The Collage Assignment
Hard copy due in class, Oct 21

Many textbooks advise research paper writers to think of using sources as a process of putting them into conversation with each other and finding one’s own role in that conversation.  This assignment asks you to take that “conversation” metaphor seriously.  Using all of the source material at your disposal, create a conversation or dialogue among the sources and yourself.  That is, write a script of the conversation that might take place if you and all the authors of your sources could be together in the same room at the same time.  You can write whatever you want for your own contributions, but the contributions from your sources should consist mainly of direct quotations from those sources.

 Notes on the Collage

• Be creative.  While the default format for this collage is a dramatic script (that is, written like a play), you may choose to represent this conversation in any way you like.
• Start by providing a “cast of characters,” a list of the participants in this conversation. 
• Briefly describe the imaginary setting for this conversation. 
• The majority of the collage should be direct quotes from your sources.
• Put quotation marks around everything you are taking directly from a source, and put the author’s last name and the page number for that quote in parentheses.  If you need to add anything to the quotes to make them “flow” better, put that stuff in brackets [like this]. 
• Don’t just make a list of random quotes from the sources.  Rather, make the sources “speak” or respond to each other, or make them respond to questions you might pose to them.
• Also don’t limit yourself to presenting quotes from sources that agree with you.  Try to represent the range of possible positions concerning your topic.
• Make yourself a character or participant in this conversation.  You might choose to mostly ask questions of your sources, or you might take a position of your own.
• In addition to your sources and yourself, you may include “fictional” composite characters that represent a particular position or way of looking at your issue.  Don’t overuse this function.
• You may single-space the collage.
• Provide an MLA-style “Works Cited” page at the end of the collage.