To put a wrap on this third unit, I’d like you to respond to the following prompt in an essay (containing a clear thesis, organization, and conclusion) of roughly 500-750 words:
Sometimes we need to perform a bit of good, old-fashioned literary analysis. I’m going to ask you a straight forward question, and you will provide a straight forward answer to that question–this is your thesis. Then, you will use the remainder of your essay to support your thesis through a careful analysis of the text.
You should think about setting, plot, and characterization as you write your essay (I gave you a lot of vocabulary to discuss these things for a reason). And I will expect plenty of quotes from the story to support your analysis.
Are you ready? Okay–here is the question:
The narrator of Poe’s “The Black Cat” opens his story by claiming “mad am I not” (766). Do you believe him? (And remember, “mad” means insane NOT angry.)
Remember, I am looking for evidence that you have done the reading and given it serious thought. This means that you are required to support your response with at least two brief direct quotes—preferably from a combination of sources (the assigned reading, your textbook introductory material and notes, the lectures). This needs to be done skillfully and in MLA format.
Here are the other criteria I will be assessing in your essay. Keep these handy while writing:
I have done all of the reading, so I don’t need background information. Your introduction should be short–make sure you give me a clear thesis and indicate which sources you will be using.
I expect clean, college level academic prose. This means that you should have good spelling, capitalization, and punctuation. You should also keep this in a formal, third person (no “I” or “you” pronouns).
Make sure you follow MLA documentation, including introducing your sources, providing signal phrases before quotes and parenthetical citations after quotes.
Include sources on your works cited page.
Format your paper in an 11 or 12pt font, double spaced, with clear paragraph indents–and a title!
Try to avoid opening or closing paragraphs with quotes–you should have topic sentences to open paragraphs and discussion to close.
Make sure your essay has a conclusion.
You are trying to convince me that you understood the material, so use direct references to the material.
I do NOT expect you to do additional research.
I do NOT want you to reference stupid websites in your essay.
You MUST attach your essay as a PDF–no other file types are guaranteed to be viewable in Blackboard. Failure to submit a PDF could result in a score of zero!
https://poestories.com/read/blackcat
