Example annotations

A good annotated bibliography should include

  1. an excellent works cited page entry
  2. a clear and concise summary of the source’s key ideas
  3. the thesis of its source
  4. attributive tags and the kind of source
  5. a plan describing how the student might use the source in the final proposal essay
  6. an evaluation of the credibility of the source
  7. comparisons and contrasts among other sources in the bibliography
  8. transitions between the objective annotation and the student’s comments

In a small group, read James Paul Gee’s “Why Game Studies Now?” The essay’s title is a link to a PDF of it.

Then, using the criteria above, we’ll talk about some of the examples below.

After that, if we have time, your group will draft an annotation of Gee’s essay.

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Gee, James Paul. “Why Games Studies Now?” Games and Culture. Sage Publications. Jan. 2006.

Web. 12 Sept. 2017.

In this scholarly article, Gee argues that video games are a new, emerging form of art, and this requires new forms of analysis. He explains that video games are a “visual-motoric-audio-decision-making symphony” and produce stories, and that they constitute a form of performing art. He references some specific video games such as Tetris and Metroid. Going deeper into the artistic aspects of gaming, Gee discusses aspects of gaming such as ambiance, mood, feeling, sound, and appearance, and how meaning is attached to these things.

As a professor, Gee has some credibility as a scholar and author and has several other works pertaining to video games. However, the article was written 11 years ago in 2006. Considering the relatively short life of video games in the world, 11 years is a pretty long time. His argument is a little dated, but still applicable in many ways. Viewing video games as an art furthers our argument that gaming is good for children. It is generally accepted that art is an important aspect of cultural and intellectual development. If video games provide this kind of development, it would be a great benefit for children.

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Gee, James Paul. “Why Games Studies Now?” Games and Culture 1.1 (2006): 54-61. Print. 12 September 2017

In an article by James Paul Gee, the author argues that video games should be considered an art form. Demands a new criteria that’s different from movies for analyzing the video games as art form, because video games are good for the soul and can benefit our lives as much as any other art form. This article appears in the Games and Culture journal, which is peer reviewed. This is not a credible source because he cites himself as a source, giving mainly his opinion. We wouldn’t use this source because of self-citing, and his article is too vague in trying to proof his point.

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Paul Gee, James “Why Game Studies Now? Video Games: A New Art Form” Games and Culture Volume 1 Number 1

January 2006 58-61 © 2006 Sage Publications 10.1177/1555412005281788 http://games.sagepub.com hosted at http://online.sagepub.com.

Paul Gee explains the importance of properly appreciating video games and acknowledging differences in the meaning behind different types of games. “Video games are a new art form” (Paul Gee). Accepting video games as an art and being able to analyze the connection it creates between real life and a fictional story line has an important impact on how art will be viewed in a technologically advancing society. This source will be able to help prove in our essay the importance of accepting new forms of art in a changing world. Some limitations/ weaknesses are the source being outdated, created in 2006. The source also does not address or answer to conflicting points of views. We will still use this source because it offers a variety of reasons as to why video games should be considered art. Upon our own research of opposing viewpoints- this source may be able to answer to these controversies.

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Gee, James “Why Game Studies Now? Video Games: A New Art Form” University Of Wisconsin. Vol. 1 No. 1 2006 pp. 58-61. 12 Sept. 2017.

James Gee argues that video games are a new art form. Due to the fact that there are no new methods to analyze them, we need to learn to understand their influence on society. Video games have a complex structure to them and learning to understand how they are made will benefit us as society. We need to be able to analyze video games to be able to understand the impact that violent video games have on youth.

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Gee, James Paul. “Why Game Studies Now.” Https://Online.sagepub.com, 2006 Sage Publications, 2006, games.sagepub.com. Accessed 12 Sept. 2017.

