Order Description
REQUIRED QUOTATIONS:
AT LEAST THREE (3) QUOTATIONS FROM THE LITERARY WORK USED AND DOCUMENTED APPROPRIATELY IN THE PAPER. IN ADDITION, YOU NEED TO USE AT LEAST ONE QUOTATION FROM EACH OF TWO CRITICAL SOURCES (SEE SUGGESTIONS BELOW). You must provide parenthetical citations to document the quotations as well as a Work Cited entry for each source to enable your reader to locate the source of the quotations. These are requirements; I won’t grade your paper without these elements.
I also won’t grade papers that aren’t double-spaced. You need to adhere to MLA formatting rules, so consult the MLA handout and ask me if you have questions.
Don’t write about how much you liked or didn’t like the literary work. Don’t summarize the plot.
Your papers should be analytical (see comparison of summary and analysis immediately below). Develop a specific claim to support—your thesis, the main point of the paper. The thesis of a literary analysis must be specific and debatable, so a fact can’t be a thesis.
YOUR THIRD PAPER WILL BE A REVISION OF EITHER PAPER 1 OR PAPER 2; YOU CHOOSE WHICH PAPER TO REVISE. I usually advise students to choose the paper with the highest grade as the one to revise, but the choice is always up to you.
Revision is an important process; this assignment is intended to force you to think about revision means. It doesn’t mean just correcting errors. Obviously, this paper is required to be longer than Paper 1 or Paper 2, so I expect more analysis. Why do you think what you think? How does the literary work lead you to your conclusions? (It might help you to think of the thesis as your ultimate conclusion, even though you need to present the thesis early in a paper.) Also, think about whether reorganizing the paper would make it more effective. Why did you originally present the paragraphs (or the paragraph topics) in a particular order? Is there an order that makes more sense? How can you show your reader the reasons behind your choices of organization and evidence?
Your papers should be analytical (see comparison of summary and analysis immediately below). Develop a specific claim to support—your thesis, the main point of the paper. The thesis of a literary analysis must be specific and debatable, so a fact can’t be a thesis.
As usual, I’d be happy to read rough drafts and offer suggestions. Just be sure to email me the rough draft at least 4-5 days before the paper is due, so I’ll have time to read and comment on it and you’ll have time to revise.
CRITICAL SOURCES
Critical sources analyze and comment on literary works. The critical sources you use may be print or online, but they must be authoritative and reliable. They also should be relevant to the argument you build in your paper. I strongly recommend that you use material from the databases available through the library’s web page (there’s a link to them near the top of the main Moodle page); I especially recommend Academic Search Complete, Artemis Literary Sources, JSTOR, and Project Muse. If you do find material outside those databases, carefully evaluate it: Who wrote it? Is it properly documented? Does the method of presentation make the material seem authoritative? Any sign of bias? See evaluation criteria.
Material from a web site created by high school students is not acceptable; neither is material from Wikipedia or Sparknotes or websites of those types.
For help with MLA formatting and documentation, see the MLA handout and PowerPoint presentation.
See the rubric below for information about how the paper will be graded.
E-mail questions to me.
RUBRIC FOR GRADING PAPER
(25 Points Total)
4 Focus Work on strengthening your focus and your thesis. Please
try to implement at least some of my comments on
whichever paper you have chosen to revise.
Remember to make your thesis debatable and
specific.
7 Analysis Try to sharpen your analysis. Again, for an online
presentation about literary analysis, see
http://owl.english.purdue.edu/
workshops/pp/litanalysis.ppt.
4 Coherence Work on making your paper more coherent. That includes
introducing all quotations and showing how they support
your claim. (Quotations do not explain their own meaning
and significance.) Use transitional sentences to show the
connection between paragraph topics and the progression from one paragraph to another.
5 Examples General statements are most convincing when
they are supported by examples (which includes quotations—just remember that quotations need to be interpreted and their significance explained).
5 Sources Use the required number and type of sources. They need
to be documented appropriately. See the MLA handout and
PP; let me know if you have questions.
I will not grade a paper that does not meet the requirements of the assignment. The paper is not acceptable without at least three (3) quotations from the literary work, parenthetical citations for those quotations, and a Work Cited entry for the literary work to which you’re responding. The paper is also not acceptable unless it uses and cites appropriately at least two (2) authoritative critical sources.
