Please read the instruction
Argument Essay (1000 – 1250 words) + sources (includes at least 4 sources and 1 annotation on a Works Cited page)
-Include a creative title for the essay– puns/plays on words work well.
-Include a hook at the beginning of the essay: try asking the reader a question, or telling a short story about a scenario that relates to your topic of video games +art.
-Mention your personal connection to your topic around your introductory paragraph. This helps establish the significance of your argument. Also make sure to mention why this issue is timely/relevant— is the video game industry growing? Have there been significant recent censorship of video games that threatens the continuation of the genre?
-Good job putting your sources in alphabetical order.
-Please title your “sources” section “Works Cited” instead, and put spaces between each individual entry in your works cited.
-Good job improving online readability by including spaces between paragraphs
-Remember to include images to support the claims you make in your text. Which particular images would help prove to readers that video games are art?
-Once you include images, make sure to include captions below the images that mention 1) what we are looking at, and 2) why we are looking at it.
It looks like you use the Patton sources the most out of all of your sources. How can you work in the rest of your sources more evenly throughout your essay?
-Everytime you use a source, make sure to introduce them (i.e.: why they are an authority on the subject). For example: “Ryan Patton is an assistant professor of Art Education @_____. According to Patton, _____.”
– For your thesis statement, try the following: “While many people argue that video games are not art, I argue they are art because video games: involve a lot of traditional artistic expression; involve narrative arcs as well as illustrations; and engage the viewer’s emotions.” Each of your subsequent paragraphs would follow this “map”:
#1: One of the ways in which video games are art is because they involve a lot of traditional artistic expression..
(define traditional forms of art) Video games also involve traditional artistic expression such as…
#2: Another way in which video games are art is because they involve narrative arcs as well as illustrations
Define how narrative arcs and illustrations fit into our current concept of “art”
#3: The third way in which video games are art is because they engage the viewer’s emotions…
Define how engaging emotions fits into our current concept of” art”
#4: Counter argument: “Yet, even with art, people argue about what is art and what is not art.” Discuss:
-critics (a group knowleable about art) dont define video games as art
-video games are sold for profit
-video games can be “won”
#5 My opinion is still valid because…
– critics have notoriously had changing opinions of what constitutes art over time (give specific examples of how people thought about the art of picasso when it was created vs now)
-other art forms have been sold for profit (films, fine art), and we dont question whether they are art
-“winning” in a video game is the mode through which one progresses through the work. Books require that one progresses through them by reading, films require watching. Just because a work of art requires activity on the part of the viewer to engage it doesn’t mean it isn’t art.
#6 conclusion: Ultimately, this matters to me, and to people in my field because (what is the effect on people in your field when video games are not considered art?).Ultimately this is a larger issue related to (what is the larger theme this issue relates to: creativity? how we define art?), and this affects everyone, not just people in digital media because… Consequently, to change things for the better I would recommend…(here, make sure to which group of people can have the greatest positive effect on this issue, and why. Also, make sure to discuss what this group of people can do to improve this issue (and what the public at large can do to improve this issue).
-I agree with the SLC tutor you spoke with regarding removing the topic of “science” from your essay. This is because we want to focus in on the similarities between the field of Art and the field of Video Game Design, and mentioning the field of Science brings in a third field that might confuse your readers/might feel off track.
Also I attached some Video Games photos for 2017 – popular ones