The article states that video games are a new art form because of the blend between tradition artistic experience, and our own choices in determining the stories. Video games have a set environment, but gamers are given the ability to choose what kinds of scenarios they want to create. No two scenarios are the same, because no two people are the same. This is a peer-reviewed article that mainly references a game called “Castlevania”. This article would provide evidence, or at least a very notable opinion, that video games are a valid art form and should be an accepted study.

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Gee, James Paul. “Why Game Studies Now?” Games and Culture, vol. 1, no. 1, Jan. 2006, pp. 1-4., doi:10.1002/9781118691779.ch1.

In this article James Paul Gee, the Tashia Morgridge Professor of Reading at the University of Wisconsin at Madison, claims that video games are a new art form and should be studied more by scholars. Gee compares Tetris and Castlevania, two video games, to show how games are evolving and giving the players more of a story feel like other art work. He shows that because of this change the players are able to make the games more personal as they choose how the character moves throughout the game, and at what rate.

This article would be a credible source because the author is a professor making him a scholarly source. I would use this in my final paper because it gives more background on video games and shows the improvement.

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Gee, James Pual. “Why Game Studies Now?” Sage Publications, Jan. 2006, pp. 58-61.

James Paul Gee Is writing about video games. He thinks Scholars are not paying enough attention to video games as an art form. He argues that because of the inherent story elements in video games, and the continuously greater impact they have on society as an art form. He talks about the different affects video games have on people as a method of story telling that differs from books. He says talking about an example game “The hero is thus not Alucard from the designer’s story or you the real-world player. It is Alucard-you, a melding of the virtual character, Alucard, and you, the real-world player who has steered Alucard on a unique trajectory through the game.” (Gee, James Paul) Here he describes how we related differently to the stories giving it greater validity as a different and unique art form. The author has five reverences to sources two are to other authors three are to himself. Citing ones self seems to detract from credibility, because the information is coming from himself and not others. The author does make small reverences to and comparison to how literature is viewed as an art form. He uses these to support his enlargement by showing the similarities in the two art forms

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Gee, James Paul. “Why Game Studies Now” Video Games: A New Art Form, vol. 1.       no. 1. 2006, Sage Publications. September 12, 2017.

Gee states in his thesis that “video games are a new art form.” Some of his major points are that the creator and the player, of the video games, help to make a story. He continues to argue that in many art forms today we have “ambiance, mood, feeling, sound, [and] look”. He says that in video games, these things are experienced when created and played. We believe that he is fairly correct in his argument. We compared his video games to a movie, because a movie is a form of art. We also said that it takes drawing, processing, design, and thoughts to create a video game. All of that is similar to movies, paintings, and music even.   He covered many of these points in his scholarly article. He is extremely credible because, in the end of the article it states that he is a professor and he wrote a book called “What Video Games Have to Teach Us about Learning and Literacy”. We would use this in a research paper because he is credible and this is a good source that covers a lot of material. It is also pro our argument.

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Gee, James Paul. “Why Game Studies Now? Video Games: A New Art Form.” Games and Culture, vol. 1, no. 1, Jan. 2006, pp. 58–61.

In James Gee’s scholarly article, he suggests that video games are the newest art form and allow people to utilize video games as a creative outlet. Gee is trying to explain to his audience that video games are different than literature and media in the way we analyze them. He is saying that video games are different because they put people directly in control. The sound, mood and feeling are all what make video games more enjoyable. He also makes the point that humans find story elements more meaningful rather than being lost without seeing the world. He states story elements allow the gamer to projected time. The author urges people to study games because he feels video games are under appreciated. The source is credible but the author sources himself which is a tad suspicious.

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Gee, James Paul. “Why Game Studies Now? Video Games: A New Art Form.” Games and Culture,  Sage Publications, Jan. 2006, journals.sagepub.com/doi/abs/10.1177/1555412005281788

James Paul Gee argues that the art of video games will need a unique new set of rules for the examination of the new art form. He also argues that this art form uses simple shape and symbolism that brings forth different meaning to the player. He calls for a need of criteria that can more fully evaluate the many different and dynamic aspects of the art of video games. Although this particular article may be biased towards a video gamer’s perspective because it comes from a gaming journal, the points that Gee argues about why videogames should be treated as an art form are valid. I think that these games can create an emotional connection with the viewer or player. The elements of design can also be applied to the complex design of the game as it can be towards traditional art forms. Both use symbolism to connect simple shapes and forms to people and ideas. I will use this article because it really helps to illustrate the point of how video games are used for art and how we can have an emotional attachment to them.

