1250 words 12 hrs

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Ingrao

LIT 1301

Spring 2021

Assignment: Essay

Due:

March 12th before 11:00 PM—Submit a rough draft of your essay to your TA as a Word document.

Submit using the space provided in the week eight folder.

April 19th before 11:00 PM—Submit a revised draft of your essay to your TA as a Word document.

Submit using the space provided in the week fourteen folder.

Failure to submit a revised draft on time without a valid excuse as defined on page fourteen of the

syllabus will result in a grade of zero.

The essay is worth 50 points.

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The Rough Draft:

The rough draft is far from a "throw-away" assignment and should not be approached as such for

a couple of reasons.

First, all writers revise their work. The revision process emphasized by this class applies not

only to those working within the arts and humanities, but spans fields from the arts to the

sciences, government, business, engineering, and so on. If this is not already the case, then you

may also expect that revision will be an important part of your everyday life as may be seen in

the composition of cover letters and personal statements required to pursue an advanced degree or

secure a job.

For example, few successful applicants would send a letter to their dream job that is missing

important details about their qualifications, that is shorter than the requirements for the letter

requested by the employer, or that presents a single introductory paragraph followed by a list of

bullet points concerning where the letter would go next. Successful applicants would present a

detailed, complete, polished, proofread piece of writing that will have gone through even more

rounds of revision than that required by this current essay assignment.

Fostering drafting and revision skills now has great potential, then, to help you not only during

your time at UTD, but also as a successful alumnus.

Second, the more complete your rough draft is when you submit it, the more you empower your

TA to respond to your writing and make requests for revision that will give you the potential for

more success in this course.

With these points in mind, please strive to treat the rough draft as though you were turning in a

revised, final draft that is complete.

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For example, your rough draft should ideally have one primary and four secondary sources.

These sources might change in revision, but they all need to be present in the rough draft both to

foster good revision skills and to allow your TA to provide suggestions about your sources. This

cannot be achieved if sources are missing.

As a further example, all required MLA citation should be present in the rough draft. If you are

not familiar with MLA then do not worry. Do your best with the citations, but even if they will

need to be revised, including them will, again, empower your TA to give you feedback that can

lead to more potential for success on this assignment, and help you avoid plagiarism.

We can only comment upon what you provide us in the rough draft. If, for example, the rough

draft consists of only a few paragraphs followed by an outline, we might say that your outline

looks "good." Nevertheless, if you then receive only, for example, 20 points for the essay, keep

in mind that the majority of the essay did not receive detailed feedback due to its format.

You are happily urged to contact your TA with any questions concerning the importance of the

rough draft.

Though failure to turn in a rough draft will not bar you from the final draft, you should not expect

to receive feedback from your TA or myself. Final drafts not proceeded by a rough draft will be

graded as is without feedback.

As stated above, failure to submit a revised draft on time without a valid excuse as defined on

page fourteen of the syllabus will result in a grade of zero.

_____________________________________________________________________________________

Important Notes:

1. A sample essay has been posted to eLearning for your reference. The sample displays eighth

edition MLA format. Students should use eighth edition MLA format.

2. An "Essay Rubric" that explains how we will grade the both the rough and the revised drafts of

the essay has been posted to eLearning for your reference.

3. Stephen T. Asma’s excellent “How to Write a Good Essay” has been posted to eLearning for

your reference. Asma’s essay explains particularly well how to construct a compelling argument

and organize your ideas.

4. If a student utilizes a work such as The Holy Bible, The Holy Qur’an, and so on, said work or

works must be treated as works of literature rather than as statements of personal belief. Papers

that do not observe this requirement will not be considered for a grade.

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Format:

1. Include your name, your TA's name, lecture course and section information (for example:

HUMA 1301.0w1), and the date essay is due (for example: 18 July 2019) in the upper left-hand

corner of the first page only. Number all pages in the upper right-hand corner, and include your

surname with your pagination (for example: Banner 1). Again . . . please see the sample essay on

eLearning.

2. The short essay must be four to five pages in length not counting your Works Cited page.

Students are welcome to use an additional sixth page as needed.

3. The essay should be typed using Times New Roman or Arial typeface. Font should be 12pt.

The essay should be uniformly double-spaced throughout. Margins should be one inch uniformly.

4. Since this essay asks for a formal academic argument, students should not use contractions or

slang, and limit use of the first-person "I."

