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English 1121 Paper #2 / 19% of the course grade

Paper #2: Analyze ChatGPT’s AI-Generated Paper about Mona Susan Power’s A Council of Dolls

The assignment: For this paper, you will analyze the accuracy and quality of a ChatGPT-generated

essay about Mona Susan Power’s novel A Council of Dolls and use Power’s book to illustrate how the

ChatGPT essay could be improved. (Prof. Riehl has provided the

ChatGPT essay you will analyze at the end of this assignment sheet.)

You will write a focused, organized, analytical, developed, carefully

worded/edited paper that uses MLA format, has a Works Cited page,

and includes proper in-text citations. Questions to guide your analysis:

• How well does Chat GPT analyze the theme of displacement in

Mona Susan Power’s novel A Council of Dolls? How accurate

and effective is the paper generated by Chat GPT, and how

could it be improved? Use evidence from both the Chat GPT essay and Power’s novel to support

your thesis and claims. What specifics, examples, details, and quotations from Power’s book would

improve the ChatGPT essay?

What type of paper is this? This assignment asks you to write a version of a literary/textual analysis. An analysis carefully studies and examines a text. It is a type of argumentative essay where you persuade a reader of your assertion about the text. How does this assignment help me become a critical thinker and better writer? Good writing requires critical thinking and convincing writing. This assignment requires you to read carefully and to use your critical thinking skills to analyze the essay written by ChatGPT about Power’s novel. Your careful reading of Power’s A Council of Dolls is essential to analyzing whether or not the ChatGPT is accurate and of high quality. You must convey your analysis in a clear, focused, and organized paper. It requires that you use the sources—both the ChatGPT-generated essay and Power’s novel A Council of Dolls—as evidence and to cite that evidence appropriately according to MLA format. This assignment introduces you to MLA (Modern Language Association) citation. How do I start this assignment?

1. Read: Begin by carefully reading both the Chat GPT essay and Mona Susan Power’s novel A Council of Dolls.

2. Examine the ChatGPT essay. Think about Power’s novel. Take notes. Here are a few examples of questions to consider as you brainstorm:

a. Which aspects of the assignment does ChatGPT do well? What parts of the ChatGPT essay are accurate and of high quality?

b. Which aspects of the assignment does ChatGPT fail to do well? Are there inaccuracies in the ChatGPT essay? If so, where?

Photo of Mona Susan Power courtesy of the author.

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i. Think about the ChatGPT essay’s intro, thesis, paragraph claims, evidence from the

novel (details, facts, quotations, etc.) organization, analysis, language, MLA citation, etc.

c. How could this ChatGPT essay be better/improved? If you were writing the assignment, which specifics from Power’s book could be used to provide more effective evidence for the claims? Give examples. Etc. Think critically. Analyze.

3. Write a thesis: Your answer to these questions from above is your thesis statement: How well does Chat GPT analyze the theme of displacement in Mona Susan Power’s A Council of Dolls? How accurate and effective is the paper generated by Chat GPT? Your thesis must be 1-3 sentences, take a clear stand, be subject to disagreement.

4. Start writing: Defend and prove your thesis statement in the body of the paper by writing several paragraphs. Each paragraph contains three components:

a. a claim (one assertion about the accuracy/quality of the ChatGPT essay), an assertion that proves your thesis. Each paragraph’s first sentence should make one strong claim.),

b. evidence from both the ChatGPT essay and Power’s book (Evidence is details/specifics, examples, facts from both the ChatGPT essay and Power’s book, all followed with proper in-text citations),

c. and in-depth analysis (your explanation/interpretation/analysis of the evidence). What to do while writing:

1. Maintain focus. Each paragraph makes one claim about the ChatGPT essay that supports your thesis. Everything in the paper proves the thesis statement.

