You are responsible for writing two drafts of a documented essay on
works of literature that we are reading this semester. You may pick from the following
works:
* De Maupassant, “The Necklace” and “The False Gems” (real title is “The Gems” or “The Jewels”)
* Conan Doyle, Memoirs of Sherlock Holmes, any two stories
* Melville, “Bartleby the Scrivener”
* Melville, “Benito Cereno”
* Coleridge, “Kubla Khan”
* Sillitoe, “The Loneliness of the Long-Distance Runner”
* Harte, “The Outcasts of Poker Flat”
* Poe, “The Fall of the House of Usher”
* Hasford, The Short-Timers
* Borges, “The Garden of Forking Paths” and “Pierre Menard, Author of the Quixote”
* Shakespeare, The Tempest
First, you must know this work thoroughly.
Read it over as many times as you need to. Our class discussions, and
your biweekly assignments, should be very helpful. But they will not be enough.
* Find three articles, or chapters in books, about the work you have
chosen.
If, for some reason, you cannot find 3 suitable articles on the work
you have chosen, choose a different work.
* Use the MLA Bibliography to find them.
Go to the Sprague Library Home Page; then to “Articles and Databases”; then to “Language / Literature”; then look down the list to find “MLA (Modern Language Association Bibliography).
Download the articles and print them out on paper.
Read them over carefully, several times. Make notes on them.
Pick a topic to write your essay about. Use the articles as a
guideline, but do not copy them. Instead, read them several times. Think about them. Use
your notes.
Introductory paragraph
Your opening paragraph introduces your essay. State your topic
clearly.
Here you develop your topic.
Develop your own ideas and thoughts about the work of literature you
are writing on.
Use the articles you have chosen. Do NOT summarize them. Instead,
quote from them when you find them useful.
All the formats you will need can be found on the Purdue OWL (=
Online Writing Lab) web page.
https://owl.english.purdue.edu/owl/resource/747/01/
The left-hand column has pages for all the formats you will need.
Find the right format for the article, or book chapter, you are
using. Follow this format exactly as it is on this page.
Sum up your discussion. Draw your conclusions.
* Do not summarize either the work of literature or
the articles you are using.
* You are not required to use direct quotations from the articles you
have chosen to use.
If you wish, you may quote – in moderation. But these
quotations do NOT count towards your total word count for the essay.
* You MUST use an "In-Text Citation" whenever you use the words or the ideas from an article or book.
* You MUST use a direct quotation whenever you use the exact words from an article or a book.
Aim for 2000 words. This is the length of 5 or 6 biweekly
assignments.
You will write two drafts. The first draft is due to
me, by email, on Friday, November 8.
I will get it back to you within a week.
The second draft is due to me by email on Thursday, December 12 by 11:59 p.m.