| Due Dates: | Requirements: |
| Working draft: December 4, 2001 Final draft: December 11, 2001 |
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To identify the important issues in a work of literature and construct a persuasive argument addressing those issues in a paper.
In the first assignment, you considered very brief passages and examined them in minute detail. It is now time to apply those same skills to an overall literary work from this semester. Attention to detail will still be important, but now it will also be important to select out useful evidence from this longer text. Furthermore, it will be important to situate the work itself within a larger literary context.
In writing this paper, please avoid simply summarizing the work. You can presume that your audience has already read the text, so devote your energies to an analysis of the text. Break it down for your reader and only refer to those parts of it that contribute to your argument. Along these lines, do not let the structure of the chosen work determine the structure of your own argument. Structure the argument according to your thesis statement and the subtopics that will allow you to prove this thesis. Do not hesitate to take quotations from the work out of order in doing this.
In writing this paper, you may focus on one selection from the semester, or you may compare and contrast two selections. Choose from among the following topics or choose one of your own (though, please, talk with me about the topic before you start writing the paper if you are choosing your own topic):
Puritanism—How do Puritan concerns about predestination and an individual connection with God influence works of literature written during the early days of the American colonies? What do these works tell us about the nature of Puritanism—its strengths and limitations as a way of regarding the world?
Gender—Gender relations have changed a great deal between the time of the works we are studying and the present day. Consider how gender expectations shape the perspectives of your chosen writer or writers. If the writer is a woman, then how does her gender influence the conditions of writing and the way she asserts her right to present her views in the face of traditional prohibitions against women speaking up? If the writer is a man, then how do his depictions of women either challenge traditional attitudes toward women?
Empiricism—Empiricists were fascinated with the observable world and loved to classify things in it according to a rigorous logic. Indeed, they believed that this logic followed the dictates of Nature itself. In a chosen work or works, consider what is natural and what deviates (or threatens to deviate) from the course of Nature. What are the strengths or weaknesses of the system of classification that the writers uses? What can we learn about our own modes of classification from the work or works in question?
Romanticism—The romanticists advocated listening to our true, authentic impulses regardless of what we read or heard from other people. They also avidly described threats to the authentic self from which these impulses were to spring. How does the conflict between the self and the surrounding community shape the way these writers write? Do they successfully avoid reduplicating in their own writing the problems with community that they identify elsewhere? If so, how? If not, what are the consequences of their mistakes?
Sentimentalism—Harriet Beecher Stowe is perhaps one of the most influential sentimentalists that the nineteenth century ever produced. Explain the strengths and weaknesses in her methods using specific examples from Uncle Tom's Cabin. With these in mind, what is the ultimate value of this novel?
Choose a topic from the above list and one or two works that genuinely interest you and that will allow you to elaborate the most effectively on the chosen topic.
Read through the works again and take notes on the salient points as well as similarities and differences between related works.
Formulate a preliminary thesis about the literary work or works and relationships with the chosen topic.
Break that thesis down into between two and four subtopics that are likewise arguable (three, of course, is the standard number of subtopics). Think about the most logical arrangement of subtopics for the structure of you argument.
Write a draft of your argument. Go back and reconsider your thesis statement. Revise it.
Bring the draft to class on December 4 for peer-editing. If you cannot attend class on that day, let me know. You can regain some of the points lost to an absence on peer-editing day if you can exchange papers with another classmate and edit it before turning in the final draft.
Be sure to include a Works Cited List on the last page of the paper.
Be sure the paper is at least six pages long. Six pages is the absolute minimum length, and papers under six pages will lose some points. That is, please write six full pages of text (not six pieces of paper with some writing on them).
Revise and proofread the paper over the weekend and turn in the final draft on December 11.
I have based many of these tips on my comments to you on your previous papers.
In most cases, your first thesis statement will not be arguable enough. Keep revising it until you have a statement that truly arguable and truly interesting. Do not hesitate to revise it after you have written a complete draft of the paper. The thesis statement should directly address your two chosen works.
Examples (for a comparison paper addressing two different works-you may, of course, choose to address only one work in your paper):
FIRST TRY: Coming of age is not an easy thing to do.
