PART A: Social Media has become a popular way of documenting our daily experiences, which has led to many questions about the relationship between memoir writing and social media. In the article A Memoir is not a Status Update, Shapiro (2014) questions if her own memoirs would have turned out differently if she had grown up at a time dominated by social media:
I wonder what would have become of me if I had come of age as a writer during these years of living out loud. My parents were in a car crash in 1986 that killed my father and badly injured my mother. If social media had been available to me at the time, would I have posted the news on Facebook? Tweeted it to my followers as I stood on line to board the flight home? [ . . . ] And ten years later, would I have been compelled to write a memoir about that time in my life? Or would I have felt that Id already told the story by posting it as my status update? (para. 2)
In this assignment, you will discuss the relationship between Social Media and Memoir writing. Specifically, you will write a 400-500 word response to Shapiros article and answer one of the two questions listed at the end of this document.
General Instructions: Write an APA-style paper (approximately 400-500 words in length) in response to one of the questions listed (questions on page 2). Throughout your response, include cited examples from Shapiros article A Memoir is Not a Status Update and the content covered in Weeks 1-7 of our course. When structuring your answer, please keep the following guidelines in mind:
Include a brief introduction (3-4 sentences) that ends with a direct answer to your chosen question
Include 2-3 short paragraphs to support your answer to the question
Include a brief conclusion paragraph (3-4 sentences) at the end that reviews the arguments in your paper
Include words from the question in your thesis statement (the last sentence of your introduction
paragraph) to ensure that you are directly answering the question;
Include specific examples from the reading and online content in your responses;
Cite all of your examples using APA (which means every sentence with an idea that is not your own must
have the authors name and year of publication included);
Add 2-3 sentences after every example to explain why your example supports/answers the questions (this
is how you demonstrate critical thinking, provide deeper analysis and ultimately earn the stronger grades);
Include an APA Reference page at the end of your assignment that provides more than just a URL (see
APA Guide for what to include or ask at the Library)
Format your assignment using APA standards; and
Limit your completed assignment to no more than 500 words.
THE ASSIGNMENT Questions
STEP 1: Read the article A Memoir is not a Status Update by Dani Shapiro, located at the link listed below:
http://www.newyorker.com/culture/cultural-comment/memoir-status-update
STEP 2: Read each question below carefully. Select ONE question to answer. Make sure you read the posted rubric (marking guide) before you begin.
QUESTION 2: Shapiro (2014) focuses her attention on Facebook and Twitter when she critiques the use of social media as memoir. In your opinion, however, are there other forms of social media that she is overlooking?
Select TWO forms of Social Media (excluding Facebook and Twitter) and discuss whether or not they are effective platforms for memoir writing. Organize your answer into a 400-500 word response which begins with a clear introduction and closes with a brief conclusion. Your response must also include at least TWO CITED examples from Shapiros article and at least TWO CITED examples from our course material (textbook and/or SLATE content pages).
DO NOT MIX PART A AND B PLEASE THEY ARE DIFFERENT PARTS ONE IS ARTICLE ANALYSIS AND THE OTHER ONE IS A MOVIE
PART B:
Take note of the structure of Night & Fog (Alain Resnais, FRA, 1955) and the specific ways in which information is presented. After the screening, consider which modes of representation you observed and prepare a report summarizing these observations, offering specific examples from the film as evidence. Ask yourself, What is the filmmakers intention in presenting this historical narrative in this way?