Essay 2
Close Analysis

Write an essay in which you explore and discuss some aspect of the television show Buffy the Vampire Slayer or one of the two secondary articles discussed in class. You will want to work very closely with the text/video itself and cite specific examples. You will need to choose a focused and significant idea to write your essay on, and support your thesis with a few specific examples from the text/video (for a short paper, you may end up using only one major example with the possibility of a few supporting minor examples). Use our class discussions on focus, method, and analysis to help find patterns, themes, or anomalies in the text/video. Come up with an idea that interests you and that you feel is relevant and significant – make sure that your topic is not too obvious; it needs to be something that will interest and engage your reader. Use analytical techniques to discover implications and come up with conclusions from your observations. Ask yourself – So What? – Why should someone read my essay? Your ideas matter! Remember that it’s more effective to say 10 things about 1 than 1 thing about 10. A note on the secondary articles: you might begin by narrowing your focus to one point of interest and frame as agree/disagree. You will want to complicate this as you work on your essay, but it might be a good place to start.