But to construct a keywords, you must research the areas you isolate. While you may already recognize certain features about Detroit and want to write about them, remember the key principle of doing cultural studies: meanings are not natural. We are not always aware of what a "text" means because familiarity causes us to only see our first impression. Your keywords will allow us (your readers) new understandings of the city and will help us get around the familiar meanings we have become too comfortable with. Even more importantly, your keywords will allow us to create connections between terms we might not have already seen as connected.

Remember: Williams tells us that part of his rationale for doing a keywords is "to analyse, as far as I could, some of the issues and problems that were there inside the vocabulary" (15).

How will your keywords allow you to create an analysis of Detroit's vocabulary?

Your keywords should be alphabetic. It may include images. It must be at least 3,000 words.
Divide your project over several pages. Don't put 3,000 words on one webpage. Make a main page with a table of navigation for readers to follow. Think of how you might connect terms or ideas among your keywords by using hyperlinks.

Use MLA in text citation. Create a Works Cited page with appropriate citation. You need to make a link to the project from your homepage.

Project Two
Mythology of Detroit

For your second project, we will take up Roland Barthes' interest in mythologies and apply his theory to Detroit.
Mythologies, Barthes tells us, encompass the assumptions we make about places, events, popular culture, ideas, etc. as if these things are natural when, in fact, they are social and ideological constructions. The task of writing a mythology is to write about the less obvious features of a given item in order to describe these constructions in detail.
Barthes writes that "Our society is the privileged field of mythical significations. We must now say why" (137). Our challenge is to say why Detroit embodies various mythologies.
For your project, you will write a mythology on some aspect of Detroit. Barthes chooses wrestling, Greta Garbo, wine and milk, and other items. You are to choose one item relevant to Detroit. These items can include, but are not limited to:

To write a mythology, however, you have to research it. You need to uncover its history, connections to other city moments or people, sociological importance, economic importance, racial importance, etc. You must uncover and present the various significations which are used to represent your mythology. "The function of myth is to empty reality; it is, literally, a ceaseless flowing out, a hemorrhage, or perhaps, an evaporation, in short, a perceptible absence" (143). Thus, you must empty out the meanings of your item which you already recognize in order to more fully explore the other meanings you have not yet considered (and we assume neither has the audience for your work).

Your mythology must be at least 3,000 words.
Divide your project over several pages. Don't put 3,000 words on one webpage. Make a main page with a table of navigation for readers to follow. Think of how you might connect terms or ideas among pages and sections by using hyperlinks.

Use MLA in text citation. Create a Works Cited page with appropriate citation. You need to make a link to the project from your homepage.