A research paper is one of the three evaluation options for US-7 Popular Culture in addition to the open-book, take-home exam (required for all), with the other options being the two group project choices. The exam is the basic evaluation option, worth 2 ECTS credits; students who do the exam and a Group Project will receive 4 ECTS credits. Students who write an optional research paper may earn an additional 6 ECTS credits, for a total of 8 credits including the exam. (At least in principle, students may also choose to do both of the Project Options plus the exam, for a total of 10 ECTS credits.)

The paper will be supervised, on a topic involving U.S. popular culture to be chosen by the student, with approval by the teacher. The topic may involve only U.S. popular culture, or compare phenomena between the United States and Finland. Topics should focus on aspects of language and identity as reflected from popular culture, or other aspects of popular culture, including rituals, folkways, popular thought patterns, etc., as would be significant for translators, interpreters or others who are attempting to understand U.S. popular culture phenomena from an international perspective.

Topics should be approved at the latest roughly one-third of the way through the course, with the first draft of the paper submitted for review roughly two-thirds of the way through the course (see the schedule for the target dates). While the "first" draft should strive to be a "finished" document, students should normally expect to submit at least two intermediate drafts of the paper for consultation before the "final" version is ready for evaluation.

Papers should be ca. 8-10 text pages long (using the Arial "2" font of the paper template as a guide to 'page length'), exclusive of images, charts, etc. Selected papers will be archived in the US-7 website. Interim versions of the paper may be submitted as Word versions, with the final version due in HTML format using the PK5 template and manual coding.

Each paper should include:

1. An introduction which includes the topic's status as a U.S. popular culture phenomenon, and how it is encountered outside the U.S. (at least, for example, in Finland) in literature, film, television, the recording industry, advertising images, or other mediation.

2. A brief review of how knowledge of your topic would be useful for translation (or other) work with American language and culture, possibly including possible mis-understandings of aspects of your topic by those who are not aware of its fuller background and significance.

3. The body of the paper itself, which provides the source foundation and other background for your topic, and your development of the new information you are producing.

4. An ending which summarizes the understanding of your main points that readers should now have.

5. The appropriate Works Cited and Notes section(s), and possible Appendices.

6. Where appropriate, an original research component (cf. Here Comes the Bride, for example) may also be included in the paper, for an additional 2 ECTS credits. Addition of the research component would presume the basic paper being 'complete' in April, with the research component added to this, and consultation with and advance approval by the instructor of the research plan.

After the paper has been completed, students must also produce a written report which includes the following:

1. A brief summary of the new perspectives on the topic featured in your paper.

2. A brief review of other aspects of U.S. popular culture which were researched for the paper that would (in your opinion) be useful topics for future study. Accompanying this should be your thoughts on why such a study would be useful, and how it might be conducted.

3. An identification of aspects of Finnish popular culture that could be considered as 'equivalents' of the popular culture aspects covered in your paper (or the related aspects identified above) which would (in your opinion) be useful topics for future study, and how and why? What in particular is the contrast of the Finnish 'equivalent' to the U.S. popular culture topic(s) you researched? How would further knowledge of this topic be especially significant for translators?

4. (see, among others, the research reports on Here Comes the Bride (Hakulinen) and Forrest Gump's Journey (Paatero), and What's Crackalackin' (Mukka) as examples)

This report should be e-mailed to John in RTF format. The final grade will be awarded after the report has been received.