for rey writer - english short papers

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The topic is open but the focus must be on the recent reading; you should write on whatever strikes you as most interesting. The best papers will sharply focus on something important, thus demonstrating the student’s high level of understanding. The general statements will be firmly supported. The vocabulary and conceptual framework will reflect analytical precision. Although brief, the paper will develop a particular idea and avoid plot summary, paraphrase, undeveloped subjective likes and dislikes. I encourage attention to form, genre, context, and theoretical issues. The prose will be lively and clear. The length: about 300 words. The response papers are worth 25% of your grade. On two occasions you will read your response paper to the class to stimulate class discussion.

Guide for the papers.

I. Content

* The idea development should be clear, well organized, coherent, logical and persuasive. You must work with the topic, refine it, impose your own ideas on it.

* The paper should be rich in content--with ideas, argument, evidence.

* You should have a strong grasp of the details of the text you're discussing. Summarize and refer to details; use some quotations of important words and phrases, perhaps a few sentences if necessary, but avoid lengthy quotations. Make sure that your key terms are clearly explained.

* Your intended audience is someone who has read the text under consideration and who is also interested in understanding its meaning. Accordingly, extensive plot summary is not appropriate.

* How to get content? You have to think hard about the topic, review key passages in the text, anticipate objections, pursue ideas to their logical conclusions, and work through contradictions and difficulties. Make connections between the parts and the whole.

II. Form

* Content development is by far the most important aspect of the paper, but you cannot present your content effectively unless the form of the paper is adequate. Accordingly, here is a checklist to assist you:

* Paragraphing: does each paragraph have a topic idea? Is each idea developed adequately? Is the sequence of paragraphs logically coherent?

* Phrasing: be concise, direct, and precise; proofread for wordiness, vagueness, and awkwardness.

* Mechanics: proofread for typos, misspellings, incorrect punctuation, and grammatical errors.

*References to the text (or texts): When you use critical commentary for your paper, use MLA Style of documentation. When quoting poetry, be sure to quote exactly, retaining line breaks: “Mary had a little lamb, / Its fleece as white as snow.” Four or more lines of poetry should be block quoted—again, exactly reproduced.

*Proofreading: it is quite apparent whether you have proofread your paper carefully or not. A paper with numerous mechanical errors will not receive a high grade; if the errors are too numerous, the paper will not receive a passing grade.

THE NEGRO'S COMPLAINT  by William Cowper

FORCED from home and all its pleasures             Afric's coast I left forlorn,  To increase a stranger's treasures             O'er the raging billows borne.  Men from England bought and sold me,             Paid my price in paltry gold;  But, though slave they have enrolled me,             Minds are never to be sold.

Still in thought as free as ever,             What are England's rights, I ask,  Me from my delights to sever,             Me to torture, me to task ?  Fleecy locks and black complexion             Cannot forfeit nature's claim;  Skins may differ, but affection             Dwells in white and black the same.

Why did all-creating nature             Make the plant for which we toil?  Sighs must fan it, tears must water,             Sweat of ours must dress the soil.  Think, ye masters iron-hearted,             Lolling at your jovial boards,  Think how many backs have smarted             For the sweets your cane affords.

Is there, as ye sometimes tell us,             Is there One who reigns on high?  Has He bid you buy and sell us,             Speaking from his throne, the sky?  Ask him, if your knotted scourges,             Matches, blood-extorting screws,  Are the means that duty urges             Agents of his will to use?

Hark! He answers!--Wild tornadoes             Strewing yonder sea with wrecks,  Wasting towns, plantations, meadows,             Are the voice with which he speaks.  He, foreseeing what vexations             Afric's sons should undergo,  Fixed their tyrants' habitations             Where his whirlwinds answer--"No."

By our blood in Afric wasted             Ere our necks received the chain;  By the miseries that we tasted,             Crossing in your barks the main;  By our sufferings, since ye brought us             To the man-degrading mart,  All sustained by patience, taught us             Only by a broken heart;

Deem our nation brutes no longer,             Till some reason ye shall find  Worthier of regard and stronger             Than the colour of our kind.  Slaves of gold, whose sordid dealings             Tarnish all your boasted powers,  Prove that you have human feelings,             Ere you proudly question ours!