First Part of 5-Page Paper:
This check is serves to help provide a bit of guidance as well as encourage you to already be thinking about the last two readings for the course, James Baldwin’s The Fire Next Time and Ta-Nehisi Coates’ Between the World and Me. For this assignment you need to write out the 3 parts. This assignment should only be around a page.
1) Briefly summarize one of the works and identify what themes/ideas are resonating with you so far.
This is a preliminary write up and the themes and ideas may/can change as you finish up the works and write the final draft of the paper.
2) Identify 4 quotes from either of the works you want go use in your paper. You will need to write out the quote and provide a page number citation to identify it.
3) Explain how that quote fits into the story you are trying to tell. This section should be 2-3 sentences per quote.
You will write a 5-page synthesis paper analyzing Baldwin’s The Fire Next Time, Coates’ Between the World and Me, and incorporate your own life stories. While focusing on the lives of African Americans, both of these works are about struggles in America and both essays are from people giving advice to the younger generations. If you wish you can offer advice to future generations. I know not everyone in class is African American–these books talk about racial issues but also poverty, religion, education, and many other things (Baldwin himself was gay which contributes to his analysis of the US). Be honest, however you personally fit into these or identify with them is appropriate for the response and only share what you are comfortable with. If you don’t identify with any aspect you can analyze them and still provide insight.
This paper is pretty open ended. It is a reflection on modern life, looking at how previous people looked at it (Baldwin in the 50s-70s and Coates in the 1990s-2000s), and incorporating their words. Analyze the works as they relate to history, or what has been changed or still a problem in the US as you see it.
You should have at least 8 citations in your work (4 from each work). Make sure to proofread your paper. It needs to have clear syntax and be free from grammatical and spelling errors. Cite your paper as (Baldwin, 36) for a quote or paraphrase from page 36 of The Fire Next Time and follow the example for the other works.
This is a formal paper so you will need your name, a title, a proper introduction, paragraphs, page numbers, and a concluding paragraph (it also needs to be double spaced in a traditional 12 pt font). Submit your paper on Canvas in either docx, doc, or pdf.