Do avoid the following phrases: “I think,” “I believe,” and “I feel.”

5. The essay should be titled, and the title should offer more than "Short Essay," "Literature

Essay," or "Monster Essay." Students are urged to be creative and discover titles that will

both help their essays stand out and announce the writer's argument.

_____________________________________________________________________________________

Requirements:

Students should select a work not assigned in class.

You may write about Dracula in another short story or film, for example, but not Stoker’s novel

or Coppola’s film.

Once a monster and the work in which it appears have been selected, make an argument that

applies class concepts to the work. For example, the creature in Frankenstein has often been used

to show the negative effects that isolation has upon us, zombies are often equated with issues of

overconsuming resources such as environmental collapse, and so on. Students writing about a

monster not yet discussed in class should look ahead and use the learning modules as a jumping

off point, and are encouraged to contact their TA with any questions.

Feel free to explore the intersection of literature and other fields in your essay. For

example, how might a work concerning zombies be used to map contemporary pandemics?

Why is it not feasible to build a killer robot like the Terminator? Or is it? How do secret sharers

like wolf men relate to anger management? How might an analysis of a short story better allow a

video game designer to create a compelling vampire character? And so on.

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Within this assignment, therefore, students have great range in selection of a work, so please do

choose something in which you are interested and about which you would like to write.

The work on which students will focus their arguments is called a primary source.

Students may choose a novel, short story, poem, comic book, painting, sculpture, film, video

game, and so on, as their primary source. Nevertheless, do consider the following tips in

selection of a primary source:

1. The instructor does not recommend choosing a novel that you have not yet read unless you

feel confident that you will have time this semester to read the work in its entirety. When writing

about a novel, use specific examples from particular chapters and paragraphs; avoid retelling the

entire plot of the novel as this will readily lead to summary rather than analysis. Students might

be better served using a short story, poem, or other shorter literary work rather than a novel.

2. Students who select a comic book should also avoid summarizing the plot of the work. If you

select a comic, be sure that you have access to the complete book and not just a few panels posted

online. Making an argument about comic books requires interdependent analysis of words and

pictures in a series of panels, and this actually makes comics one of the more challenging media

about which to write. I would happily urge students who choose a comic to discuss their

argument and analysis with both the instructor and TA as they are writing their rough draft.

3. Students who choose visual arts (for example, a painting or sculpture) should realize that they

will need to analyze specifics from the work in presenting their argument.

4. As with many of the other works mentioned above, students writing about film will need to

analyze specifics from the film to make their argument; do not simply summarize the plot of the

film. Consider analyzing dialogue, the performance of an actor or actress, use of camera angles,

use of music, and so on.

5. Though this suggestion comes last, students who select a video game should take particular

care as constructing an argument based upon a game can be especially tricky.

Unless you are also involved with a course of study that stresses video game design, it might be

best not to select a video game for the short essay.

We are not seeking an overview of what happens in the game, or an overview of game play.

Instead, analysis of a game involves creating an argument concerning why the game presents a

monster in a certain manner.

As already noted, students should present an argument in line with their chosen work. This

argument, or “thesis,” should be clearly stated in the essay’s introduction.

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Note that a thesis should be more than a statement of opinion or topic. Instead, the thesis should:

• State the writer’s viewpoint.

• State why the writer holds this viewpoint.

• State the significance of the viewpoint. Why is it important?

For example, "Werewolves explore the tension between human and animal nature," is a statement

of topic, but is too broad to base an argument upon. As further example, "The tension between

human and animal nature can be seen in films such as The Wolf Man in Larry’s anxiety over his

love for Gwen and in his father’s words of advice to Larry." This is an “essay map” in which the

writer announces what subject matter will be treated first and second in the essay, but it is not an

argument.

An argument, as Asma notes, needs to dig beneath the surface and examine why we hold the

viewpoints that we do. For example, "Werewolves explore the tension between human and

animal nature in order to express our fears over losing control and hurting those close to us. In

so doing, werewolves might motivate us to take action to avoid hurting those we care about."

This statement presents an argument: the writer would discuss loss of control and then the fear of

hurting those close to us, before moving on to perhaps consider specific psychological strategies

aimed at containing the “beast within.” The main difference between this and the examples

offered in the previous paragraph on this page is that the argument provides a particular way of

looking at the tension between human and animal nature, as well as its importance.

