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:
* Conan Doyle, Memoirs of Sherlock Holmes, any two stories
* Melville, “Bartleby the Scrivener”
* Melville, “Benito Cereno”
* 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
* Kafka, "Metamorphosis"
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 at least 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).
* If there is one topic that is the subject of several articles, read those first.
If there isn't,
* Download the articles you do find and start to read these articles.
Read them carefully. Makes notes.
* You will notice that certain topics, or subjects, or issues, recur in a number of articles. In other word, there is a limited number of questions, problems, or ideas that the critics write about.
Let's call these common ideas "topics."
* Make a list of these topics and which articles deal with them.
* Pick ONE of these topics. This will be a good topic for your paper.
That's the method. It works for any work of literature.
(And far beyond literature. It works in any subject area, from A to Z. Literature is just what we are concerned with in this course.)
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, April 11, by 11:59 p.m.
I will get it back to you within a week.
The second draft is due to me by email on Thursday, May 8, by 11:59 p.m.