2. Organize your paper effectively and use MLA to cite all evidence. a. Each paragraph begins with a claim. Within the paragraph, support/prove the claim with a

balance of specifics from the ChatGPT essay, A Council of Dolls, and your analysis. b. Each paragraph should use at least three details, specifics, or examples from the Chat GPT

essay and Power’s book as support. This means you would have a minimum of three in-text citations per paragraph.

i. You must integrate material from the ChatGPT essay and Power’s book using summary, paraphrase, and direct quotations, all followed with proper in-text citations.

ii. Do not only use quoted material from the essay and A Council of Dolls You must show that you can paraphrase and summarize as well. Paraphrases and summaries are followed with an in-text citation too.

iii. Do not write about only one example per paragraph.

3. Think critically: Show your critical thinking. I want to read it! Each paragraph should be 50% evidence and 50% your analysis of the evidence.

4. Maintain academic language and tone and edit carefully: Maintain third person. No “I think” (first person) or “you” (second person).

The final draft of your paper must

✓ be a minimum of 3 complete pages, not including the Works Cited page. (4-6 pages is ideal.) o Papers must be developed at least three full pages to earn a C. o This is not a five-paragraph essay. Write as many claims/paragraphs as you need to prove

your thesis and illustrate depth. (I’m not a fan of a conclusion paragraph that just

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summarizes what you wrote in a short paper like this. Instead, just transition into your final claim and paragraph with a transition like this: The final way that the ChatGPT essay ineffectively explores the theme of displacement is . . . . .”)

✓ have an interesting title & introductory paragraph that includes an attention-getter, book title (italicized) and author’s full name, title of the Chat GPT essay (in quotation marks) and the thesis

✓ include a focused thesis statement that takes a clear and reasonable stand, shows depth, and is subject to disagreement

✓ illustrate depth of critical thinking and thorough analysis

✓ remain focused and organized

✓ contain organized paragraphs, each including all three components: a claim, evidence, and analysis

✓ use appropriate textual evidence in the form of specific details/examples, facts, and quoted material from the sources (shared via quotations, paraphrases, and summary in each paragraph)

✓ have coherent and academic language and style

✓ be stylistic and carefully edited, maintaining third-person point-of-view.

✓ use proper MLA format (Times 12-point font, one-inch margins, no extra space between

paragraphs, etc. See your WR Handbook) and use proper MLA citation:

o Works Cited: Include a Works Cited page that cites the Chat GPT generated paper and

Mona Susan Power’s A Council of Dolls. See the Works Cited handout in Paper #2 folder in

Content.

o In-Text Citations: Use information from both sources in your essay and follow all details,

facts, examples, (whether summarized, paraphrased, or directly quoted) with MLA in-text

citations.

▪ Any evidence from the ChatGPT article would be followed with in-text citations

like this (“Displacement”).

• In-text citations for longer titles are shortened, which is why only the first

word of the ChatGPT essay title is included in the in-text citation.

▪ Any evidence from Power’s book would be followed with an in-text citation noting

the author’s name and the page number like this (Power 122).

Note: See the Paper #2 Grading/Feedback Sheet available in Content in the Paper #2 folder for the specific rubric I will use to respond to your final draft. About Plagiarism—Don’t do it!

- Use only two sources: the Chat GPT generated paper Prof. Riehl has provided and Mona Susan Power’s A Council of Dolls for this paper.

- Do not plagiarize. Do not run the ChatGPT essay again through ChatGPT to “fix” it. (That is not what this assignment is asking you to do.)

- Do not rewrite what Chat GPT has generated. You’re writing a separate essay that analyzes the accuracy and effectiveness of the Chat GPT essay and asserts how it could be improved.

- Paper drafts will be submitted to Turnitin.com, which will also generate an originality report. o The only parts of your paper that should show up as a direct match are when you quote

from the ChatGPT-generated essay or Power’s novel A Council of Dolls. o After any fact, detail, or example from the ChatGPT essay or the novel, include a proper

in-text citation. o Put any excerpts of three or more words in a row in quotation marks and follow them with

a proper in-text citation to avoid plagiarism.

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- Plagiarized papers or papers that use ChatGPT to alter/fix/write the paper will earn no credit, and I will report students to the Dean.

