The Turn Screw

Overview

The Three-Paragraph Writing Exercise asks you to respond to an interpretive question on the idea of ethics in Henry James’s The Turn of the Screw. The assignment has a unique structure—it’s an exercise, not a traditional essay. Each of your first two paragraphs will require you to respond to more specific questions logically entailed by the broader one; you will synthesize and build on your findings in your final paragraph. Pay careful attention to the instructions for how to structure this assignment!

Learning Objectives

In this writing assignment, you will be able to

· Analyze James's The Turn of the Screw for the thinking they mobilize about ethics

· Analyze the thematization of virtue or evil in James's The Turn of the Screw, respectively, in relation to their supernatural and anti-mimetic elements 

· Compose effective literary analyses of James's The Turn of the Screw; to do this, you will be able to

· Select textual or narrative details that help extend your analysis

· Demonstrate that you can effectively situate textual and/or narrative details in your writing

· Develop close readings of textual or narrative details in order to elaborate or further flesh out your analysis

· Provide topic sentences that conceptually frame the subsequent discussion and, if it isn’t self-evident, make explicit the relation between the overarching interpretive question and the content of the paragraph

· Integrate your paragraphs using transitions and stitching between them so that the exercise feels like a single extended discussion

General Instructions

Format: Times New Roman, 12 pt. font, double spaced, default margins

Heading: Use the overarching question that you choose to respond to as your heading (see below for your options)

Length: three paragraphs; each paragraph should be at minimum 250-350 words

Citations: Use MLA in-text citations for textual and narrative evidence; you do not have to include bibliographic information if you are using the assigned version posted in Canvas.

Specific Instructions

Interpretive question options and structure instructions

Please Note:

· You should not include an introductory paragraph.

· Each of your first two paragraphs should include either a sustained close reading of a single passage (i.e. detailed analysis of the language of that passage) or an analysis that braids together two-to-three narrative or textual details.   

Option #1

Overarching Question

What conception of evil does The Turn of the Screw present to the reader?

Paragraph One:

How do we understand the problem of evil in the story if the governess is reliable and the ghosts are real? (Be sure to anchor your discussion in a specific passage or two-to-three narrative details.)

Paragraph Two: 

How do we understand the problem of evil in the story if the governess isn’t reliable and the ghosts are a figment of her imagination? (Be sure to anchor your discussion in a specific passage or two to three narrative details.)

Paragraph Three:

In this paragraph, bring together your preceding discussions and answer the overarching question. What is the relation among the two ideas about evil you developed in your first two paragraphs? Don’t just assert, explain. More importantly, don’t just summarize what you’ve already said, synthesize your answers from the three preceding paragraphs by putting them into conversation with one another. What’s further revealed about the idea of evil in the work by juxtaposing your previous findings? Develop a nuanced claim that answers the overarching question. Add a final twist to your discussion by considering why James would present this idea about evil in a text with unlikely elements.