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Gee, James Paul. Why Game Studies Now? Video Games, A New Art Form, 1st ed., vol. 1, Sage Publications, 2006.

The author of the piece, James Paul Gee, uses the article to describe multiple types of games, specifically Tetris, Metroid, and Castlevania, and their evolution’s. He includes how the evolution of the games changed the gaming experience by “creating ambiance, mood, feeling sound, and look” (p7). Gee uses comparisons between Tetris and Metroidvania to describe how the “experience of playing the game is closer to living inside a symphony than to living inside a book” (P8). As well as content based validity, Gee cites both Stanford and Harvard professors, proving he personally has credible sources. The author provides thoughtful analysis of his evidence, allowing us as readers to consider him a valid source of information. This source could be used in piece as support for the advancement of gaming studies in universities. We as a group would recommend this piece as a reliable source of evidence.

 

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Style

Respond in writing, in a note to yourself:

  • If you are writing something for your portfolio that is in anyway fantastic, how might you apply what this chapter suggests? For example, what reasonable desire might you give an astonishing character? What normalizing category of details can you add to a fantastic setting?
  • If you are writing something for your portfolio that is intended to be extremely realistic, how night you too apply what this chapter suggests? What could you watch for to prevent an inadvertent weirdness?

Our reading for today mentions tone or style. Consider these examples of how one author alters his style. Then, similarly, draft something very short, and alter its style dramatically, twice.

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Blurring character and plot

Think about your fiction portfolio by writing out answers to these questions. Your answers are not promises to me or your portfolio. Page numbers refer to Percy’s Thrill Me.

  • What does your character look like? What do they like to think about? Hate to think about? Do their thoughts contrast with their appearance? Their actions? The things they say? How so? If not, why not?
  • Who are three of the people in your character’s life. Devote a sentence to each.
  • What is the character’s desire, the “human urgency” (21) that drives them? What is at risk for them if they don’t satisfy it?
  • What obstacle or danger might keep them from their desire? What “lower order goals” (23) might help them reach it?
  • How would this specific character respond to at least three dangers or obstacles? How might those responses get them closer to or farther from what they want? What kind of (if any) “goals” might they set?
  • What new, more-dangerous danger presents itself as a result of the character’s response to dangers, obstacles, or efforts to reach a goal? How does the resolution of the first mystery reveal a second (35-36)?
  • What would the character NOT do to get what they want? How might readers know?
  • What are the consequences of the character’s desires and efforts to get what they want for other characters? For how the character thinks of him or herself? How does the character cope with these consequences?
  • How is this character’s heart in conflict with itself?
  • What external dilemmas or “higher order goals” (21) might this character face as they encounter these dangers?
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Influence

Influence isn’t just a matter of copying someone or learning his or her tricks. You get influenced by writers whose work gives you hints about your own abilities and inclinations. Being influenced is largely a process of self-discovery. What you have to do is put all your influences into the blender and arrive at your own style and vision. That’s the way it happens in music–you put a sitar in a rock song and your get a new sound. . . . Hybrid vigor. It operates in art, too. The idea that a writer is a born genius, endowed with blazing originality, is mostly a myth, I think. You have to work at your originality. You create it; it doesn’t create you.

–Jeffery Eugenides

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Reading as a writer: “The Zebra Storyteller”

Using the story below and in a group of three, identify and quote examples of three different strategies or techniques for writing short fiction. As a group, send one email that includes your work and a list of group members.

