This course will feel a little different from others that you may have taken, in that you will be building a case for your grade as the term goes on (rather than receiving points for each assignment and not knowing precisely why you got those points). You will be receiving a great deal of feedback on each assignment, which will support you in further revising it. Here’s how it’ll work:

Submitting your work

Submit each of your three major assignments, as well as your final self-assessment document, through that unit’s assignment link in Moodle. There will be instructions for each assignment regarding the formats you can use for submission.

How your projects are marked

I’ll give you feedback on every submission, and a mark of Complete or Redo. There are no partial credits and no point deductions. It’s a straightforward call: is the work there, or not yet?

If you receive a Redo, which in Moodle shows as Incomplete, you will need to use my feedback, revise based on that feedback, and resubmit through the same Moodle link. There’s no limit on the number of redo attempts, and this is the place where some real learning can happen to improve your own writing.

What you’ll learn

By the end of this course, you’ll be able to:

1. Identify and explain key theories of representation and critical concepts and methods associated with media studies.
2. Critically assess examples and case studies of media representation through the concepts and methods of the theory.
3. Analyze the construction of social identities and meanings through media representation, with consideration of questions of power.
4. Apply strong critical thinking and academic writing skills.

Everything below, the three major assignments and your final self-assessment, connects back to these four outcomes.

Assignment	Unit / key concepts	A Complete mark means…	Connects to
Media audit	Unit 1, Seeing: representation, discourse, sign, denotation/connotation	You identify representation-as-construction (not reflection) in your chosen media object, using the unit’s vocabulary, with specific evidence.	Outcomes 1 and 4
Annotated media analysis	Unit 2, Naming: ideology, interpellation, othering, stereotyping, erasure	You apply the unit’s concepts to how your media object represents race, gender, class, and/or Indigeneity, with evidence, not summary.	Outcomes 1, 2, and 4
Comparative media analysis	Unit 3, Questioning: production context, institutional power, counter-narrative, sovereignty	You identify power and production contexts across the comparison, engaging seriously with the counter-narrative/sovereignty material rather than gesturing at it.	Outcomes 2, 3, and 4

Unit 4: Your final self-assessment

Your final assessment is where things get juicy. That’s where you point to evidence from your previous submissions and the work that you’ve done to improve them, as well as your interactions with me and others in class, to indicate what grade you believe you have earned in the course. Refer to the criteria below to see how you make that case.

Use the questions below as a guide, not a checklist. Write directly to me, in your own voice, and draw evidence from all three major assignments.

Competency

• Did I identify and explain the key theories and concepts I’m citing? (Outcome 1)
• Did I use those concepts to critically assess the case studies in my work, not just describe them? (Outcome 2)
• Did I analyze how identity and meaning get constructed through representation, including questions of power? (Outcome 3)
• Is my reasoning and writing clear enough that someone outside the class could follow it? (Outcome 4)
• Did I draw evidence from all three major assignments, not just my strongest one?

Excellence

• Did all three assignments reach Complete, and did that take genuine revision, or minimal patching?
• When I got a Redo, did I actually use the feedback to change the work?
• Is my writing clear and edited across all four submissions, including this one? (Outcome 4)

Growth

• Did my grasp of the concepts visibly deepen from the media audit to the comparative analysis?
• Did a Redo on one assignment change how I approached the next one?
• Can I point to a specific moment my thinking shifted, not just a general sense of getting better?

Risk-taking

• Did I choose a harder angle or text over the safest option?
• Did I engage seriously with Unit 3’s Indigenous media sovereignty content, rather than skating past it?
• Did I take “format of your choice” on this self-assessment seriously, and pick something that actually challenged me?
• Did I go beyond the assigned material in at least one assignment?

Therefore, my grade should be…

Re-read what you wrote above. Look back at your feedback and redo history on the three major assignments. Then propose the grade you believe is fair, and explain how you met the four course outcomes, citing specific examples from your own work. If there’s a real gap between the evidence and the grade you’re proposing, I’ll bring the gradebook evidence into the conversation, and we’ll figure it out together.

How your final grade works

Your final grade comes from the four qualities above, not a point total.

• A = Competency, Excellence, Growth, and Risk-taking, all four.
• B = Competency and Excellence, plus either Growth or Risk-taking.
• C = Competency and Excellence.

Here’s the reassuring part: if you complete all three major assignments, even if it takes a few redos, you’ve already shown competency and excellence. That grade, a C, is your floor. Growth and risk-taking are how you build from there toward a B or an A.

AI disclosure: I used Claude to organize this document and to ensure that it aligned with details in the course outline.