The Pop Culture Zone Writing Critically about Popular Culture

by Smith, Allison D.; Smith, Trixie G.; Watkins, Stacia

• ISBN13: 9781428205062
• ISBN10: 1428205063
• Edition: 1st
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2008-06-19
• Publisher: Wadsworth Publishing

Summary

Why bring pop culture into the composition classroom? Because it’s something you know and can get passionate about. THE POP CULTURE ZONE: WRITING CRITICALLY ABOUT POPULAR CULTURE focuses on your relationship with pop culture--such as film, television, popular books, and advertisements--and how that relationship can help you become a more critical reader and writer. The authors of this book use pop culture as the bridge between your life and the critical reading, thinking, and writing that are part of freshman composition to help you learn the rules of formal writing as well as more familiar forms of persuasion. You’ll learn to summarize your views effectively, listen to viewpoints that are different from your own, compare and contrast, and present ideas in a way that creates a continuing conversation of ideas.

Table of Contents

Introduction to Writing About Popular Culture

The Pop Culture Zone

Writing in the Pop Culture Zone

Synthesis

Defining Pop Culture

The Oprah Effect

The Content Zone

Writing about Advertisements

Sample Essay: Advertising: Keeping Sexism Alive

Reading Selections: The 70s

After the Blackout

My Father+s Closet, John Seabrook

Reading Selections: The 80s. Marketing in Color: New Niches Flow into the Mainstream

Keep Ads Out of Books

Reading Selections: The 90s

Profitability, Diversity, and Disability Images in Advertising in the United States and Great Britain

Constructed Bodies, Deconstructing Ads: Sexism in Advertising

Reading Selections: The 00s. Ads Ad Nauseum

No Escape from Ads, Even in the Backseat

The Battle for Advertising: Internet Giants Get Ready for Full Combat

Reading Selections: Across the Decades

Defining Trade Characters and Their Role in American Popular Culture

Merchandising Madness: Pills, Promises, and Better Living Through Chemistry

Writing about Film

Sample Essay: 1968

Resonates in 2004: 2001: A Space Odyssey and the Devolution of the Science Fiction Film

Reading Selections: The 70s

May the Force Be With You, and You, and You+

What is the Godfather Saying?

The Pleasures of Disappointment: Sequels and the Godfather, Part II

Reading Selections: The 80s

John Hughes Goes Deep: The Unexpected Heaviosity of Ferris Bueller+s Day Off

Reading Selections: The 90s

Revelations

Reading Selections: A Case Study from the 00s

Fahrenheit 9/11: Review

Movie Review: Fahrenheit 9/11

Sub-par Propaganda

Reading Selections: Across the Decades

Disney+s Dolls

Why I+m Not Bored

Alfred Hitchcock: A Hank of Hair and a Piece of Bone

Writing about Groups, Spaces, and Places

Sample Essay: You+re the Tops

Reading Selections: The 70s

Disco Dance Introduction

The Ship Shape

Reading Selections: The 80s

Mallingering

Reagan-Bush at 9: Passing on the Legacy of Shame

Reading Selections: The 90s

Black Sorority Boom: Ninety Years After the First Group Was Founded, Membership and Enthusiasm Are Thriving

Bold New City or Built-Up +Burb+? Redefining Contemporary Suburbia

Reading Selections: The 00s

NASCAR Racing Fans: Cranking Up an Empirical Approach

The National Storytelling Festival

A Case Study

Paradise Ruined: A Guidebook Writer+s Lament

Greetings from the Florida Keys and Key West, The Monroe County Tourist Development Council. Margaritaville

More Key West Hotels Going Offline

Reading Selections: Across the Decades

Hitler Did Fine, I Can Do Better

Ladies of the White Gloves: Riding with Pride, Dianna Baldwin

Job Corps, AmeriCorps, and Peace Corps: An Overview, Kevin M. McCarron

Writing about Music

Sample Essay: The Triple-Threat Folk Hero

Reading Selections: The 70s

Bob Marley: Music Man with a Mission

Crossing the Border

Reading Selections: The 80s. Controversy

Reading Selections: The 90s

Romancing the Record: The Vinyl De-Evolution and Sub-cultural Evolution

Rap of the Ages: Tracking the Highs and Lows of Nearly 20 Years

Within You, Without You: The Guitarist+s Search for Spiritual Meaning

Reading Selections: The 00s. Static Minds

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