Assignment: Your final essay will essentially be an extension of the kind of literary analysis writing you have been practicing in your previous essays. It will go a little further in depth, requiring you to research your topic and use at least THREE secondary academic sources in addition to at least ONE primary source. Your objective will be to synthesize your sources effectively and use them as well as textual evidence to prove your thesis.
You may choose any literary work(s) listed on the syllabus. My goal is for you to craft an original, interesting thesis that gives an argument for a specific interpretation of the text. You may take a thematic approach, a contextual approach, or examine the work through a critical lens.
Process: This essay requires research, but it is still a critical analysis. This means you should NOT merely summarize the events in the work. Establish a clear thesis statement that will guide you in both your research and finding support within the literary text. Your supporting points should work to further your thesis. This is a longer essay, so you should have no less than three distinct supporting points. Finally, your conclusion should sum up your ideas and how you’ve proved your thesis as well as explain how your analysis is important to understanding the text.
Research: This essay requires at least THREE secondary sources (not including the primary source); that is, academic articles from academic journals (see the library database). Let me stress that these must be valid academic sources. You should not just google your topic, but find credible academic journals from which to pull articles. Failure to find valid sources will result in failure of the assignment.
As you begin to look for articles, keep in mind your purpose in the paper. You do not need a perfect thesis statement going into your research, but you should have a working thesis with an idea of the direction you want to go. That said, as you research the topic, you may find another direction you prefer. Keep an open mind, but whatever you choose to focus on, make sure you find sources that support it effectively. That does not mean your sources have to match your idea exactly, but they should offer relevant ideas to analyze.
Synthesizing your research is an important part of this process. Your research should further support your ideas. You should not just summarize each critical article to take up space in your paper. You should interweave the outside sources into your essay so that they support, not take over, your ideas. You also need to properly cite anything your take from an outside source (whether it’s quoted or paraphrased) using MLA formatted in-text citations.
Requirements:
Length: This essay must be 1100-1800 words in length (approx. 4-7 pages).
Medium: This paper must follow correct MLA guidelines; it must be double-spaced, with 1-inch margins, 12-point type, and Times New Roman font.
Citation: It’s very important to properly cite your sources within the text of your essay as well as include an accurate works cited page with four sources (1 primary, 3 secondary). Please see Purdue Owl’s online MLA style guide if you have questions on citation
