The AIDS Coalition to Unleash Power, better known as ACT UP, roared into existence in 1987 in an era when widespread fears dominated public perceptions about HIV and gay people, especially gay men. Spearheaded by activists, many of them HIV positive, ACT UP members sought to educate the public about the virus, stamp out toxic and dangerous stereotypes, and demand a far more active role in shaping medical treatment and options than was common at the time.
For this essay you will be asked to read and watch the following three texts/movies that all cover the history and dramatic impact of ACT UP and then write a comparative essay about these texts.
1. How to Survive a Plague, a documentary film.
2. 120 Beats per Minute, a fictionalized account of ACT UP Paris based on the director’s
involvement with the group.*
3. Steven Epstein, “The Construction of Lay Expertise: AIDS Activism and the Forging of
Credibility in the Reform of Clinical Trials,” an academic article by sociologist Steven Epstien that I also assigned for class.
(* 120 Beats Per Minute features a number of vivid sex scenes. If that’s not your cup of tea, please contact me and I will assign another documentary for you to watch instead). A core premise in this class is that different genres of writing and communication convey
distinct types of information and messages and no one genre can ever provide a complete account of a phenomenon. To put it in a slightly different way: each of these texts do something different and do so differently in terms of both their content and their style, rhetoric, and tone. In this essay, please write a four to five-page (max) essay comparing and contrasting what you learned in each one of these three texts. The essay is quite open ended, but here are some -1 pointers for how to proceed: At minimum, you should address what you found more compelling and convincing in relation to something specific you learned in the texts and discuss how these genres complement each other and how they diverge in the sorts of messages and
arguments they made and can make given the genre under consideration. You don’t need to propose an overarching argument, but the piece should be peppered with insightful, specific, and meaningful points about these texts and should refer to specific scenes/quotes from the movie and text. You don’t need to write a formal academic essay, but can be a bit more playful or personal so long as you address what is expected of you and so long as you write clearly. That is, it is acceptable to write about your reactions to these pieces but again keep in mind that you are still expected to write about the movies and essay as you write about your responses to them. Before you start writing, you are required to read these handy reference guides for proper terminology and follow these guidelines that have been established by these communities.
https://www.glaad.org/reference/lgbtq
https://www.glaad.org/reference/offensive
https://www.glaad.org/reference/hiv
For a handy overview of the compare and contrast essay genre, please read
https://www.wikihow.com/Write-a-Compare-and-Contrast-Essay (For this essay points 2 and 5 are especially relevant.) Here are two other things to keep in mind. Firstly: while the teaching assistants who will be grading the essays will have read the article and watched the films by the time they read your essay, please assume a more naive reader. I will give some examples in class covering tips for how to write in a way that presumes the reader may have less knowledge than you do.
Secondly: with a few exceptions, most students will find the academic article more boring (and also more detailed). These are obvious points so please don’t make them the basis of your essay unless you can add some counterintuitive twist. When I travel on a plane, I too routinely zonk out when reading academic articles and yet even when exhausted I can soldier through a movie. That’s the nature of these mediums and I’d like you to entertain less obvious insights. Please use 12 pt. font, save our eye-sight by double-spacing the paper, number the pages, and staple the paper (if a page gets lost because it is not stapled, we will read and assess it without that page). For this essay you are not required to include any other texts from the class but you
are welcome to do so. No late papers will be accepted as you have 6 weeks to write the paper. -2
Choose one of the following four citation styles: Modern Language Association, Harvard Style, Chicago Manual of Style, or the American Psychological Association. Google them and the internet will deliver, right to your screen, guides for how to implement them. Points will be deducted if you don’t use one of these or you implement them incorrectly. Otherwise enjoy the exercise! Go to page 4 for the grading rubric. -3
Rubric
1. 30% Description of the texts and movies
2. 50% Comparison of the texts and movies
3. 20% Mechanics, style, and format (English grammar, spelling, vocabulary).
