Living Conditions of Native Americans
Write a short proposal (about 250 words – about 1-2 paragraphs) stating the documentary and social issue you will be evaluating in your research paper. This paragraph will be your initial plan for your research. You will be required to research 8 sources for this paper, two of which may be articles from our book. Your post to the “Documentary/Topics DB” should be a paragraph-length proposal should answer the following questions:
- What documentary did you settle on? What is the social issue it addresses? What is the position you think that the documentary takes on the issue? What might some opposing ideas be against the documentaries’ stance? What sorts of data and research will help you evaluate the work of the documentary?
- Be prepared to rhetorically evaluate the movie – what sorts of emotional persuasion are used (what you agree with the documentarian’s position or not), analyze how the issue is framed and presented to the viewer. If you have already watched the film, describe a specific scene that you think is important in the movie that you will analyze the rhetorical tools employed by the filmmaker.
- What are scholarly sources that would be good to find the most credible work from a variety of sources and institutions?
- List some subsidiary questions (smaller questions) you will have to answer as you are answering your main question. If the topic is very general, please be prepared to narrow the focus of your research. For example, if you’re analyzing problems associated with food processing and corporations – you may decide to just narrow your research to “organic” food definitions and whether those are useful regulations for the public or not. It is a better idea to narrow the focus of your research because you can to address something meaningfully within the 8-10 page requirement.
