Your first formal writing assignment will be one that analyses a work of creative literature and makes a claim about the work itself. I want you to write about how this particular work you choose functions as literature. Use the definition of literature we discussed in class; you have a wide license in selecting your sources. Literature, for our purposes, is considered as “the recorded verbal expressions of human culture” and is distinguished in “form, expression, and emotional power” (to use the definition found in the literary glossary of FTCC Thompson Library’s Literary Reference Center). Literature, writes M. H. Abrams in his Glossary of Literary Terms, “has been commonly used since the eighteenth century . . . to designate fictional and imaginative writings – poetry, prose fiction, and drama. In an expanded use, it designates also any other writings . . . that are especially distinguished in form, expression, and emotional power” (“literature”). In this course we will adopt both of these definitions in approaching our subject. The work of literature about which you write may be a work of any period and any genre. It must however be accessible to the rest of the class and tied into the theme you chose for the semester.
Let me repeat: you will write on a literary selection of your choice, found in the course of your research. It must be a specific work of creative literature that has a theme or topic related to the overarching topic you have chosen to work on for the semester.
In this essay you will attempt to clearly analyze and evaluate the work as a piece of literature. You will need to be very familiar with the work. Step back from the text after you have become familiar with it, and just consider how the writer put the work together. What does it do? Don’t just identify the theme of the work (the theme answers the question of what the literature is saying), but answer the question “how does it say it?” We will cover this process more fully in class.
Be sure to support your claim by referring to the work itself. Use direct quotations from the work. Remember, an analysis of a literary work must use the text itself as evidence; it does not just report on what is written. It seeks not to just summarize the story, but measure quality, seek purpose, and find meaning by use of evidence from within the work itself.
You must also do some literary research for this essay. I would like to see at least three sources other than the work itself integrated into your writing. While the core of this is your analysis, you need to cite other experts in the field in order to support and defend your position. And so you will have an MLA Works Cited page with at least four entries – the work itself, and three other sources.
State your claim about the work in a clear thesis sentence in your introduction and then defend it. Research creatively. Find out what others have said about your topic and your thesis. Use those who support your position as evidence to help your claim, and use those who disagree with you as sources of counter-argument. Write recursively, in multiple drafts, and with ample peer reviewing. Your challenge here is one of creativity in developing your thesis, judgment and information literacy in developing and evaluating your sources, and mechanics in the composition, citation, and documentation.
Recall what you were taught in Eng 111 about organization and style. State your thesis early in your essay and be sure to summarize your claim in your final paragraph. In between, focus on the construction of a short, clear essay that tells the reader what you understand the selection to say, and provide me clear examples from the work that illustrates your claim.
Specifications:
Your paper must…
• be 900-1100 words.
• be peer reviewed.
• have a descriptive title.
• contain a clear thesis statement that makes a claim about your topic and that is specific, significant, and arguable. The predicate of your thesis statement should be the claim of your essay.
• explain and support your thesis through the use of academically and ethically sound evidence.
• use proper MLA documentation and manuscript format. You must cite at least three sources for evidence on your topic. At least one of these must be accessed by the library databases. Social media and content sharing sites (Wikipedia, e-How, etc.) are not acceptable as sources. You must also cite the source of the work, in addition to the three reference citations. Your paper may contain graphics or links if to other media if you wish, but you must cite the sources for any graphics.
• include at least three quotations in the text of the essay, properly composed and documented drawing evidence from the literary text itself.
• contain unified, coherent, well-developed paragraphs with strong topic sentences, with clear and logical transitions between the paragraphs.
• be formatted according to the guidelines listed in your syllabus.