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Assignment Information Sheet: Preamble Explication

Due Date: Friday, April 2.

What is an explication?

An explication is a relatively short analysis which describes the possible meanings and relationships of the words, images, and other small units that make up a text. Writing an explication is an effective way for a reader to connect a text’s plot and conflicts with its structural features. This can also be called a “close reading” of a text. A close reading is the careful, sustained analysis of any text that focuses on significant details or patterns and that typically examines some aspect of the text’s form, craft, or meaning.

Instructions:

Now that you have memorized and recited The Preambles, you will analyze and form an succinct argument about these historical documents. Just like you all answered differently in your responses to the question I posed at the beginning of the semester—what does it mean to be American?—these documents are generally viewed differently by everyone in America. While these documents are dense and wordy and might be boring to some, they are monumental in America’s history—and your own.

This must be in MLA format. This must be thesis driven. This must meet the word count of at least 550 words. This must include a Works Cited page, which does not count towards the word limit. You do not need to incorporate research, but you may if you’d like.

While you were required to recite both Preambles, you only need to analyze one of the documents. You may analyze both if you want. What you write is up to you, but just in case . . . I provide some suggestions below.

Questions to consider:

· Why were and how currently are these documents important to our nation and its people?

· Despite their importance—historically, how might the documents have been problematic at the time of their creation? How are they problematic now, reading them in the twenty-first century? (History shows that the answer is never going to be “there are zero problems with these documents,” so move past that and critically think about this on more than a superficial level.)

· What were the original purposes of these documents for the American colonies? For our new baby nation?

· Do you think these documents are still relevant? Why? Why not? (Remember: when writing an academic paper, first and second-person point of view should be avoided.)

· If you do not want to focus on the problematics, what good has been potentially put into motion that might outweigh the problems associated with these historical documents?

· Should these documents be replaced or redrafted to take modern advancements into consideration? What should be included if this were to happen?