A Critical Analysis of Margaret Atwood's The Handmaid's Tale

MIDTERM RESEARCH PAPER: CRITICAL ANALYSIS OF A NOVEL

PURPOSE For this assignment, you must write a coherent, grammatically correct critical analysis essay (at least 800 words)

about a novel. You will be analyzing Margaret Atwood’s The Handmaid’s Tale. This project is to compose an essay

that not only investigates and analyzes a work of literature but also enters into an ongoing scholarly debate about

that work. This assignment is designed for you to experience a professional critical writing and to learn how to

make a topic and develop it into an argument.

RHETORICAL SITUATION Your paper should provide your response—that is, what you see as interesting/intriguing/unexpected in the text—

based on careful close reading of The Handmaid’s Tale. It is a research paper that should include what you learn

from other references (at least two references), such as scholarly book and article (not including personal blog,

Wikipedia, etc), to support your argument. Among your references, at least one should be a scholarly article or a

book chapter (that you find on the library database) which directly deals with your text. For this assignment, you

have to understand fully the literary text and have your own critical views on it. The goal of this project is to show

your point of view or argument about a literary text through the article or chapter you consult.

To help you do so, apply your critique methodology to one (or two) of the following literary devices in the text:

• Theme (a consistent kind of meaning asserted by a work of literature)

• Symbol or allegory (metaphoric references to themes or ideas)

• Character (associations and themes represented by a particular character)

• Plot / Structure (the author’s arrangement of incidents in the story)

• Setting (a believable world that the author creates for his characters to inhabit) and Atmosphere (the

emotional quality of the setting)

• Style (the distinctive way in which a writer chooses and arranges words to achieve particular effects)

• Points of view

• Foreshadowing (a literary device in which an author suggests certain plot developments that might come

later in the story)

GUIDELINES Your paper should

• Include a thesis that announces your reading of the text and forecasts/summarize your interpretation

• Evaluate and analyze, not judge or offer opinions (this isn’t about how you feel about a piece, it’s about

how you think it works and why)

• Include quotations and examples from the text that support the claims you make in your analysis of the

text

• Make your quotations cohesive by putting them into conversation with one another

• Stay in third person (avoid first person: me, I, our, we. Do not use second person: you, your)

Your paper should avoid

• Using fluff—superfluous or irrelevant comments written only to reach the word limit (While it is good to

explain in detail, try not to excessively repeat your points)

• Relying on extensive plot summary (you may assume that your readers are familiar with the text)

• Relying on extensive quotation (Only 20% or less of your paper should be quoted from other sources. If

needed I will check the Originality Report in Turnitin.com, which will tell you the percentage of quoted

material in your paper)

• Offering a flimsy or very general thesis.

• Presenting the ideas and words of others without crediting those sources

• Colloquial tone

FORMAT

Your paper should use MLA format. It should be:

⚫ Minimum 700 words ⚫ Double-spaced, with 1” margins, 12 pt font (Times New Roman) ⚫ Include an MLA-style Works Cited page that appears at the end of the paper and is formatted correctly

Due for this paper is November 13 (Friday) 11:59 PM through icampus, yet can be submitted any time prior to that date.