Term Essay Assignment
Write an argumentative essay, of nine to twelve pages, that constitutes a critical analysis of one or more of our course texts.
Essays shorter than eight full pages or longer than fifteen pages will be returned unread or with a failing grade.
Your essay must not focus on the same game you studied in your short analysis assignment; you are welcome to discuss and analyse it, but only for the purpose of secondary arguments.
Your essay must be one of the following types:
- an analysis of one game, so long as the game is one of: Portal and Portal 2 (together), Anna’s Quest, World of Warcraft, Minecraft, BioShock, and Spore;
- an analysis of two or more games; or
- an analysis of one or more concepts pertaining to the academic study of digital games.
For the first two options, your essay will be an in-depth analysis of the game(s) from one or two perspectives or an
in-depth analysis of one or two specific characteristics of the game(s). Your essay must incorporate a response to at least
one academic essay or book on the academic study of digital games. You are welcome to use any of the assigned essays for our
course or use another one not covered by our course. The essay/book you choose must be academic and peer-reviewed.
Because the study of digital games is still young, you might find it difficult to find academic essays appropriate to
your topic. If this is the case, you are welcome to do the following. Your essay will have an introductory paragraph that
clearly states your thesis with regards to your analysis of the game(s). The second paragraph of your essay will begin a
sub-section of your essay that treats the secondary source specifically (and this section will not directly relate to your
essay’s thesis). The first paragraph of this sub-section will concisely summarize the essay to which you are responding,
without using any direct quotations from the essay itself (though using plenty of page citations). You will then spend at
least a page and a half responding to the argument(s) in the essay (where you can use direct quotations, if needed). Your
response will be based primarily on assessing the usefulness of the concepts raised by the essay for the study of digital
games. What are the strengths of these concepts? What are the problems inherent in adopting these concepts to the study of
digital games? After you have finished responding to the essay, your game analysis essay may begin with its first body
paragraph.
For the third option, you will base your essay on a response to two or more theoretical readings, at least one of which
must be a course reading. As much as possible, choose academic, peer-reviewed essays/books. You are welcome to refer to
any of our course games, including the one you studied in the short essay, as well as other games, so long as this is done
by way of illustrating a theoretical point.
Remember that our course does not treat issues associated with pedagogy, psychology, sociology, marketing, and gaming
culture; thus, your essay cannot be primarily about any of these issues.
As with most English Studies essays, value will be awarded based on the depth of the analysis, the complexity of the
discussion, the solidity of the writing, and the thoroughness of the support to the thesis. Document all sources (of
ideas and of quotations), including all web sources (whether an author is identifiable or not). As always, plagiarism
will not be tolerated.
Essays should conform to MLA guidelines. Essays should have double-spaced lineation. Printed essays should use a 12-point,
serif font (such as Times New Roman) and should not have a justified right margin. Please use one-inch margins on all sides.
Please do not submit the essay in a binder or folder. Please do not include a title page.