CRITICAL RESPONSE:
In this essay, you will perform a sustained close reading of an aspect of a single text. Identify an intellectual problem – an ambiguity, contradiction, tension, or site of possible misunderstanding – you wish to explore via analysis of a specific passage or series of passages from the essay. Make a claim about how the writer's choices of language and form affect the essay’s argument.
Strive to draw your reader’s attention to details of the essay that are more significant or meaningful than they initially appear to be ; this process should lead you to generate new interpretations about the essay as a whole. Your goal is to recognize what the essay is doing, identify precisely how the essay is crafted to accomplish that, and then think about why the author might have made those particular choices. You are seeking to illuminate your text for your readers, not simply to say that it is bad or good, likeable or unlikeable, or right or wrong .
Essay projects of this kind generally accomplish one or more of the following aims:
• extend readers’ understanding of a text (“the text is about X, but it’s also about Y”)
• explain the purpose of an unusual, unexpected, or perplexing moment in the text (“this passage might seem out of place or unnecessary, but it accomplishes X”)
• correct a possible misreading (“we may think it’s X, but actually it is Y”)
• demonstrate the relationship of parts to the whole (“we can’t understand X until we can see Y ”)
Goals:
• Identify a problem that is worth addressing, using a passage that will reward close reading.
• Formulate a claim that makes a strong argument and is not obvious.
• Establish a motive for the essay in your introduction. Here you will answer the “So What?” question, suggesting why your essay is important and interes ting to an intelligent reader. Draw out the implications of the argument in your conclusion.
• Structure the essay around your central claim, making sure that each paragraph is adding an essential piece to your argument.
• Use evidence persuasively, quoting from the text when necessary, summarizing or paraphrasing accurately and responsibly when appropriate. Do not provide evidence from other sources or make general assertions (e.g., claims about “human nature”).
• Adhere to all relevant formatting guidelines described in the course syllabus.