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ARTS2093 Social Media Essay 2022

Assessment
& Weighting
Length Due date Feedback
Essay (40%) 1500-2000 words

24/10/22 11:59 PM Rubric and comments via Turnitin

Essay Question

Templatability refers to the repeated choices that characterise social media cultures (e.g. repeated
phrases, images, filters, story types/genres etc.). Explore the tension between authenticity and
templatability in social media communication. Your essay should undertake this exploration with
reference to the communication that occurs on a social media platform of your choice and use 3-4
examples of social media posts. It should also draw on relevant literature from the interdisciplinary field
of social media research to support your claims. This means that you should do some research beyond
the literature that we have covered in the course.

NB: Students often ask me 'How many references?' or 'How many ideas/examples/....'?. The answer is
that we are more interested in the extent to which you justify your claims than in counting how many of
any particular item you include.

WRITING GUIDE

You should present your work as an essay with the following structure:

1. Introduction:

• Define the key terms and introduce the main ideas that you are going to explore in your
essay.

2. Body

• Be sure that your paragraphs contain a topic sentence that indicates to the reader the
idea you are going to deal with in that paragraph. The rest of the paragraph must apply
sufficient analysis of specific examples (and draw on social media research where
possible) in order to justify your claim.

• Be sure to justify each claim you make by referring to the characteristics of the social
media platform that you are analysing, as well as drawing on relevant literature from
social media research.

• Do not simply re-narrate what is happening on social media; analyse the communication
that occurs on the platform you are exploring and link this to relevant ideas in social
media research.

3. Conclusion

• Summarise the claims that you dealt with in the essay. The conclusion is different to the
introduction in the sense that you can now leverage the outcomes of your analysis (as
opposed to simply introducing what you will explore).


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For further help on essay writing see these resources:

• https://student.unsw.edu.au/essay-writing-basics

• https://student.unsw.edu.au/writing.

The Academic skills UNSW team also offer one-on-one consultations for academic writing:

• https://student.unsw.edu.au/individual-consultations-academic-support



How to include a screen capture or diagram in your essay
In order to explain your analysis of social media communication, you will need to include diagrams
and/or screen captures in your essay. You should present these as figures with captions as follows:



Figure 1: An example of a Trump Image Macro (source:
https://twitter.com/fccmal/status/923325787729727488)

I have words...I have the best words.....
Extract 1 : An example of a tweet containing a meme (source:
https://twitter.com/zick61/status/965727490747412480)


References
Please use Harvard format:
https://student.unsw.edu.au/harvard-referencing

References should only be used to support a particular point that you are trying to make. There is no
requirement to use a particular number of references.

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Marking criteria
The table below is the qualitative rubric used as a guide in marking your essay:

F P C D HD
Expression:
The extent to
which your
writing is
fluent, concise,
and coherent
Incoherent and
poorly written.
Highly
problematic in
writing
style and/or
grammar and
structure.
Obtrusive
errors. Likely to
be
well outside
the
word count -
either
too short, or
longwinded.
Poorly
presented.
Weaker writing
of patchy
quality with
some obvious
errors in
referencing
style, and/or
grammar
and/or
structure. Close
to or within
word
count.

Sound writing
style. Adequate
structure.
Some (less
obtrusive)
errors in
style, grammar,
and structure.
Within
word count.

Mature and
generally
assured
academic style
of writing that
is well
structured and
that poses few
problems for
readers.
Few errors in
style, and
grammar.
Within word
count.
Well edited.

Exceptionally
well- written.
Characterised
by a
sophisticated
academic voice
with very few
(or
no) errors in
style, grammar,
and structure.
Within
word count.
Skilfully
edited.
Beautifully
presented.
Argument:
The extent to
which your
argument is
clear, logical,
and directly
answers the
question.

A poorly
discussed
argument is
likely to be
seriously
stunted,
fragmented,
and/or
incoherent.
Little to no
sense of a
logical
connection to
the question.
A weak
argument with
a limited logical
connection to
the question.
Displays some
significant gaps
in
understanding.
A relatively
thoughtful
discussion of a
partially
developed
argument that
is marked by
some
oversights.
Some
worthwhile
connections
made to the
question.
A well-
reasoned
argument that
displays few
gaps in
thinking.
Directly
answers the
question.
An exquisitely
developed,
thoroughly
defended, and
fully coherent
argument that
directly
answers the
question.
Concepts:
The extent to
which you
demonstrated
a grasp of key
concepts and
used them to
answer the
question.
Demonstrates
a poor
understanding
of the key
concepts in the
question.
Demonstrates
an
understanding
of the key
concepts in the
question but
makes some
conceptual
errors.
Demonstrates
a good
understanding
of the key
concepts in the
question.
Demonstrates
an excellent
understanding
of the key
concepts in the
question
Demonstrates
a highly
sophisticated
understanding
of the key
concepts in the
question
Special Consideration

Special consideration is now centrally handled by UNSW. If you experience illness or misadventure,
please consult the following link:

https://student.unsw.edu.au/special-consideration