Analysis Paper

Anti-War Organization Website

Due: Wednesday, December 8th

What: The internet has become a major vehicle for social movements in the last 10 years. For this assignment
you’ll develop the content for a website for an organization protesting the war on terrorism.

How: Imagine that you are running an organization that is against the U.S. War on Terrorism. Using what you
know about the arguments for war, and the media discourse surrounding the war, you will write some of the
organization’s content for their website, and decide how the website will interact with members and the media.
You can be creative, but you need to back up your ideas of what will work with the course readings. You may
want to look around online at some related websites for some content ideas, but if you use any website’s ideas or
content expressly, you need to cite the website properly.

Website content: Write the following content for the website.

• The About page: 1-2 paragraphs describing the group.
• The Mission Statement: 2-3 sentences or bullet points describing the group’s goals.
• Why: Justify your About page and Mission Statement. Why did you write them the way you did?

The next sections should be about 1.5 pages total:

• Media section: Think of what kind of news headlines would be included on the website. What media
sources will the website branch out to? Why?
• Activism: How will the group encourage activism online? (petitions, letters to the editor etc.)
• Who: Who will be visible on the website? What kinds of voices? What kinds of authority? Why would
these be good choices?
• Networking and user involvement: What kind of Web 2.0 technology will your website use? Social
Networking? Twitter? Why?
• Images: What sorts of images and graphics would you use and why ? You do not need to include
images, but can if you’d like to.

• Use course material throughout your analysis to support the assertions you make. You are also welcome
to bring in other relevant material.
• Your paper should be 3-4 double-spaced pages long, with all sources cited properly.
• You are welcome to use whatever citation style you are comfortable with, as long as you are consistent.

Grading will be based on the following:

• Does it meet all requirements listed above?
• Is it analytical in content, not just a summary?
• Is it explicitly related to concepts from assigned readings, from in class discussions, readings, etc. (in
other words, your analysis should serve as an example of what we are studying in class)?
• Does it demonstrate your ability to extend what we have learned in class to other examples of
propaganda?
• Does it demonstrate they you understand the social context for this war?
• Does it demonstrate that you are thinking critically about propaganda and persuasive messages?
• Does it demonstrate strong writing ability,* including thorough proofreading?
• Refer to the writing guide provided at the beginning of the semester.

Rewrites: You are allowed to re-write one short analysis paper during the course of the semester. If you want to
do this to improve your grade on a paper, you will need to meet with me first so we can go over the paper
together. Since this is the last paper of the semester, your rewrite will be due on the day of the final exam
(Friday, December 17). The re-write will be graded with the same criteria as the original paper.