SECOND TRY-NOT THERE YET: Mark Twain's Huckleberry Finn is about a boy who comes of age, whereas Theodore Dreiser's Sister Carrie is about a woman who comes of age.
A GOOD THESIS: Mark Twain's Huckleberry Finn and Theodore Dreiser's Sister Carrie are both typically American tales of the coming of age, but Dreiser's novel does not allow its main character to define herself the way Huck Finn does, because Dreiser is part of the naturalist tradition.
Notice the evolution from an overly general, though accurate, statement about the two works to a statement about the difference between the two works to a precise explanation of how these books compare.
Instead of covering a pre-established set of points, organize your paper around the thesis statement. Consider the following outline for an argument supporting the above thesis:
THESIS: Mark Twain's Adventures of Huckleberry Finn and Theodore Dreiser's Sister Carrie are both typically American tales of the coming of age, but Dreiser's novel does not allow its main character to define herself the way Huck Finn does, because Dreiser is part of the naturalist tradition.
America thought of itself as a country that had recently come of age, and Twain's and Dreiser's novels both recreate that movement in the lives of their characters.
The setting of Huck Finn's adventures is separate from civilization, whereas the setting of Sister Carrie immerses its characters in the community.
Dreiser complicates the notion of free will that we find in Twain's novel, but still allows for the possibility of heroism in the character Carrie.
I would then do my best to turn each of these subtopics into a unified paragraph with supporting evidence in the form of quotations. If a paragraph got too long, I might have to break it down into two paragraphs, but I would make careful use of transitional phrases to keep the logic clear to the reader.
Follow MLA format when using quotations or paraphrases to support the argument:
Use blended quotations for quotations under four lines and block quotations for quotations over four lines. Remember the tricky punctuation rules for each type of quotation. If you have questions about this, ask me or look it up in a style manual such as Keys for Writers.
Write a list of Works Cited at the end of the paper. The last name of the author comes first, then the title of the selection. Then, if applicable, the title of the book in which you found the work (i. e.: The Heath Anthology of American Literature, Vol. I). Notice that I italicize the name of a book whenever I mention it.
Examples: [Note: HTML protocols do not allow me to indent these entries properly. Each line following the first should be indented 1/2 inch.--JDS]
Stowe, Harriet Beecher. Uncle Tom's Cabin. New York: Bantam, 1981.
Wheatley, Phillis. 1773. "To the Right Honourable William, Earl of Dartmouth, His Majesty's Principal Secretary of State for North-America &c." The Heath Anthology of American Literature, Vol. I. Fourth Edition. Ed. Paul Lauter. Boston: Houghton, Mifflin, 1998. pp. 1208-1209.
Alphabetize works cited according to the author's last name. The year of original publication after the author's name in the above two examples is optional, but the year of publication after the publisher is required. There are many other rules for MLA format for peculiar instances that will come up, but the above two examples should serve as useful models for the vast majority of cases for this class. Do not hesitate to look these rules up.
Grammar points:
Refer to events in a work of literature in the present tense. This may sound strange at first, but it is the convention for addressing literature. Notice that we tend to follow this rule in class discussion.
Avoid the passive voice whenever possible.
PASSIVE VOICE: Ichabod Crane was chased out of Sleepy Hollow.
ACTIVE VOICE: The Headless Horseman chased Ichabod Crane out of Sleepy Hollow.
Notice that the passive voice sentence does not tell us who chased Ichabod out. Leaving out the subject makes the sentence less interesting, and doing so repeatedly will bore your readers.
Avoid contractions in academic writing. Contractions say "casual" and academic work tends to be more formal. The same rule applies to business letters. So, replace they're with they are and replace don't with do not (just two among many examples of contractions).
A grammatically complete sentence has at least one subject and one verb. If it is missing a subject or a verb, it is a sentence fragment. Sentence fragments are sometimes acceptable, but only if you mean to use them.
The word it's (with an apostrophe) is a contraction of it is. The word its (without an apostrophe) is the possessive of it.