Students should use subsequent, or body, paragraphs of the essay to provide support for the

argument. Again . . . take care to avoid merely summarizing a work. For example, avoid a

paragraph such as the following:

Bram Stoker's Dracula supports Victorian standards of sexual conduct. When Jonathan

resides with the Count as his guest, we see that Dracula has three "brides." Even though

he has three brides, he is always on the prowl for more. He transforms Lucy into a

vampire and attempts to do the same to Mina by making her drink his blood. Since

Dracula is seen as evil in the novel, Stoker uses him to support the idea of monogamy and

restraint in adult sexual relations.

This paragraph merely recounts a few examples from Stoker's novel without explaining how

Dracula is used to support the idea of monogamy. The connection between examples and

argument is implied where it should be explicit.

Secondary sources are sources written about your primary work, and may be used to help

students support their analysis of the primary work.

For example, Beowulf is a primary source.

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Stephen Asma’s On Monsters offers analysis of this poem. Asma’s book would be a secondary

source.

In terms of the total number of sources needed for the essay, students should use:

• Five total sources.

o One primary source

o Four secondary sources

1. Only one secondary source may come from a generalized Internet search, Google, for example.

2. The majority of your secondary sources, then, will come from online books and databases

available through the library.

Your TA can point you in the right direction if you need help, but please also note the valuable

resource available in reference librarians who are eager to help you conduct research. Reference

librarians may be contacted at https://www.utdallas.edu/library/research-

instruction/instruction/consultations/

3. Remember that some secondary sources might not seem to relate directly to your

monster. Do not disregard these sources. For example, a book about the spread of

pandemics might never mention Max Brooks’s World War Z. This book would still be of use

to me, however, if I am arguing how Brooks’s novel might be used to help researchers better

map the spread of pandemics and save lives.

Students who elect to use additional secondary sources beyond the requirements of this

assignment are welcome to do so, but should be aware that these sources will need to be cited.

Building upon this idea, do consider the short length of the essay. It is better to use fewer

sources in more detail. Using fewer sources in more detail is also an excellent way to give more

potential for avoiding summary.

The short essay’s conclusion should restate the thesis and the key points of the argument.

_____________________________________________________________________________________

Plagiarism:

All works used in the essay must be cited. As noted above, students who elect to do research

beyond the requirements of the assignment are welcome to do so, but should be aware that these

sources will also need to be cited.

In the following examples, the instructor has attempted to provide a few representative examples

using eighth edition MLA format. This is not meant to be an exhaustive guidebook, and

additional information is available through the University Writing Center (discussed below), and

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on such websites as Purdue University's OWL (Online Writing Lab):

http://owl.english.purdue.edu/owl/resource/747/01/

I. In-Text Citation

1. Please cite direct quotations from printed sources (novels, stories, and comic books) by

author’s last name and page number. For example, from Richard Matheson’s I Am Legend:

“Robert Neville looked out over the new people of the earth. He knew he did not belong to them;

he knew that, like the vampires, he was anathema and black terror to be destroyed” (Matheson

170).

This example introduces a standard in-text, parenthetical citation. Note that the period that ends

the sentence follows the citation, and that the author's last name appears within the citation along

with the page number from which the quotation derives.

“He kept turning from one side to another, his eyes searching around the room as if there was

something to be found, as if he had mislaid the exit from this house of horror” (Matheson 69-70).

Note that the quotation derives from more than one page.

In a particularly tense scene, Matheson describes how "Neville lurched back . . . as the ax blade

bit deeply into the front door” (160-61).

Note foremost in this example both the use of ellipses to omit material not directly pertinent to

the argument, and that the author's name need not be included in the citation if it appears in the

same sentence as the information being cited.

Similar to what has just been presented regarding novels, stories, and comic books, poems should

be cited by line or line numbers. For example, from Kipling’s “If”:

“If you can keep you head when all about you/ Are losing theirs and blaming it on you” (1-2).

Note that the backslash in this example demarcates the first line from the second.

2. Films should be cited parenthetically in text by the director’s last name except in those cases in

which the director’s last name introduces the material. For example:

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Walton’s statement for the creature to return with his crew represents a shocking departure from

Mary Shelley’s novel (Branagh).

