Brief writing assignment American Lit

Brief Writing Assignment

Directions: Whitman is often seen as the writer who truly embraces those Emersonian ideas of American identity and self-reliance.  Discuss, using examples from our readings this seminar, how Whitman’s poetry focuses on specific “American” themes and ideals.  Your best approach to this is to pick a specific selection or two and explicate that selection in your response.  This will prevent you from just broadly “reporting” rather than analyzing.

LIT331/332 Brief Writing Assignments Overview and Standards.

Note that you should be taking notes as the seminar progresses so that by the end you’ve got a rather clear path toward the writing assignment.

Basic standards:

· APA formatting (title page, double-spaced, citations).

· Thesis statement should reflect the writing prompt.

· Organize these as basic essays—set up your point in an introduction paragraph, give three supporting points that rely on the readings for examples, and conclude with a clear summation of your larger argument/response to the question.

· Supporting details are required from the readings. Note that since these are relatively short assignments, you don’t want to waste a lot of time summarizing the texts—assume your audience has read them and get to the point quickly. Quotations should be used as support, rather than content.

· The final length should be approximately 1 ½ - 2 pages (350-500 words).

· Standard English is required.

· No first person.

Book

Baym, N (Ed) (2008). The Norton Anthology of American Literature, Shorter Seventh Edition. New York: W.W. Norton & Company. 

ISBN 978-0-393-93057-3 (pbk)

Reading

Pages Whitman 991-1011, 1011-1055,