English 3563

Syllabus

Schedule

Assignments

Supplementary Information

Assignment Two
Literary Analysis

Due Dates:Requirements:
Working Draft—April 29, 2002
Final Draft—May 6, 2002
  • 6-8 typed pages
  • MLA Format

Objective

To identify the important issues in a work of literature and construct a persuasive argument addressing those issues in a paper.

Overview

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 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.

Topics

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):

  1. Educating the Reader—Many of the works we have read this semester have had, at least as one goal, a desire to educate the reader, to alter the reader's behavior in some way and thus make the world a better place. Choose one such work and explain the techniques that the author uses to convince the reader to act in a certain way or to avoid acting in a certain way or both. Explain also how this advice distinguishes the time period in which the author has written this work.

    Some possible arguments (you can make these more specific to the subject matter of your own paper or choose your own argument about advice in literature):

    This book offers good advice that we should heed as much now as readers at the time would have.

    The advice that this book offers is misleading and potential harmful, especially if we try to apply it to our lives in the present day.

    This book seems to be telling us to do one thing, but, upon closer reading, we realize that it is telling us to do something else.

  2. Drawing Our Attention to Something—Many of the works that we have read this semester have attempted to make readers reconsider their traditional understandings of day-to-day objects or commonplace ideas. Indeed, it is often the mark of a good work of literature that it makes readers pay attention to objects or ideas that they had previously overlooked, disregarded, or taken for granted. Choose one such work and focus on particular examples of objects in the work that we must see in a new light after reading about them.

    Some possible arguments (you can make these more specific to the subject matter of your own paper or choose your own argument about the author's description of objects):

    The _________ in this work may at first seem unimportant, but it actually proves to be crucial to our understanding of the main idea of the work.

    The author's use of the ___________ in this work helps support the author's main point, but it also introduces possibilities that this author may never have intended to address. (Explain what these possibilities are.)

    The meaning of the _________ in this work only makes sense when we study the historical context of the work. (Explain what we need to know about the past to have a useful understanding of the object.)

  3. Arguing for Certain U. S. Policies—Some texts are personal and meditative, but others have undeniable political goals. From the author's point of view, what is wrong with the United States? What should its people do to solve these problems? What is the ideal society that the author has in mind when addressing these problems?

    Some possible arguments (you can make these more specific to the subject matter of your own paper or choose your own argument about literature and politics):

    This author presents a strong argument, but he or she is wrong, because . . .

    This author's argument for ________ was once controversial but now is widely accepted, but there are still some crucial differences between the original argument and what we have kept of it.

Procedure

  1. 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.

  2. Read through the works again and take notes on the salient points as well as similarities and differences between related works.

  3. Adapt one of the thesis statements that I have provided to your chosen works or come up with a thesis on your own.

  4. Break the argument 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 your argument.

  5. Write a draft of your argument. Go back and reconsider your thesis statement. Revise it.

  6. Bring the draft to class on April 29 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.

  7. Be sure to include a Works Cited List on the last page of the paper.

  8. 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).

  9. Revise and proofread the paper over the weekend and turn in the final draft on May 6.

Writing Tips

I have based many of these tips on my comments to you on your previous papers.

  1. 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.

  2. Organize your paper around the thesis statement and be sure each part of your argument bears some clear relationship to the thesis statement. Do not leave it to your reader to figure out what each subtopic is doing in your paper. 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.

    1. 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.

    2. The setting of Huck Finn's adventures is separate from civilization, whereas the setting of Sister Carrie immerses its characters in the community.

    3. 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.

    Turn each of these subtopics into a unified paragraph with supporting evidence in the form of quotations. If a paragraph gets too long, break it down into two paragraphs, but make careful use of transitional phrases to keep the logic clear to the reader.

  3. Follow MLA format when using quotations or paraphrases to support the argument:

    1. 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.

    2. 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. ). Notice that you should italicize the name of a book whenever you mention it.

      Examples:

      Rowson, Susanna. 1791. Charlotte Temple. New York: Penguin, 1991.

      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.

      NOTE: It is not possible to format the bibliographic entries in the correct manner on a web page. The above examples should be indented 1/2 inch except in the first line of each entry

      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.

  4. Grammar points:

    1. 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.

    2. 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.

    3. 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).

    4. 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.

    5. The word it's (with an apostrophe) is a contraction of it is. The word its (without an apostrophe) is the possessive of it.

    6. 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.
    7. 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.

Grading Standards

In grading this assignment, I will use the following criteria:

A Confident, persuasive written expression
An original approach to the work in question 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
Somewhat original approach to the work in question, though quite dependent on material we discussed in class
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 breakdowns
Makes a clear argument about the meaning of the passage
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-seemingly random arrangement of ideas
Mechanical flaws throughout the paper
No use of evidence to support the argument
Plagiarized work
John D. Schwetman
5 April 2002