Here is the link to my final paper:

http://docs.google.com/Doc?id=dd2rcbb9_0hh4vjcgg

I can't even count how many times I change topics and directions, but I ended up in a place I'm fairly complicated in: one with a lot of implications for teaching. I was originally going to go more in an Althusserian direction, focusing on our roles as unquestioning consumers etc. ... But after reading Smith's essay, I started thinking about classroom applications. My brain went "Undergrads like music + undergrads like to complain = potential for actual critical thought??" And while it would be very nice if this worked, of course not every student would immediately "get it" and change the way he/she thinks. But if we don't try, we won't succeed, correct? =)

Since my ultimate conclusion in the paper is how we can use the topic of sound quality loss for teaching, I thought composition teaching oriented conferences would work well. The CCCC - conference on College Composition and Communication - of 2010 would have been a pretty great place to take it, the theme being "The Remix: Revisit, Rethink, Revise, Renew." Sadly, their deadline was May 1st. Oh well, maybe the year after....? Anyway, I'd feel happiest in a teaching-oriented setting with this, but just having switched from the Foreign Language dept. to English last year, I'm very open for suggestions as far as venues go!

With a few revisions to fit the theme more, my paper might work at the SLSA. After all, I am asking students to decode the world around them. Also, everyone "knows" what sound quality loss is, but the details that I discuss in my paper are unknown to most, even though music and mp3s are part of everyone's everyday life. Decoding as deconstructing is certainly something that can be part of my paper description.