Ground rules:
For this unit project, you may discuss your ideas with other students but please do not share your actual writing with another student. You may make an appointment with the writing center if you’d like another set of eyes on your essay itself. As always, do not plagiarize—which includes both copying or paraphrasing ideas without citation.
Instructions:
Before you begin, please read the pdf selection of pages from White Noise (which are not from the excerpt you read in class), in which we hear a story (within this larger novel) about a “crash landing.”
For this unit project, we’re asking you to write a short analytical essay (~3 pages) which offers a close reading of this “crash landing” episode within the novel. Please be sure your essay does both of the following:
1. Your essay should begin with a thesis that offers an interpretive claim about what, specifically, is postmodernist about this episode.
Tip 1: you may wish to review the lecture on analytical writing posted 9.30, which discusses the difference between an interpretive thesis claim and a thesis that is merely descriptive or a summary. An interpretive claim says something about the text that another reader of the text won’t automatically agree with—if you’re not sure if your thesis is interpretive rather than descriptive, remember the trick about seeing if you can phrase it as an “although” or “however” statement.
Tip 2: Remember too that a strong thesis will make a specific rather than a vague or general claim. So your thesis should NOT be, “this episode demonstrates key aspects of postmodernism.” That’s too vague. Your thesis should name the key aspect or aspects of postmodernist theory you will be demonstrating that this episode helps to illustrate.
2. Your essay should support its thesis claim with close readings of details (including analyzing connotations of specific words and phrases) in the text.
Tip 3: again, the lecture on analytical writing posted on 9.30 may be useful to review for advice on how to avoid the 3 common pitfalls of close reading, including not quoting, quoting and running, and—currently the most common issue we’re seeing—the “just trust me on this” mode. This mode quotes and claims to interpret what the quotes mean, but it doesn’t support those interpretations with close reading. Always explain why you think the words/details from the text that you’re quoting not only can really must mean what you say they mean—always explain your reasoning, and show us how the text supports and guides your reasoning.