The goal of this assignment is to practice your analytical writing skills and to clearly understand and articulate someone else’s argument. This is a crucial skill for developing your own arguments, w

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The goal of this assignment is to practice your analytical writing skills and to clearly understand and articulate someone else’s argument. This is a crucial skill for developing your own arguments, which will we do later in this course.

For this assignment, you must analyze Stuart Hall’s article “The West and the Rest: Discourse and Power.” You must answer the following questions. These questions are in the order that the answers appear in the text (i.e., if you read the text from start to finish, you will come across the answer to each question in order).

  1. Does Stuart Hall think “the West” is a purely geographic idea? In other words, does Hall think “the West” is an area of the world, or something more complex? Additionally, what kind of societies does Hall think this term refers to?
  2. Hall describes five phases of expansion through which the West was formed. Pick one of these phases and describe it in detail, using a mix of quotes, analysis, and paraphrase.
  3. Explain what Hall means by the discourse of “the West and the Rest.” Who is included in the West? Who is the rest? How is the difference between these groups constructed?
  4. Look at your answer to question 1. Do you think your professor agrees with Stuart Hall about this? Explain your answer and make reference to class discussions.

Remember, you must use direct quotes, and you must analyze those quotes to answer questions. Don’t rely entirely on paraphrase. Recall our class discussion about the difference between paraphrase and quote analysis. Each response should be roughly 150-200 words long.

Your essay should adhere to the following requirements:

  1. Do not consult outside sources, and do not write this assignment with other students. You must write the entire paper yourself.
  2. It must be submitted as a MS Word document or PDF uploaded to Canvas under this assignment.
  3. Use a standard 12pt double-spaced academic font (Times New Roman, Arial, etc.). Please include page numbers as well.
  4. You must properly cite your article (both in text and in your references) using APA style. However, you should not use any outside sources for this assignment: only cite the article you are analyzing.
  5. Your paper should be 500-750 words long.
  6. It should be written in paragraph form (i.e., there should be multiple paragraphs, each with a clear topic sentence).
  7. You must provide textual evidence for your claims, as we discussed in class.

Remember that you can go to the Writing and Learning Center for help with your essay.

Your essay will be graded according to the following criteria:

  1. Correctly analyzing the article – 8 points
  2. Quotations (i.e., proper quoting and paraphrasing, and helping the reader to understand the importance of the quotes you use) – 3 points
  3. Formatted according to APA style – 2 points
  4. Clarity (i.e., how clearly and simply you express your ideas to the reader) – 2 points