Essay

Character Analysis Paper Assignment English 151-29 and 151-33

Due Date: February 14th, 2021

Format: typed, double space, 12-point font, no bold or italics please beyond the title

Length: 2 (full pages). If your paper does not meet the minimum page requirement, one full letter grade penalty will be enforced. If the paper is a plot summary, then you will earn a failing grade.

Begin the character analysis paper with the following steps:

· Read the short story thoroughly the first time to formulate a basic opinion.

· Upon the second reading highlight every reference to the character that you choose to analyze.

· Now read through the highlighted sections and label each section according to the six elements of character analysis: appearance, speech, actions, words of others, environment, thoughts/feelings.

· As a prewrite, write down several characteristics of the character you wish to discuss and choose the three strongest ones.

· Review the pages and select those elements with the most detail for your paper (of course, the short story may not exhibit all six of the characteristics, or you may only find one or two examples for a characteristic that will not be used in the paper).

· Of the selected character analysis traits, read over them carefully and at the bottom of the page write your interpretation of this character—or what these examples tell us about the character.

· Now use the interpretations you wrote as the topic sentences of your body paragraphs and use the examples from the text (which should now be paraphrased as much as possible) to support your interpretations.

 The Intro and Conclusion of the paper:

· The intro should of course give the name of the short story and the author.

· It should give an overall impression (your interpretations) of the character.

· It will also need background information as well, which can be a summary of the story or the importance/purpose of this character in the story, or it could be a general discussion of the personality type of this character .

· Of course, the thesis will be a specific interpretation of the chosen character. There should be NO first-person analysis in this paper.

· The body of the paper should develop 2-3 characteristics chosen from the prewrite to prove your thesis (your interpretation of the character based on your examples from the story).

· The conclusion will be a simple summary of your interpretations followed by some insight into the story or the character, such as how the character relates to other elements of the story. It can even involve your opinion of the character.

III. Logistics

· Of course, the paper should be typed in MLA format and use citations for every example either paraphrased or quoted from the book used to support your interpretations. The paper should be 2 pages. Use transitions!

Papers that give a plot summary will automatically receive a failing grade. Papers that are one long paragraph will automatically receive a failing grade. Papers must include a clear introduction, a three-point thesis and three solidly developed paragraphs with examples from the short story to support the literary analysis and a sound conclusion.