The audience: The audience is me—Professor Riehl—and your classmates, who are reading your paper

to determine the accuracy and quality of the ChatGPT essay.

Due: Final Draft is due before 11:59 p.m. on Tuesday, Oct. 22 in Assignments in “Paper #2 Final Draft

Only” in D2L.

This is the prompt Prof. Riehl gave Chat GPT:

“Write an essay evaluating the theme of displacement in Mona Susan Power's A Council of Dolls. Include a strong attention-getter, thesis, and paragraphs that each begin with a claim about displacement in the book. Each body paragraph must use at least three pieces of evidence from the book, such as facts, examples, details, and quotations. Use proper MLA in-text citations and a Works Cited page..”

Note: Prof. Riehl has changed some formatting elements, such as making the essay double-spaced.

ChatGPT’s essay:

Displacement in Mona Susan Power's A Council of Dolls

In the intricate tapestry of human experience, few themes resonate as deeply as displacement—the

feeling of being uprooted, disoriented, and alienated from one’s origins or identity. Mona Susan Power’s

*A Council of Dolls* powerfully explores this theme through the stories of Native American women

whose lives are marked by both physical and emotional dislocation. As Power delves into the complex

lives of her characters, she crafts a poignant commentary on the enduring impact of displacement within

indigenous communities. This essay will evaluate how *A Council of Dolls* uses displacement to

illuminate the struggles of identity, cultural heritage, and personal resilience.

First, displacement in *A Council of Dolls* profoundly affects the characters’ sense of identity.

Power portrays this through her characters' constant grappling with their cultural roots and personal

histories. For example, the protagonist, a Native American woman named in the book, is depicted as being

caught between two worlds: her traditional Native American heritage and the modern, often hostile

external society (Power 43). This internal conflict is underscored by her struggle to maintain her cultural

practices amidst societal pressures. Power writes, "She felt like a ghost in her own life, wandering through

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the remnants of a culture that seemed both familiar and alien" (Power 56). This sense of being a "ghost"

highlights the protagonist's disconnection from her heritage and her struggle to reconcile her identity with

the expectations of the surrounding world.

Furthermore, displacement in the novel is vividly illustrated through the characters’ experiences of

losing their cultural heritage. Power uses the motif of dolls as a symbol of this loss, with each doll

representing a piece of the characters' past that is threatened by assimilation and cultural erasure. For

instance, one character reflects on a doll from her childhood that has become a "memento of a world that

no longer exists" (Power 78). This doll, once a source of comfort and connection to her past, now

embodies the painful reality of cultural loss and the struggle to preserve one’s heritage in the face of

overwhelming change. Power’s depiction of these dolls not only emphasizes the characters’ displacement

but also serves as a critique of the broader societal forces that contribute to the erosion of indigenous

cultures.

Lastly, Power illustrates how displacement affects the characters’ resilience and sense of agency.

Despite the profound challenges posed by their displacement, the characters in *A Council of Dolls*

demonstrate remarkable strength and adaptability. For example, one character's determination to revive

traditional ceremonies and pass on cultural knowledge to the next generation underscores her resilience

(Power 120). She states, "I carry our traditions in my heart, and no amount of change will ever take that

away" (Power 123). This statement encapsulates the character's refusal to let displacement define her;

instead, she channels her experiences into a renewed commitment to her cultural heritage. Power’s

portrayal of such characters reveals that while displacement can be disorienting, it also fosters a profound

strength and an unwavering commitment to one’s identity and values.

In conclusion, Mona Susan Power’s *A Council of Dolls* provides a nuanced exploration of

displacement through its rich depiction of identity struggles, cultural loss, and personal resilience. Through

her vivid characters and symbolic motifs, Power illustrates how displacement can disrupt but also

strengthen one’s connection to their heritage and sense of self. The novel ultimately serves as a powerful

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reminder of the enduring impact of displacement on indigenous communities and the ways in which

individuals navigate and resist the forces that seek to undermine their cultural identities.

Works Cited

Power, Mona Susan. *A Council of Dolls*. Penguin Books, 2024.