Prompt: For this paper, discuss how your understanding of African American identity and culture has evolved as a result of this class. Discuss how two of the writers we have discussed this semester have impacted your thinking on Black existence in the United States. What specific effects have these writers and their works had on how you think about the United States and its relationship to racial constructs? Draw on your experiences, class discussions, etc. in demonstrating the evolution in your thinking concerning the connections between the US and African American identity. You will need to provide close readings of the writers texts you choose in order to make these connections clear. Use direct quotations and examples from the primary texts found in the Norton Anthology and novels in making your points. No outside sources will be necessary for this paper. Paper guidelines: Papers must use proper MLA citation style. See the Purdue University Online Writing Lab (OWL) site for help with MLA: http://owl.english.purdue.edu/owl/resource/747/01/ (Links to an external site.). In addition to MLA, papers should be formatted as follows: 12-point font Times New Roman 1 inch margins Double-spaced Sources cited in your paper Works cited page Page numbers and your last name in the upper right-hand corner of every page 5-7 pages in length (this means at least 5 full pages of text, not 4.5 or 4.75) Due Date: Due as Microsoft Word file attachment on Canvas by 11:59pm on Tuesday, November 29th Determination of Grades: Papers receiving a final grade in the A range will be, simply put, exemplary. That is, they will be well written in maintaining coherence from point-to-point, sentence-to-sentence, paragraph-to-paragraph. These papers will have a strong and clearly stated thesis, as well as strong transitions from one idea to the next. The A paper will have rare to no grammatical errors in spelling, punctuation, citation, etc. In my experience, conferencing with me about drafts of your paper before the due date make achieving this more likely. Papers receiving a final grade in the B range will be, for lack of a better word, good. They will be generally well written but have some minor issues with maintaining coherence, stating and supporting their thesis, and making transitions from one idea to another. In addition, the B paper will have some infrequent grammatical errors. Papers receiving a final grade in the C range will be simply adequate. They will display some inconsistency in supporting their thesis and maintaining coherence throughout, and will have more frequent grammatical errors while still being of good enough writing quality to make their points discernible. Papers receiving a final grade of D will be of the required length, but have significant enough issues in the areas described above to make their overall points indiscernible due to inconsistency and poor writing. Failing papers will be those not meeting the minimum requirements of the assignment as laid out in this

Prompt: For this paper, discuss how your understanding of African American identity and culture has evolved as a result of this class. Discuss how two of the writers we have discussed this semester have impacted your thinking on Black existence in the United States. What specific effects have these writers and their works had on how you think about the United States and its relationship to racial constructs? Draw on your experiences, class discussions, etc. in demonstrating the evolution in your thinking concerning the connections between the US and African American identity. You will need to provide close readings of the writers texts you choose in order to make these connections clear. Use direct quotations and examples from the primary texts found in the Norton Anthology and novels in making your points. No outside sources will be necessary for this paper. Paper guidelines: Papers must use proper MLA citation style. See the Purdue University Online Writing Lab (OWL) site for help with MLA: http://owl.english.purdue.edu/owl/resource/747/01/ (Links to an external site.). In addition to MLA, papers should be formatted as follows: 12-point font Times New Roman 1 inch margins Double-spaced Sources cited in your paper Works cited page Page numbers and your last name in the upper right-hand corner of every page 5-7 pages in length (this means at least 5 full pages of text, not 4.5 or 4.75) Due Date: Due as Microsoft Word file attachment on Canvas by 11:59pm on Tuesday, November 29th Determination of Grades: Papers receiving a final grade in the A range will be, simply put, exemplary. That is, they will be well written in maintaining coherence from point-to-point, sentence-to-sentence, paragraph-to-paragraph. These papers will have a strong and clearly stated thesis, as well as strong transitions from one idea to the next. The A paper will have rare to no grammatical errors in spelling, punctuation, citation, etc. In my experience, conferencing with me about drafts of your paper before the due date make achieving this more likely. Papers receiving a final grade in the B range will be, for lack of a better word, good. They will be generally well written but have some minor issues with maintaining coherence, stating and supporting their thesis, and making transitions from one idea to another. In addition, the B paper will have some infrequent grammatical errors. Papers receiving a final grade in the C range will be simply adequate. They will display some inconsistency in supporting their thesis and maintaining coherence throughout, and will have more frequent grammatical errors while still being of good enough writing quality to make their points discernible. Papers receiving a final grade of D will be of the required length, but have significant enough issues in the areas described above to make their overall points indiscernible due to inconsistency and poor writing. Failing papers will be those not meeting the minimum requirements of the assignment as laid out in this