Instructor: Dr. Johnson LIT-100-09503, Intro. To Literature
Requirements for a successful essay:
Thesis. An interpretation of the reading which you can argue for and prove in your essay.
Evidence from text. Specific descriptions, dialogue, character’s actions that supports your thesis.
Analysis of the evidence. Explain how
you
arrived at
your
ideas.
Third-person viewpoint. Don’t use First-person, “I think “Famine” uses symbolism …’ Instead, write in third person: “In “Famine,” hunger symbolizes…
Options for Your Essay:
Choose from one of the following prompts
1) The opening octave of Robert Frost’s sonnet “Design” finds an albino spider clutching its prey—a dead, white moth caught in the dark of night—atop a sickly white, blighted heal-all (which is usually a blue flower). Discuss broader, more abstract questions that Frost seems to want readers to have, using specific examples from the poem.
2) Using one of the longer poems that we have read (sonnet-length or greater) as an example, examine how the literary techniques (such as diction, tone, image, etc) establish a particular emotional theme within the poem (such as alienation, ambivalence, injustice, regret, lost innocence, lost hope, love and sacrifice, or other).
3) Choose one of Robert Frost’s poems that we’ve read in class. Using specific examples from the poem, consider the poem’s relationship to Frost’s essay “On the Figure a Poem Makes.”
4) Choose one: “The Birthmark” (p 333), “A Good Man is Hard to Find” (p 356), or “The Horse Dealer’s Daughter” (p 506). Examine specific literary techniques in the story, and how they establish the story’s theme.
5) Choose to answer your own question about a poem or a short story. See Dr. J for approval.
Also make an Outline of this essay
Outline- Introductory Paragraph
A. Catches reader’s attention
B. Indicates topic of paper, and what you will write about
C. Names the author(s) and text(s) to be analyzed
D. Gives a focus as to what you will explore about topic (Examples: “This paper will give a biographical reading of Sylvia Plath’s poem, Daddy” or a “This paper argues that Ambrose Bierce’s short story, Chicamauga” uses realism by representing violent Civil War imagery to inform the public about the horrors of war).
E. Sets up your paper’s analysis and any literary terms you will apply: such as theme, symbolism, realism, characterization, message, imagery, setting, metaphor, allusion, etc.
F. Has a strong, very specific thesis statement (an argument that you will defend)
I. [1st main point (Strongest)
A. [Support]
1. [Example]
B. [Support]
1. [Example]
C. [Support]
1. [Example]
II. [Second main point (second strongest)]
A. [Support]
1. [Example]
2. [Example]
B. [Support]
1. [Example]
2. [Example]
C. [Support]
1. [Example]
III. Third Main Point
A. [Support]
1. [Example]
2. [Example]
B. [Support]
1. [Example]
2. [Example]
C. [Support]
1. [Example]
2. [Example]
IV. Conclusion
Provides a Sherlock-Holmes-style conclusion
A. Focuses the significance of the essay
B. What does all the evidence lead to?
C. Leaves us with final thoughts.
V. Works Cited
A. Follows proper MLA format:
1) Show evidence of your points
2) Use examples/quotes from works of selected primary source
3) Apply criticism and outside source (research secondary source)
4) Quote sources accurately.
5) Introduce quotes with the author and source of the information
6) Provide only that much of the quote that is necessary to get across meaning.
7) Explain the significance of the quote in relation to the point you were making
8) Use correct parenthetical reference
9) Summarize and paraphrase succinctly
10) Avoid any plagiarism and documents all sources
B. Works Cited Page: Lists all sources referenced in the essay on a separate page from the rest of the paper.
Mr.Q
essay_assignment_due_on_monday.docx
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