For this assignment you will be required to write a research essay of about 900 to 1200 words relating to urban legends (contemporary folklore). You will be required to use 3-5 sources (2-5 primary, 1-2 scholarly articles, and 0-2 secondary or non-scholarly sources) and 1 image.

Your essay will need to be thesis driven and focus primarily on research backing up your thesis. The essay will also need to have strong essay attributes, including, but not limited to, a clear audience, tone, voice, organization, and rhetorical strategy. Basically, you will be forming a unique, specific, and professional paper supporting your idea on urban legends.

The topics available for this assignment are fairly open, but I will be checking to make sure each thesis is suitable for the assignment. A few topic starters include, but are not limited to:

-The effects of technology on oral and/or written culture.

-The relationship of gender to contemporary folklore.

-The relationships and evolution of older folklore and urban folklore.

-The themes, motifs, symbols, and metaphors of contemporary folklore and their connection to their parent cultures.

-The interconnection of urban legends through worldwide cultures.

-The development of cultural traditions (folk music, foods, holidays, traditions, etc. through immigration.

-The development of cultural traditions from technology.

USE THE LIBRARY:

http://edcc.libguides.com/c.php?g=182961&p=1205845

Nuts and Bolts:

900-1200 Words (i.e. about 3-5 pages)

12 pt Font

Times New Roman

Double Spaced

1” Margins

MLA Guidelines

Include Your Name, My Name, Class, and Date in Upper Left.

Include Last Name and Page Number in Upper Right.

Example Working Claims:

-The anecdotes “The Kentucky Fried Mouse” and “The Olive Garden Toilet Spiders” are relatively new urban legends, but they illustrate commonplace themes regarding food-related anxieties that can be found in fables from centuries ago.

-“Little Red Riding Hood” may still be well known today, but urban legends continue to be developed from those important feminist values in order to relate with modern society.

-Through online story-telling methods, such as Copypasta and Creepypasta, oral traditions are evolving more rapidly than ever before to accommodate the constantly developing technological world.

-Although in the past, oral traditions required face-to-face interactions to discuss fabricated fables, the anonymity of the Internet has caused audiences to often assume, with a dangerous naivety, contemporary legends are true.

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