In Kenneth Branagh’s Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein, Walton’s statement for the creature to return

with his crew represents a shocking departure from Mary Shelley’s novel.

3. Cite works of art in text by the last name of the artist except in those cases where the artist’s

last name introduces the material. For example:

The use of light and shadow in Moses Breaks the Tablets of the Law portrays Moses as more of a

vengeful, rather than a heroic, figure (Doré).

Doré’s use of light and shadow in Moses Breaks the Tablets of the Law portrays Moses as more

of a vengeful, rather than a heroic, figure.

4. Cite online sources by the last name of the editor, compiler, or author. If this information is

not available, cite by title. For example:

“Common sense and ethics should determine your need for documenting sources. You do not

need to give sources for familiar proverbs, well-known quotations or common knowledge”

(“MLA In-Text Citations: The Basics”).

5. Cite video games by the title of the game except where the title of the game introduces the

material. For example:

Locating the action in a shopping mall establishes well the fear of the zombie as an agent of siege

warfare (Dead Rising).

Locating the action in a shopping mall, as notably seen in Dead Rising, establishes well the fear

of the zombie as an agent of siege warfare.

6. Finally, please cite paraphrase.

Any ideas that are not your original thought should be cited.

For example:

The conclusion of Matheson’s novella drives home the argument that Neville is not the

protagonist he previously appeared to be. Though readers might want to identify with him as the

last human being alive, his inability to perceive the difference between the vampires proper and

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mutated humans positions him as the true monster in the novella, a sentient established in the

novella’s final sentence that forces readers to re-read the novella and re-evaluate Neville’s

decisions (Matheson 170).

II. Works Cited

1. Students should also include a Works Cited page with the short essay. The standard format for

citing a book is as follows:

Shelley, Mary. Frankenstein. Penguin Books, 2003.

2. The Works Cited for a shorter work, such as a poem or story, which appears in a longer work is

as follows:

Simmons, Dan. “This Year’s Class Picture.” The Living Dead, edited by John Joseph

Adams, Night Shade Books, 2008. pp. 7-23.

3. The Works Cited for a comic book is as follows:

Kirkman, Robert (writer) and Tony More (artist). The Walking Dead, 2003.

4. The Works Cited for a film is as follows:

Branagh, Kenneth, director. Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein. Tristar, 1994.

5. The Works Cited format for a work of art is as follows:

Doré, Gustav. Moses Breaks the Tablets of the Law. 1866, engraving, Boston Museum of

Art, Boston.

6. The Works Cited citation for a work from eLearning is as follows:

Jarrett, Christian. “The Lure of Horror.” The Psychologist, vol. 24, November

2011, pp. 812-15. eLearning. Accessed 15 August 2016.

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7. The Works Cited citation for a work from an online database (for example: JSTOR or

Academic Search Complete) is as follows:

Sawyer, Robert. "Mary Shelley and Shakespeare: Monstrous Creations." South Atlantic Review,

vol. 72, no. 2, Spring 2007, pp. 15-31. JSTOR, www.jstor.org/stable/27784706.

Accessed 19 July 2019.

8. The Works Cited citation for an online work will vary dependent upon the amount of

information available. Ideally, students should include the name of the editor, complier, or author

followed by the name of the site, the date of creation, media, and date accessed. For example:

Adams, Neal. “How to Draw Dracula in Six Steps,” http://www.wikihow.com/Draw-

Dracula. Accessed 15 August 2016.

9. Finally, the Works Cited citation for a video game is as follows:

Dead Rising. Capcom, 2006.

Entries in a list of Works Cited should be alphabetized by the last name of the author. Where this

is not available, entries should be alphabetized by the first word of the title excluding “a,” “an,”

“the,” and so on. Please see the formatting sample on eLearning.

I have tried to cover a variety of sources in this assignment sheet, but please contact the instructor

and TA with any questions concerning proper citation to avoid plagiarism.

Failure to provide this information will be considered plagiarism which will result

in the student’s essay being referred to Judicial Affairs for evaluation, and has the

potential to result in a zero for the assignment or even a grade of "F" for the

course.

__________________________________________________________________

Help:

Please contact your TA if you have any questions.

Students who consult with their TA have the highest probability for success.

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Additional help is available from the University's Writing Center. Information concerning contacting the

Writing Center is available at the following: https://www.utdallas.edu/studentsuccess/writing-and-

speaking/writing-center/