Animals and Language: Zanesville Edition

Animals and Language: Zanesville Edition
DUE In Class T 10/25
What happened in 2011 in Zanesville, when a man named Terry Thompson released his nearly 50 exotic animals into the area around his home before killing himself, is a matter of well-reported public record.
How it gets written about, how animals get written about, is the subject of our paper.
Whatever your reaction to the facts of the case, as students of English and literature, our focus will be on the language used to describe, diagnose, and pass judgment on the events. In other words, you are writing a paper in which the text is not a work of literature but the language used in written reports and in video news reports (or any other media source, including Wikipedia). Your main argument will be about how the text(s) you choose reveal their ideologies about animals through their chosen language.
Some elements to consider:
• What do people call this event in headlines?
o What are the connotative meanings of such words? (connotative refers to the meanings associated with a word, not just the denotative, or literal meaning. Ex. How does “massacre” read differently than “killing” or “sacrificing”?).
• What are the assumptions made, by reporters, by the people they interview, by Thompson himself, about animals, wildness, human-animal relationships, mental health and relation to animals (i.e. people diagnosing Thompson and connecting his life/mental health to this event), keeping of exotic animals in general (and that word, exotic!), the different reactions to different animals (fear, sympathy, etc., as applied or not to particular species). There are many other possible threads to follow.
• How are stories about this event structured in terms of who or what is centered? Is it Thompson? The animals? Law enforcement? What is the different effect of those approaches? What does it reveal about the writer’s (or our) ideology concerning these animals?
• How do images accompanying the articles reinforce or challenge narratives about this event? How are the law enforcement agents portrayed? Is the lead picture the animals or them or Thompson? What does the choice of image communicate about how to understand this event?
Organizing the Paper:
• Your paper should be 3-4 pages long, typed, double spaced with 12-point Times New Roman (or equivalent size) font.
• You need a short introduction that lays out the issues, grabs attention, and includes a thesis (see below).
• Thesis: Your thesis is your argument, your main point. It is the sum of your analysis about the reporting language of this event. A good thesis should be as specific and precise as possible.
o A too-general thesis: The reporting about the event in Zanesville focused on Terry Thompson more than the animals.
o A better one, because it is more specific: The reporting on the event in Zanesville emphasized Thompson’s personal journey—his history, his ideology, and his mental health issues—over the experiences of the animals, exposing the unwillingness or inability to try to understand and value the animals in their own right.
• Evidence: You need evidence and analysis to prove your thesis. Evidence, here, are quotations from the articles you are writing about (or from a news report). You might also include analysis and description of images used. Analysis is what you say about the evidence. In other words, always explain for the reader how to interpret the evidence; don’t assume they see what you see in it.
o Ex. Wikipedia offers contradictory ideas about what caused the event. Its entry on the event refers to it as an “animal escape” (“2011 Zanesville Animal Escape”), which suggests the animals had some agency, since they would be the ones “escaping.” The entry uses the passive voice to say that the animals “were released” (without saying by whom) and doesn’t mention Thompson until the third section of the entry (“2011 Zanesville Animal Escape”). However, it later lists Terry Thompson under the heading of “Perpetrator,” suggesting his criminal behavior in releasing the animals (“2011 Zanesville Animal Escape”). How important is Thompson in this story? Unlike several articles, Wikipedia seems to downplay his centrality to the story while still acknowledging his role.
• You need to cite at least 2 sources:
o At least one media source (you can choose to analyze one source or combine a few). These will be your primary sources—the texts that you are analyzing. Use MLA citation style, which generally means citing the author and page number (unlikely in a web source) in parenthesis after the quote. This link will take you to how to write a works cited entry for a web article: https://owl(dot)purdue(dot)edu/owl/research_and_citation/mla_style/mla_formatting_and_style_guide/mla_works_cited_electronic_sources.html#:~:text=For%20all%20online%20scholarly%20journals,help%20readers%20locate%20the%20source.
o One of the texts we have read this semester thus far. If you see overlap with the ideas about animals discussed in one of our nonfiction historical or scientific texts (like the intro to Animal Establishment, Why Look at Animals, or Wild Justice, great. You can also be more creative and discuss how this real-life scene interrelates with any of our poems and stories. This is a paper about language and ideology, so fiction and poetry, like the reporting about this event, are very relevant.
• Conclusion: Draw conclusions about what you’ve written. Answer the “why should we care?” question for the reader.