In order to complete this assignment, you should make a specific argument about one or two of the literary texts we have read.
Either stick to your own close reading of the text (using no secondary sources) or use only ONE secondary source. Make sure that you carefully cite your use of this source (MLA style). DO NOT PLAGARIZE. Make sure that any ideas or phrases that you get from secondary sources are cited correctly. If you are unsure about what constitutes plagiarism or about how to cite sources, talk to me. Also, do not over use your source. Most of your paper should be your own analysis of the primary text.
6 pages.
Due: Sunday, August 18th by midnight
Possible Topic Questions:
What is the relationship between art and politics in Life in the Iron Mills?
What does Martin Eden tell us about the nature of social classes?
Explain how The Great Gatsby is a book about the nature of Consumer Capitalism?
Explain how The Great Gatsby is a book about the American Dream?
What does Streetcar Named Desire teach us about social constructions/views of sexuality?
What changes Walter in A Raisin in the Sun?
Explore one of the borders in Mother Tongue and its significance.
Note: These questions are not thesis statements. See below.
Student Learning Outcomes:
Students will be able to:
formulate an innovative thesis/argument about one or two of the literary texts read in the course.
make and support an argument and demonstrate sustained critical thinking and literary analysis skills by writing a paper that meets the requirements of this assignment.
demonstrate ability to support an argument by selecting relevant textual evidence.
demonstrate research and synthesis of information skills by finding a relevant secondary source and integrating it into close reading and analysis of primary text.
demonstrate competency in organization of ideas, writing, organizing, editing, and formatting skills by following the requirements/instructions on this assignment sheet.
Grading Rubric (also see Expectations for Essays below):
Effective thesis: 20 points
Support of thesis with analysis and relevant evidence from the text including quotations: 40 points
Effective research and use of secondary source: 20 points
Organization of ideas, writing style, editing, and formatting: 20 points
Expectations for Essays
Thesis statements:
There should be no doubts in your reader’s mind about the central idea of your paper. This idea – the argument or main point that you wish your paper to make – is called the thesis. The thesis should be expressed in a thesis statement – usually a few sentences to identify what you intend to do in your paper. The thesis does two things to help your readers understand your paper. (1) tells readers what to expect and (2) functions as a blueprint for your essay – a sort of map that your readers can refer back to in their minds if they are confused.
While there are no hard and fast rules about where in a paper to put a thesis, it is usually most helpful to put it near the beginning of a paper so your reader knows early on what you are doing.
A college English paper must have a discussible/ arguable thesis, one that calls for extensive development and argument, one that poses some problem or question to which the answer is not immediately obvious. As Aristotle says “we do not argue about that which is not uncertain.” Your paper should be interpretive and not just descriptive; in other words don’t just describe what happens in a text but say what the event or incident tells us about larger issues. Your thesis should lead to something more than a plot summary. Do not commit yourself to a “closed thesis – a statement that does not require you to think about and explore an issue in depth. At the same time your thesis should be limited in the sense of being focused and should be clearly and specifically defined. Above all, avoid generalizations.
Your thesis should be narrow, clear, precise, and arguable. It cannot be a fact. A successful thesis addresses not only WHAT the paper will argue, but also WHY the issue matters to you and to your reader. Imagine that you tell me the topic of your paper and I ask you “So what? What is your point?” Can you answer this question?
Do not waste space or try your reader’s patience by opening with generalizations about what you think of heroism, women, humanity, love, death, etc.
Your thesis might change as you work through your ideas and that’s O.K. Sometimes you will discover your thesis in your conclusion, and you will have to move it to the front of your essay and begin again. THIS KIND OF REVISION AND REWORKING OF A PAPER PRODUCES THE BEST PAPERS. DO NOT EXPECT OR TRY TO WRITE YOUR PAPER FROM START TO FINISH IN ONE DRAFT.
Whenever you discover the thesis, the most successful thesis is one that shows a lot of hard, critical thinking. I would rather see a complex thesis that is difficult to handle than an obvious, bland, and uninteresting one that is easily proven.
Analysis of evidence:
After explaining exactly what your paper will do in your introduction, the rest of your paper will set out to do what you said you will do. For the purpose of a literature course, this means interpreting/analyzing a text(s), proving that a text is making a certain point or has a certain meaning. Therefore, it means that you must use the literary work(s) as evidence to support your argument, both by means of direct quotation and clear references. You must quote accurately and concisely and don’t use more than is needed for your discussion. Introduce quotations carefully; do not merely put them in without preparing the reader for them and preparing the reader for how they support your argument. Comment on the quotation at length. Before offering a concise but meaningful quotation, tell your readers how it is meaningful.
Matters of literary interpretation are, of course, more flexible, but that does not mean that “anything goes.” Your job is to convince your reader that your argument is a valid one by supporting it with detailed examples/passages from the text.
Integrating Sources:
Make sure that you don’t pass off other peoples work (your sources) as your own work. THIS IS PLAGARISM and will you get you an “F” grade. Introduce and quote your sources and cite the page number in parenthesis. For example: As John Smith argues in his article “Henry James and feminism,” Daisy Miller is a woman “who manipulates the gender code of her society” (67).
Conclusions:
Your conclusion should not merely summarize what readers have already encountered in the paper. If by the time readers get to the end of the paper they don’t know what they have read then the paper has not done its job. Think of your conclusion as a place to bring your ideas to closure, not by summarizing them but by exploring how they are significant and meaningful. The conclusion is the place to discuss why the issue you have been addressing is important. This is the ONLY time in your paper when you might make some connection between what the text has taught you and more general ideals or opinions.
Your Audience:
Your audience for this essay will be people in the academic community who, for the main part, have not focused on and analyzed a particular text as closely as you are going to. Since your audience is an academic one, this means that you must meet certain academic expectations. The syllabus for the class indicates most of these expectations. Remember to avoid racist and sexist language – demonstrate your rhetorical sensitivity. You will not win over your audience, if you offend them. You should also keep in mind that an academic paper should make sense to readers outside of our small class. This means that you might need to add more explanation than if you were just writing for our class.
