Your first job is to analyze the article, read it carefully, and identify the author’s argument
and
evidence. To execute this part of the assignment successfully, follow these steps:
Spend quality time with the article, reading it and reviewing it many times
Scroll through the pages to think about how the author organized the article
Take notes and list main points, researching unfamiliar terms, ideas, and/or events
To use it in your crucial analysis, summarize the article in your own words
Identify the author’s central argument, the evidence he uses, and its efficacy
Highlight any key ideas that you might want to cite in your analysis (including page numbers
when you cite them) and/or use as a jumping-off point for your creative engagement
The second part of the assignment is for you to engage with some aspect of the article creatively,
depending on what catches your interest as you read it. For this, you are required to locate and cite one
additional scholarly article (NOT Wikipedia, website, or popular magazine) in your paper. I have provided two possible options but you are free to look for your own.
Choose a specific event or theme. Some ideas for keywords that you could use to find a scholarly article might be:
Norman Bel Geddes (industrial & theater designer) or Robert Moses (urban planner, NY)
Pan American Highway through a particular place (Mexico, Costa Rica, Alaska, Buenos Aires—
whatever you choose and the consequences of that development, perhaps)
Chicago’s 1933 Century of Progress or 1939-40 NY World’s Fair (a futuristic exhibit?)
1956 Federal Aid Highway Act & Community Displacement
Race & “renewal” (“Green Book,” Chicago segregating highways, LA’s Chávez Ravine)
Railroad development & transnational interests (US, Mexico, Canada, South America)
The imperial infrastructure of the Inca road system
The critical analysis of Walker should be half; the rest is for your creative engagement.
In the introduction, foreground and fully identify only the Walker article (Here is the citation: Walker, Nathaniel Robert, “American Crossroads: General Motors’ Midcentury Campaign to Promote
Modernist Urban Design in Hometown U.S.A,” Buildings & landscapes, 2016, Vol.23 (2), p.89-115) recognizing the author (see p. 110 for info on him) and the publication venue. [Do not analyze
the article in the introduction—save that for after the introduction when you summarize it,
developing the embedded ideas and discussing the evidence used to support his argument].
The intro should conclude with a thesis statement linking a critical discussion of Walker’s
argument with the topic you have independently developed.
By the end of your introduction,
the reader should know that this paper is an article analysis that also raises discussion
of…[whatever theme you have creatively and independently sought to develop].
In the second half of the paper, there must be a clear reference to the article that informed the
development of your creative engagement.
Use complete sentences, thoughtfully developed paragraphs, and proper spelling and grammar.
Use specific page numbers when you cite and/or quote Walker and/or additional sources;
include these and other references (including videos) in the bibliography
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