Essay

Essay

In this essay, you will choose a text from the “ Social Class ” unit in Literature and Its Writers that we have read as a class. You will decide on one theme from the story and investigate that issue within our “real” society and make a claim about it, remembering to draw upon the text that deals with your issue. In other words, you will consider both how the theme appears in your selected story and how the theme appears in society. Roughly half of your essay should focus on analyzing the story, while the other half should focus on analyzing the story’s theme in society.

Considering the following questions may be helpful in your analysis of your issue:

· How does the theme from the story relate to society today? Is it still as important? Why or why not?

· Has the theme the author presents in her story changed throughout history? Does it vary by location, religion, ethnicity, etc.? How so?

· Does my story portray my theme/issue in a realistic way? Why or why not?

This essay is designed to enable you to construct a well-written, informed argument that is grounded in research. While your ideas and thoughts about your topic are valuable, you must remember that you also have to use evidence to support your arguments. In order to convince your audience that you and your claim are correct, you must find the best research available, synthesize it, and use it to support your claim.

Your essay should include the following parts:

· Introduction: this is where you tell your readers what the essay is about. In other words, introduce your topic. Answer these types of questions in your introduction: What are you writing your paper about? What are you trying to prove? Who should be especially concerned about this topic? Why?

· Thesis: this is where you establish your claim. Make sure that your claim is very specific and achievable. Your thesis should suggest a brief outline of your whole paper.

· Body:

· Each paragraph in the body of your paper needs to have a main point that you can support with specific evidence.

· Support your main points (topic sentences) through close analysis of others’ claims (research) and the story you have chosen. To support your analysis, you will need to quote, summarize, and/or paraphrase from the texts and cite your sources. No more than 40% of the body paragraphs should consist of quotation or paraphrase (Your citations should only constitute a little less than half of each paragraph at the most.) – Remember, this paper should argue your ideas and use research to back up your own claims.

· You should also use transitional words and phrases to help readers follow your ideas and logical thought progression between paragraphs.

· Conclusion: this is where you round up your essay. You need to relate the issue you have researched to society as a whole. If you have not posed any solutions to your claim in the body of your paper, do so in the conclusion. What should we do to fix the problem? What will happen if we don’t? What will happen if we do?

· Works Cited page: this will be the last page of the essay and should contain citations for all of the sources you paraphrase or quote from in your paper. This page will be double-spaced with at least two required sources (from the library databases) and your selected story listed in alphabetical order. Note: The definition of a word or an encyclopedic entry will NOT count as a source. Seek out academic interpretations or studies to use in your papers.

Use your research to back up your ideas, but not to write your paper for you. What you have to say is valuable and interesting, and I want to mostly hear you in your papers, not other people. You must recognize when to use research responsibly (i.e. to support your own ideas) rather than irresponsibly (to substitute for your own ideas). Make sure to give credit where credit is due and cite your sources!!!

· The story that I want you to write and investigate is “The Necklace” by Guy de Maupassant . Once the theme is chosen then relate the theme of the story to the topic “ social class “

· The story http://www.bartleby.com/195/20.html

· You have to have a direct quote from the story that supports your ideas on the essay. (To make it excellent try to connect the story to each of your paragraphs).