Instruction
----- Modified Instruction (02/06/2018 07:25:45) -----
All outside-of-class papers and rewrites are to be typed and double-spaced. Use 1-inch margins. On the first page, in the upper left-hand corner type
Your Name
ELIT3090 C1
American Literature from 1865 to the Present
Essay 1
March 1, 2007
Task
Write a 4- to 5-page essay that analyzes one or more of the works discussed during the semester or any of the other works included in the course text.
In your paper, develop a thesis concerning a theme, a genre, a problem, an author, an approach to literature or an American Value apparent in the work.
Suggestions:
1. Theme
2. Problem
3. Figurative Language
4. Opening Chapter, Lines, or Scene Analysis
5. Tracing a Topic through a Work
6. The Work’s Relation to an American Value
The suggestions listed above are just that—suggestions. If you have another idea for a paper, please consult your instructor first before you begin working on it.
You do not need outside sources. When referring to the work(s), use only author and title. If you do use outside sources in addition to your work(s), (1) use parenthetical citation in the text of your essay and (2) include at the end of the essay a Works Cited page (MLA format). Not to document sources constitutes plagiarism.
Clear writing, standard usage and grammar, an absence of spelling errors, and an interesting thesis adequately developed are all requirements. Papers that do not meet the length requirements will receive low grades.
Guidelines for Writing Papers about Literature
You as student critics of literature must make judgments–and judgments are arguments—about the transaction between the reader and writer. Focus not on just what happens in the story or poem but on how the literary work affects the reader. See it as a work with rhetorical intent; i.e., a work consciously made by an author to elicit certain emotional and intellectual responses from the reader.
Titles and Opening Paragraphs
Give your paper a helpful title. Don’t call it “Essay 1” (that gives no relevant information); don’t give it the name of the work you’re writing about; and avoid sweeping titles like “Thoreau” or “Slavery in America.” Aim for an unpretentious, descriptive title, like “Christian Themes in Stowe’s Uncle Tom’s Cabin” or “Hemingway’s Implied Attitude Toward Nick Adams.” Adjust your title and the opening paragraph to the actual paper that you write. Write the final draft of your title and opening last. In the opening paragraph, always identify the author and text you are writing about.
The Obvious
Avoid making assertions that comment on the obvious such as the joys, wonders, or timelessness of themes. These comments should remain understood because they are assumed. Literary critics avoid statements like “Ever since the beginning of time, poets have written about the joys of love!” Or “‘Come with me and be my love....’ What lover of poetry has not been thrilled by words like these? Love has always been one of the most durable and exciting appeals that poetry makes on its readers.”
Never summarize plot except to make a point about sequencing or structure. Rather, make arguments and support them by citing and analyzing the text. Summary alone is worthless.
In longer researched essays, survey previous arguments and state who made them.
Use allusion (references to other literary works) for analogy and humor to place texts in the context of other texts. Don’t strain to do this, but linking the work you are writing about to others works examined in the course will help you to understand literary contexts better.
Purpose
A critical paper assumes a “problem” and suggests a “solution.” It is usually a discussion and elaboration of a single theme or a controlling idea, supported by a close reading of the text(s); the paper is developed with numerous and repeated references to the primary texts in support of your arguments. A critical paper may be a study of a single work or a comparative study of two or more, or it may develop and discuss a single idea or theme thorough discussion of selected work(s). The research paper is a longer critical essay supported by library research and the inclusion of relevant scholarly commentary.
Thesis and Organization
In short papers, state your thesis right away. Have an early point of attack; get to the heart of the matter without a meandering preamble. Don’t hem and haw around, but get to the point. Avoid the funnel opening: The writer begins with broad, sweeping statements about life, most of which are so obvious that they are hackneyed. In paragraph two, the writer then slowly works his or her way up to the theme, resulting in a very boring essay.
Instead, make a very brief opening statement of your thesis and then write several carefully unified paragraphs in support, and finally a restatement, probably in fuller form, of the thesis.
A thesis is a sentence that makes an argument—says something that has to be proved or backed up. When you read or hear a good thesis statement, your reaction will be “Really?” or “How do you figure that?” or “Oh yeah? Prove it!” or “That sounds interesting—tell me more.” In short, a thesis will set up the paper and prepare the reader to consider the evidence.
Make your thesis arouse interest. Contrast the deadening flat effect of beginning with a mere factual statement. Which of the following makes you more willing to read on?
• Ernest Hemingway wrote many short stories, some of which are as famous as his novels.
• Hemingway’s short stories achieve through compression and understatement emotional effects as powerful as any he achieved in his novels.
Proofreading
Copyedit carefully. Misspelled and poorly punctuated papers send the reader a bad message—you don’t care about your work. Use a dictionary, spell check, and a college handbook of writing to check your work. Some errors always creep in, but try your best to produce clean copy.
Proofread your paper backwards at least one time so you force yourself to see each word to check its spelling and see each mark of punctuation to see if it is appropriate. When you read normally, you do not read word-by-word but rather phrase-by-phrase. Therefore, you will miss errors because, as you read, you look for only enough information to convey meaning and then skip to the next phrase. As an analogy, consider how you look at traffic signals. When you approach an intersection with four lights facing you, you need to see only one to get the information you need. You don’t usually check all four. So proofread backwards once to see all of the “lights” as lights, not the meaning they are trying to convey.
Literary Present Tense
Use the past tense to talk about biographical facts or publication data but the present tense to talk about what goes on in a work of fiction or poetry. For example, “Plath’s Ariel was published after her death, but the poems show many premonitions of disaster to come.”
Grammar and Style Issues
• Write standard, edited American English.
• Do not write run-on or fused sentences, comma splices, or sentence fragments (incomplete sentences).
• Do not misspell words, especially names of characters and titles.
• Form the possessive case of singular nouns properly. Don’t omit the apostrophe.
• Make sure subjects and verbs and pronoun and antecedents agree in number.
• Underline or place in italics titles of all books.
• Periods and commas always go inside of quotation marks.
• Learn the distinctions between
to/too/two;
they're/their/there;
it’s/its;
lose/loose;
lay/lie;
then/than;
• Do not write a lot of for many or much or write alright for all right.
Some material adapted from “Writing Papers of Literary Analysis: Some Advice for Student Writers” Seamus Cooney, Western Michigan University.