Close Reading/Response Paper 3
Book:
Mohsin Hamid’s “Exit West”
Over the course of the semester, students are encouraged to write at least three close reading/response papers, three to four pages long, double-spaced, in which they examine a specific aspect to one of the texts discussed in this course.
Such aspects include analyses of narrative/literary devices (such as foreshadowing, juxtaposition, intertextuality), examination of symbols, settings, and characters, thematic analyses, and passage explications.
I want to offer you some freedom in terms of the questions you choose to pose of the text. You can interpret one of the themes of the text or trace the development of one of the author’s main messages. You could make an argument based on questions of representation in the text or you can probe the ambiguities and ambivalences with which he deals with some of the recurring concepts in the story.
I will mostly be looking at how you work with the text and use textual evidence to support your argument. So the best paper won’t be merely descriptive but will make a case or an argument for the position or interpretation they are taking.
Please give your essay a title.
Upload it as a PDF with a file name that includes your name (e.g.: JohnDoe_ConradPaper.pdf).
I’m available to discuss any ideas, doubts or brainstorming. I look forward to strategizing with you both on this paper as well as on ways of improving for future papers.
Most of all have fun with it!
Close Reading/Response Paper Guidelines:
• 3-4 double-spaced pages
• Provide a title for your essay
• Proofread, spell check, make sure your essay is free of errors and misspellings.
• Documentation: no footnotes necessary, as you will NOT be using secondary sources. However, if you do get ambitious and feel the urge to cite other sources, follow the below example and then include the work in a Works Cited page at the end of your essay. Any work cited in the edition that is listed on the syllabus does not need to be included in the Works Cited page. If you use a different editon you will need to list it under Works Cited. Please contact me with questions.
• Provide book title and line numbers for any passages you cite (Purple Hibiscus, Page#). After the first citation, an abbreviated title is sufficient (as in example immediately below).
Notice punctuation: hold the period until after the citation in parentheses.
Example: “The compound walls would crumble, I was sure, and squash the frangipane trees. The sky would cave in” (Hibiscus, 127).
I will be looking for the following:
• clear argument/thesis
• strong argumentation
• compelling interpretation
• use of textual evidence
• style, mechanics
• creative, critical engagement
Several suggestions:
1) use the specifics of the passage when possible.
2) avoid plot summaries and broad unsubstantiated claims; foreground your evidence instead.
3) make some attempt to give a sense of the complexities and evolution within the text of the issue(s) you raise.
4) be sure to discuss the significance of the issue(s) you raise to some central argument(s) of the work as a whole.
