal to clarify her project to her instructor and to herself.