In this paper, you will analyze a communication event with a focus on either: (1) Good Health and Well-being, (2) Quality Education, or (3) Gender Equality (Three of the Global Goals chosen by the UN). Your 4-5 page essay (not including the works cited page or any headers) will be about how you can use communication as a tool to interpret/understand the world (in this case, your event).
Here are some guidelines on what a communication event is and how you might choose one:
You will choose ONE communication event for analysis.
The event is a contained unit of communication that has a clear beginning and end.
Examples: a conversation you had with a friend or colleague, a commercial, an episode of a television show, a public speech, a podcast interview, a song or music video, a work of performance art — you can tailor this to your own interests!
The key here will be to select your event carefully — usually its easier to write a paper about a topic where there is a conflict presented or an issue to be resolved. This will give you an opening for analysis and intervention!
Main Components for your Paper
In this 4-5 page essay (not including the works cited page or any headers), you will create your own original analysis, based on what you have learned thus far this semester. To do this, you will:
1) Develop a 1-paragraph introduction that (a) introduces the large themes of the paper, (b) offers a roadmap for your paper, and (c) presents a thesis statement (this is the “so what” factor of the paper — what we will learn from your analysis).
2) You will use your body paragraphs to analyze your communication event by using concepts we have learned so far in this course. In your analysis, you will define and apply at least six communication concepts from your textbook.
Hint: check the back of each chapter for a list of key terms and group similar terms together in your paper.
As you organize and write, be sure to take care to pose questions to yourself that interrogate your own belief systems — we all have them, and examining what informs them is an important communicative practice.
3) In your conclusion, reflect on your analysis briefly and then draw some conclusions about how a knowledge of communication principles helps contribute to an understanding of (or change in) our shared world.
