Assignment: Your task
for this assignment is to locate and evaluate the four (4) best sources on
a topic you select from the list below. The primary purpose here is
for you to learn how to evaluate the quality of sources on a topic.
This assignment is designed to help you research an historical or informational
context for the most formal essay you will write this year, the capstone
research paper. This research paper (Paper #3) will be a carefully
researched investigation into computer games as a non-commercial, experimental
or artistic medium focusing on the works and contributions of one person/artist
(or one collaborative group) whose work meets this criteria. This source analysis assignment
is designed to familiarize you with the process of finding, assessing,
selecting, and summarizing sources. The backdrop here will guide and
inform your topic selection for the capstone
research paper.
Tips: Your task is twofold. First, you must research a variety of sources on the topic of your choice from the list below in order to find the best sources. You will read and evaluate many sources, and, after careful consideration, identify the four best sources you find. Second, you must describe the quality of these sources in a 500-750 word essay (see below) and list them in the References section of the essay. Use APA format (see LPH 116-199). The library instructional session (Jan. 23rd 2008) is designed to assist you in learning how to find and evaluate various sources.
Introduction: Explain the topic you have selected for your research here.
Body: Write a paragraph for each of the four sources you select, to include:
1. Authority: Identify the author and his/her credentials. What is the writer's expertise?
2. Reliability: Identify where the article was published and discuss whether or not the website, journal, or publisher is a well-recognized, reliable source, so far as you know.
3. Credibility: Examine the professional aspects of the article, including its tone, its clarity of purpose, its currency (was it written recently?) or historical relevance, and its objectivity. (If the presentation seems objective, it offers credible evidence to support its claims.) Also look to see if the text is free of surface errors, accessible and well organized.
Conclusion: Briefly
assess the professional quality of the sources you have evaluated here
and the way they might be related to your capstone topic and of use to you
in your capstone
research paper, as best you can determine this.
1. Alternative Input / Output (e.g., smell, pain, breath, brainwaves)
2. Physical / Gestural / Tangible Interfaces
3. Mixed / Virtual Reality
4. Artificial Characters and Narrative
5. Hacktivism / Security
6. Location / Context Aware Media
7. Identity (national, racial, sexual)
8. Games as Politics or Political Activism
9. Environment / animal welfare / multi-national corporations
10. Misuse of Technology
11. Non-digital approaches to virtuality
12. Adapting the digital to reinterpret analog
If you have difficulty deciding on a topic, first go to Steven Wilson's index of experimental projects - Intersections of Art, Technology, Science & Culture and find two projects that you think you'd be interested in exploring. Then, compare these projects to the list of topics above, and research the topic that best fits the project.
Paper #3 is due Jan 30th 2008. Submit electronic copies via EEE and Turnitin by 8:55am, and hardcopy at the start of your discussion section. Do not submit electronic files in .docx format. Make sure your first and last name and discussion section number (Discussion Section 1, 2, 3, or 4) is included on the first page of the document.
Thanks!
Go to the US12B Discussion Website at http://www.conceptlab.com/uci/us12b/
Go to the US12B Syllabus Website at http://www.ics.uci.edu/~frost/US12B/syllabus.html
(Page last modified: Jan 24th 2008 by GDH)