 

The Zebra Storyteller

Spencer Hoist

Once upon a time there was a Siamese cat who pretended to be a lion and spoke inappropriate Zebraic.

That language is whinnied by the race of striped horses in Africa.

Here now: An innocent zebra is walking in a jungle and approaching from another direction is the little cat; they meet.

“Hello there!” says the Siamese cat in perfectly pronounced Zebraic. “It certainly is a pleasant day, isn’t it? The sun is shining, the birds are singing. Isn’t the world a lovely place to live today!”

The zebra is so astonished at hearing a Siamese cat speaking like a zebra, why—he’s just fit to be tied.

So the little cat quickly ties him up, kills him, and drags the better parts of the carcass back to his den.

The cat successfully hunted zebras many months in this manner, dining on filet mignon of zebra every night, and from the better hides he made bow neckties and wide belts after the fashion of the decadent princes of the Old Siamese court.

He began to boast to his friends he was a lion, and he gave them as proof the fact that he hunted zebras.

The delicate noses of the zebras told them there was really no lion in the neighborhood. The zebra deaths caused many to avoid the region. Superstitious, they decided the woods were haunted by the ghost of a lion.

One day the storyteller of the zebras was ambling, and through his mind ran plots for stories to amuse the other zebras, when suddenly his eyes brightened, and he said, “That’s’ it! I’ll tell a story about a Siamese cat who learns to speak our language! What an idea! That’ll make ‘em laugh!”

Just then, the Siamese cat appeared before him, and said, “Hello there! Pleasant day today, isn’t it!”

The zebra storyteller wasn’t fit to be tied at hearing a cat speaking his language because he’d been thinking about that very thing.

He took a good look at the cat, and he didn’t know why, but there was something about his looks he didn’t like, so he kicked him with a hoof and killed him.

That is the function of the storyteller.

 

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2010 Project Proposal

Your text book includes an example of our first assignment. Here is a PDF.

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How do writers read?

Here are some of the first few pages of Francine Prose’s Reading Like a Writer. They describe our approach to this class (English 412R, Fall 2017).

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3420 Final exam

The final exam is worth twenty-five points.

For the final, read Richard Ford’s “Communist” as a fiction writing textbook. The story is found on page 529 of Telling Stories.

To complete the exam, first, in no more than 500 words, identify a fiction writing technique taught by the story. Be specific. Quote the story to support your assertions about it and the technique.

Second, in a fragment of fiction written for the exam, write an example of your use of the technique you have identified. This fragment has no word limit. Your use of the knowledge you find should by no means take the form of a hypothetical consideration of how you might use the technique nor be a quotation from work written earlier in the semester. Your example should be written for the exam and should exemplify the fiction writing technique you identify.

The final is due on May 4th at 12:50 pm. The late paper policy as described by the syllabus applies to the final exam. Turn the exam in by emailing it to me before it is due, or attending, writing, and emailing the exam in person on the 4th beginning at 11:00 am. When you email the exam, include “English 3420” and your name in the subject line.

If you have questions, please email me.

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On description and setting

These suggestions are from Charlie Jane Anders’s “Description Without Boring the Reader or Yourself” on, I think, I09. (Her book, btw, is very good.)

  1. Commit to never being boring
  2. Engage all five senses: sights, sounds, smells, tastes, textures; temperature
  3. Try being super terse: Less is more, vivid without length
  4. Dynamic rather than static: how might the description tell a story? Evolution not snapshot
  5. Project feelings onto inanimate objects
  6. Give your character a reaction to what is being described
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Three links: punctuation, first sentences, and characterization

I found these interesting and thought you might, also.

If you’re in the mood for a list, consider “The 5 Best Punctuation Marks in Literature.” It’s easy to underestimate the work punctuation can do.

We tend to obsess over first sentences. Have writers always done this? Look at a bit of history: “In Search of the Novel’s First Sentence.”

How characters react to each other can characterize, but those reactions can be complex. Writing them well might be the “One Weird Trick That Makes a Novel Additive.”

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