Student-Learning Outcomes:

--Select and analyze one urban legend, with emphasis probably found on the Snopes.com website, a website dedicated to the study of urban legends.

--Find and compile the relevant background information about your urban legend; create a clear thesis statement that expresses the core theme or vibe about that urban legend. Certainly, most urban legends are scary or spooky, but your job is to assess what the core source of that fear is—your job is to assess what makes that urban legend scary or spooky.

--Apply proper P.I.E. paragraph structures to the essay so as to outline and organize the major points consistent with the essay's thesis statement (e.g. setting, character, plot-conflicts, point of view, symbols);

--Apply proper M.L.A. or A.P.A.-based quoting conventions to the essay with regards to proper quote introduction, parenthetical citation, and other quote dynamics;

--Examine quotes or images from the formal and informal text or visual-based resources so as to significantly comment on the relevance and impact of those selected images/words.

--Employ at least 3 quotes from various source materials that you find, of a textual or visual nature.

--Discuss the general relevance and utility of urban legends, focusing on these questions:

A. why do people tell urban legends and what causes them to spread?

B. what purpose do urban legends serve in the context of your/our culture? (for example, is there a particularly strong reason why a certain might work in Japan better than it might in the U.S.?)

--Create a final, polished draft of at least 4-6 pages, with a List of Works Cited.

Tasks:

1. Search for an urban legend that has particular interest or intrigue for you. The resources on the LEFT should provide some assistance; (you can work with another urban legend if it is not available online...and is only available via word of mouth, in whcih case, you might need to interview your source). I HIGHLY encourage local urban legends or urban legends from your country of origin.

2. Discover, through research, how the legend began to spread, or how it got its potential start. Attempt to research additional side stories or variations on the urban legend. (For example, in certain stories, the details begin to shift—the fried rat ends up becoming a fried mongoose—but begin to assess what factors influenced the shift). Assess why the details begin shifting.

3. Attempt a summary of the urban legend in your own words as a prewriting exercise;

4. Consider in your own way whether or not you think the urban legend is true, false, or unable to assess due to a lack of resources/lack of the credibility of those resources.

5. Draft a preliminary idea in terms of why you think that urban legend got started—deeply assess what the purpose of that legend is. You may want to include actual evidence, counterevidence, or visuals to support your claims.