Proposal Assignment Option #1--Original Work of Graphic Nonfiction
In the book Understanding Comics, Scott McCloud discusses the steps of the creative process. Up to the final, we have been working through the first three steps: 1) Idea/Purpose, 2) Form, and 3) Idiom. We have brainstormed ideas for our graphic nonfiction, thought about and played with forms that the work could take, and studied the idiom, or vocabulary, of comics.
Your proposal for your final project should include include the first three stages of the creative process AND move on to stage four:
- The Idea/Purpose: A paragraph discussing your overall concept/idea.
- The Form/Idioms: A paragraph/two description of the images you will use (if you will draw them, what you will draw...if you will photograph them/use photographs, what you will photograph, etc.) and the basic forms you will draw from to create your work (use the vocabulary of comics here).
- The Structure: A rough outline/storyboard of your pages (i.e., what you roughly plan to incorporate in each page/frame of the story).
You might in creating the final deviate from this plan, but I would like to see that you have an idea of how you will be setting up your final work of graphic nonfiction, the tools you will need to complete the work, and the general story/idea that you will describe in the work.
The graphic nonfiction drafting process is a bit different from print-based writing in that you have to draft in both words and images. Images will take more time to work with, so you will need to have SOME idea before you go into the project where your images will come from and how you will use those images. You will not be able to improvise and then go back and edit in the same way that you would with purely print text. So try as much as possible to take advantage of the proposal process to think through what you would like to do before you get started.
If you don't have a fully developed idea at the time the proposal is due, you may find it difficult to complete the final project. Thus, be thinking about what you would like to do for your final project from the beginning of class.
Proposal Assignment Option #2--Critical Analysis of a Work of Graphic Nonfiction
Choose a work of Graphic Nonfiction (the work needs to be nonfiction) and use McCloud's theories to analyze HOW that work of Graphic Nonfiction accomplishes its purpose.
In your proposal for this project, you will need to include the following:
In your proposal for this project, you will need to include the following:
- A brief background on the work of nonfiction (1-2 paragraphs).
- Why you are selecting this particular work to analyze.
- An overview of or outline for your analysis.
- An annotated bibliography of works you will use to help describe/analyze your chosen work of Graphic Nonfiction. In the annotation, describe why the resource will be helpful and what it will add to your analysis.