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English 116: Analysis of Literature and Film
Composition II Trevor Kearns
Critical Essay 1: Portrayals of Social Engineering in Literature and Film
Value: Up to 100 points
The Purpose
This is the first of three formal, analytical essays you will write for this class. I will give you substantial feedback on this first draft as well as an initial score of up to 100 points, awarded according to the scoring guide I’ve attached. You can refer to this guide as you write to gauge how well your writing meets the descriptions therein.
When your first draft is due, you will exchange it with a peer in order to provide different kinds of feedback. This Peer Edit will earn you up to an additional 25 points. With all this feedback in hand, you may revise your essay to improve its grade; final drafts are due near the end of the semester.
The Method
Please note that this is a formal writing assignment. That means you need to write using correct, formal syntax. Do not use any of the following: contractions (“don’t”); casual expressions (“This effect is totally awesome”); the general “you” to indicate the reader’s experience (“Reading this story, you start to think more about astronomy”); imprecise or vague terms (“The story is interesting”), and so on. You also need to be objective in your analysis, which means you must not put your analysis in subjective terms (“I thought that”). Focus on making a formal argument that relies on the text itself rather than on your judgment of the value of the text.
The Assignment
Analyze how social engineering has created a particular world in at least one episode of Black Mirror that we’ve watched so far. How has the application of technology created a world that is fundamentally different from our own? What are the benefits of this technology and/or social reorganization, and what are its costs? Also, instead of focusing on one particular world, you may instead compare and contrast how several episodes all approach some aspect of the same kind of social engineering from different perspectives or angles. Note that I expect your thesis to be nuanced instead of reductive: there are certainly upsides to all of the worlds or technologies presented, and I would like to hear how these episo

des suggest these upsides even as they force us to confront the chilling (even gruesome or catastrophic) negative consequences of them.
Draw your evidence chiefly from the cinematic elements of character, perspective, and plot. You may focus on a single character or multiple characters from different episodes. Use characters’ words, responses, and actions as evidence, and also use elements of plot, such as scene structure and non-diegetic elements, to support your discussion.
Expand your analysis to include at least one work of literature we have read so far. It will likely be easiest for you to find common ground in The Circle, but I welcome any analytical attempts to use other texts to provide a contrasting perspective. Your literary analysis should support your primary purpose of commenting on the consequences of particular forms of social engineering presented in Black Mirror. Also note that you may analyze more than one literary work.
Correctly cite the works you discuss in a Works Cited page at the end of your essay, using MLA style. I’ve linked to the MLA guide at Purdue University’s Online Writing Lab (OWL) in the top module of our site for your reference.
If you’re having trouble thinking of a particular topic to write about, try answering these questions: In the alternate, socially engineered world that is presented, are human beings better off, happier, more liberated, and so forth, than we are? If not, why not? What might that suggest to attentive viewers more broadly about human nature, or about the human condition?
I expect your essay to focus mainly on film, so you may interweave your literary analysis throughout your essay in dribs and drabs, or include a few solid paragraphs that focus on the literature as a way to support your film analysis, or execute this portion of the assignment in any other way you see fit. Your discussion of the literature should support the main point you make about the film.
Your essay should be around 4-5 double-spaced pages long. Please follow the formatting guidelines in the syllabus when you upload your file.
Black mirror episodes watched so far: Nosedive, Hated in the nation, Fifteen Million Merits
Readings: The Circle (Eggers), Saunders, “my flamboyant grandson” ,