Comma rules are complicated, so look them up in a style manual if you had trouble with them on the previous paper. A comma splice is what happens when you try to separate two grammatically complete sentences with only a comma. Comma splices are bad. Avoid them.
Example:
WRONG: I hope it starts snowing soon, snow would make Duluth so much prettier.
CORRECT: I hope it starts snowing soon, because snow would make Duluth so much prettier.
ALSO CORRECT: I hope it starts snowing soon. Snow would make Duluth so much prettier.
Transitions. These are words that serve as signposts pointing out the direction of your argument to your readers. Some of these transitions are like "One Way" signs leading your reader on to the next point. Others are like "U Turn" signs indicating a reversal of direction. There are other more subtle transitions that alter the tone or indicate approval or disapproval of what you are discussing.
Examples:
One Way Signs (leading from before to after or from cause to effect)
A Native American raiding party captures Mary Rowlandson in a violent raid on her homestead in Massachusetts. Subsequently, her child dies from a bullet wound.
Frederick Douglass reaches his breaking point and has as serious fight with Mr. Covey in which he defeats him. Consequently, Mr. Covey never lays a hand in anger on Douglass again.
Crèvecœur's second reference to a prospect is much less conclusive than his first such reference. Therefore, we must presume that his disenchantment with America is causing him to doubt all of his earlier certainties about what makes the land so rich.
U-turn Signs (establishing a contrast between ideas)
Whereas Emerson sits behind his desk to develop the theory of Transcendentalism, Thoreau goes out into the woods in order to practice Transcendentalism .
William Bradford believes the American colonies are the most religiously pure in the world. However, he must still acknowledge the Devil's repeated incursions in to this territory.
Though Thomas Morton does not hesitate to erect a Maypole in Merry-mount, he also vigorously defends himself against charges of heresy coming from the Puritans.
Other types of transitions
Unfortunately, slaves were unable to testify in a court of law, so murderers of slaves often got away with it.
Strangely enough, Barlow writes a lengthy epic about the Hasty Pudding in spite of its seemingly overwhelming banality as a food.
These are just a few examples of the numerous transitions out there that can help you arrange your ideas. Most style manuals will give you a more exhaustive list of options and fuller explanations of how to use them. Your best resource, however, is your own experience with written and spoken language. You undoubtedly hear and use dozens of these transitions per day. Integrate the appropriate ones into your writing.
Keep in mind also that these transitions are often the most important as you move from one subtopic in your paper to the next. Very frequently, the first sentence in a new paragraph needs to provide the reader a clear transition between ideas in the previous paragraph and ideas in the new one.
In grading this assignment, I will use the following criteria:
| A | Confident, persuasive written expression An original approach to the literary work A strong thesis statement that is arguable and interesting Exemplary in the clarity and organization of its argument Engaging to its audience in a manner that commands attention Consistently good use of evidence in support of your contentions and in accordance with MLA format Nearly flawless mechanically (format, spelling, grammar) |
| B | Clear written expression with a few minor breakdowns in sentence clarity Somewhat original approach to the literary work A strong thesis statement that is arguable and interesting Well-organized argument that signals its structure to readers by way of effective transitional sentences Good use of evidence to support your contentions and in accordance with MLA format Only a few mechanical flaws |
| C | Satisfies the basic demands of the assignment Generally clear though with some confusing sentences Makes a clear argument about the meaning of the poem A thesis statement that is arguable and interesting A well-organized argument Use of evidence in support of your contentions and in accordance with MLA format, though not consistently Several mechanical flaws, but not so many that they confuse the meaning of your paper. |
| D | Almost satisfies the basic demands of the assignment Numerous breakdowns impairing the clarity of your argument Thesis statement is either not arguable or is uninteresting Argument has minimal organization Use of evidence to support contentions is wildly inconsistent and/or not in accordance with the MLA format Numerous mechanical flaws interfering with paper clarity |
| F | Does not satisfy the basic demands of the assignment Unclear writing style Lacks a thesis statement No clear argument-a seemingly random arrangement of ideas Mechanical flaws throughout the paper No use of evidence to support the argument Plagiarized work |