The final writing assignment will be a thesis-driven research essay. You have written two close-reading essays that worked with evidence gathering and interpretation. The goal now is to put those skills in the service of a thesis, and then have that thesis engage with one secondary source.
You can choose any text from our syllabus to write about, and you can incorporate any writings (close reading essays or short close readings) you have already done into your essay.
The main difference between this essay and the close readings is the thesis. Your essay should have an argument, and that argument should be both arguable–someone should plausibly be able to disagree with it–and it should be provable by the evidence of the text itself. As you might have practiced in Comp, a great way to get to a thesis is by posing a genuine question to the text. If you ask a question to which you truly do not know the answer , you will have an easier time crafting a persuasive and compelling thesis.
Every paragraph of your essay should advance the thesis in some way. Do your best to give the reader a clear claim statement for each paragraph. Back up each claim with textual evidence: quote frequently, and always interpret your quotes. Don’t assume your reader sees what you see in the quote–that’s what you are there for, to persuade the reader.
Your essay should also engage with one peer-reviewed, secondary source. I would recommend using YU Find and filter by “Peer Reviewed” and “Academic Journals.” This will guarantee quality and accessible sources.
As a rule of thumb, your reader has read the primary source but not the secondary. Thus they won’t need much refreshing on the poem, novel or play you are considering, but do need a full introduction to the scholarly article. Imagine another student from class reading your essay, who has read the primary source but is entirely new to the secondary. You must give the reader the basics before you start quoting: provide author and article title, and then a brief summary of the article’s main points. Only then can you begin to engage with the source–by quoting or paraphrasing–as only then will the source make any sense for the reader.
Even though this is a research essay, the thesis is yours, so you’re not synthesizing other work–think of the root of that word–but rather advancing your own thesis. In other words, don’t just report back on what someone else thinks: show how your ideas engage with, depend upon, differ from, or qualify their thesis.
The essay should be 5 pages, plus a Works Cited page, in MLA format.
Writings we have done in class include-
Mrs. Dalloway by Virginia Woolf
Things fall apart by Chinua Achebe
I can include my close readings if needed.
it doesn’t need to be so advanced it can be simple but it needs to meet the requirements.
