“Using one or two of the texts that we have read this semester, write a paper that responds to one of the following prompts, or that responds to a prompt of your own design (if designing your own, be sure to discuss it with me at least a week before the deadline). You may, alternatively, write in response to one of the prompts for the previous paper—though, obviously, not one you wrote on previously. If using one of those below, you need not respond to every aspect of the prompt: consider it an encouragement to wide thought before focusing in to begin your writing. Neither of your chosen texts should have featured in your previous paper, nor should you write on a topic closely related to those you have addressed previously. In your paper, focus particularly on articulating a strong, contestable claim in response to the prompt, or in response to a genuine question that you have about the text(s). As we have explored in the previous paper, a contestable claim means one that is not obvious, and that someone else might conceivably disagree with. In this paper, you will explore some actual examples of those conceivable disagreements by reading and engaging with other scholarly perspectives on your text(s), and using them to develop your own perspective. To be strong, your claim must be supported by a range of evidence within the text(s): develop your claim through close readings of at least five passages. Structure your paper around that central claim, making sure that each paragraph is adding an essential piece to your argument. You may wish to refer to our previous prompts for further reminders of how to go about doing this. If you choose to write on two texts, think carefully about how you will use them in your paper. Consider how and why your argument relies on your using both of these texts, rather than only one. The structure of the essay should go further than that of a “compare and contrast” paper: do consider, as you prepare to write the paper, what the similarities and differences between your texts are in terms of the topic you have chosen, but also consider what the implications of those similarities and differences are for the argument you will make. The structure of your paper should be directed by those implications. You may wish to treat only one text within a paragraph and then to move on to another paragraph about the other, or you might have two adjacent paragraphs that make different points about the same text, or you might treat two texts—as similar or different—within the same paragraph. And you might well do some combination of all of the above! In all cases, use individual paragraphs not only to identify something about one or both of the texts, but also to indicate how that affects your larger argument. You should also think carefully about how you will use your scholarly sources to shape your argument. There are several ways to show your engagement with these sources as you move through the paper. One or more might appear in your introduction, as important influences on how you have developed the argument in its entirety. Alternatively, your sources may appear along the way as you move through the paper, as more local influences on how you read specific passages. Depending on how central the sources are to your claim, you might also gesture to them in the topic sentences of your paragraphs: this might involve referring explicitly to them, or it might mean referring to insights they have helped to shape and whose relationship to those sources you have articulated earlier in the paper. In this case, you should indicate how your paragraph connects to those earlier insights while also taking them in a new direction. However your sources feature in your paper, always remember that you are not simply restating points that they make, but rather building on, disagreeing with, or otherwise distinguishing your own argument from those points even while you make clear their influence on your thinking. Make sure to mark and cite all quotations and paraphrases very precisely. For any sources that you consult, their words and ideas should always be fully acknowledged and properly cited using footnotes or parenthetical citations. Include full bibliographic information in a Works Cited list. ” Here are the two sources: ”
The Falls of Satan, Eve, and Adam in John Milton’s Paradise Lost: A Study in Insincerity”
and
“Constructing Miltonic Interiority: Adam, Satan, and Conscience in Paradise Lost”
I have linked my draft below. My professor said that I should focus a lot more on Satan’s monolgue in book 4 of Paradise Lost, so i should use more text evidence from that book. They also said to change the order that I analyzed the characters: I did Satan, then Adam, then Eve. Bit should be Eve, then Adam, then Satan. Please use both sources, textual evidence from Paradise Lost (especially book 4) and any other changes that could make the paper stronger. Please make sure Turnitin won’t flag it either. Thank you!
