Courage in I’ve Been To The Mountain Top and When Two Parted
Project description
What This Assignment Is NOT:
? The assignment is not a plot summary of the literary work (a paraphrase of what happens or an explanation of what the text “is about”). Your paper will earn no more than 65% if you write a plot summary.
? This assignment is not a historical paper. You can refer to historical context if you think you need to for your ideas to be clear, but the main focus of the paper must be an analysis of the literature that supports your thesis statement.
? This assignment is not a research paper; it is a take-home final exam. You need to work with your own ideas. Do not include any sources other than the literature you are analyzing. See the Fatal Flaws at the end of this document.
Project description
What This Assignment Is NOT:
? The assignment is not a plot summary of the literary work (a paraphrase of what happens or an explanation of what the text “is about”). Your paper will earn no more than 65% if you write a plot summary.
? This assignment is not a historical paper. You can refer to historical context if you think you need to for your ideas to be clear, but the main focus of the paper must be an analysis of the literature that supports your thesis statement.
? This assignment is not a research paper; it is a take-home final exam. You need to work with your own ideas. Do not include any sources other than the literature you are analyzing. See the Fatal Flaws at the end of this document.
What This Assignment IS: You are trying to show me that you know and understand the literary works about which you choose to write. Keep in mind that this is a final exam, not just a paper.
Steps for Choosing a Subject and Writing Your Paper:
1. Consider only the literary periods you have studied since the midterm exam paper: Romanticism, Realism/Naturalism, Twentieth Century/Contemporary Literature. Note: Do not use a text assigned before the Short Essay.
2. Choose two authors and one work for each author. You may not use authors or texts that are not assigned in the lessons.
3. Then, choose one of the themes in the list below. Do not try to combine them. To be effective, the theme must apply to both of the texts you chose in Step 2.
Steps for Choosing a Subject and Writing Your Paper:
1. Consider only the literary periods you have studied since the midterm exam paper: Romanticism, Realism/Naturalism, Twentieth Century/Contemporary Literature. Note: Do not use a text assigned before the Short Essay.
2. Choose two authors and one work for each author. You may not use authors or texts that are not assigned in the lessons.
3. Then, choose one of the themes in the list below. Do not try to combine them. To be effective, the theme must apply to both of the texts you chose in Step 2.
? Truth
? Love
? Courage
? Strength
? Power
? Power
? Power
? Faith
? Race
? Gender
? Culture
4. Write a thesis statement that includes the title of the literary work and the theme you chose from the list. The theme is the “point” you are making about the literary text. Make sure that theme/point is in the thesis. Don’t make me guess! Putting the theme in the title of your paper does not replace the requirement for putting the theme in your thesis statement.
5. Make a list of the quotations that support the thesis statement. (You must use quotations. Paraphrases are OK as long as you use mostly quotations and don’t forget to document the paraphrases, too.) This list is a planning step that will help ensure that your thesis is well-supported. Note the information you will need to write parenthetical citations for each quotation (see the Basic Requirements below). It’s usually best to keep the list in chronological order, discussing the text from beginning to end. As you write your draft, you can refer in later portions of the essay to something you said earlier in the essay if necessary. If the theme is true for the literary work in question, you will be able to see quotations throughout the text, not just in one spot.
6. Write a introductory paragraph for your essay. The first part of the introduction should include the author’s full name and the title of the text, properly formatted (called “identification”). (Note: Later in the essay, you can refer to the author by last name only, but never by first name only.) Make sure you format the title of the text properly. This leading part of the paragraph should introduce and logically lead up to your thesis statement, which should end your introduction. This essay is a short one, so don’t write your supporting ideas in the introduction; save the support for the body of the essay.
7. Write the body paragraphs for your essay, supporting your chosen theme as it applies to the literary work. Incorporate quotations from your list as you go along, still in chronological. The quotations are the “facts” in your essay that support your ideas. You may paraphrase, but quotations are much stronger support. As you write, format your quotations (and paraphrases) well: start with an signal phrase (review the first lessons in the course and see the Basic Requirements below), followed by the quotation or paraphrase, followed by the parenthetical citation, followed by your interpretation, where you explain how the quotation or paraphrase helps support the topic sentence of the paragraph or the thesis statement. Do not go on to a new idea, a new quotation/paraphrase, or a new paragraph without providing interpretation.
8. Write a concluding paragraph that brings your essay to a logical close. Don’t just repeat everything you already wrote. You can restate, but keep in mind that restating something means saying it in a complete different way from how your originally wrote it in the introduction or the body of the essay. Make sure you have a real paragraph (at least two sentences), not just one sentence.
9. Create a title for your essay. It should focus on the title and theme you are working on:
Template: ___theme in Title of Work___
Example Title: Power in Tartuffe
Be careful about formatting your title because you really have two titles in the previous example, (1) the title of your essay that happens to include (2) the title of the work you are analyzing. Notice that in the example above, I have capitalized the entire title (cap the first word and all nouns, pronouns, verbs, adverbs, and adjectives) and put the title of the work in either italics or quotation marks, whichever is required.
10. If you use only the text provided in the course, you do not need to write a Works Cited. (This is my way to make the assignment a little easier. But, keep in mind that normally you would need a Works Cited anytime you use sources in a paper.) However, if you do not use the materials in the course, for example if you use a book instead of the PDF file for Candide, you must provide a Works Cited for all the sources you use in the paper. The simple way out is to use the course materials.
11. Don’t be tempted to ignore the “Basic Requirements” below. Following them will help you earn the best grade you can for your work.
Basic Requirements:
? Follow the format requirements listed in Ground Rule #5 in the syllabus.
? Write at least 2 to 3 full pages of analysis. If you don’t reach the bottom of page 2 (following the format requirements in Ground Rule #5 in the syllabus), your paper is not well-developed enough and will lose credit.
? Do not use secondary sources. Use your own ideas and the works you are analyzing, not something you found on the Internet or anywhere else except your own head.
Make sure you treat those linked web pages in the course like the sources they are, with signal phrases that identify the title of the web page, quotation or paraphrase from the web page, and a parenthetical citation (use paragraph numbers for a website even if that means you have to count the paragraphs yourself). Outside sources will lower your grade.
5. Make a list of the quotations that support the thesis statement. (You must use quotations. Paraphrases are OK as long as you use mostly quotations and don’t forget to document the paraphrases, too.) This list is a planning step that will help ensure that your thesis is well-supported. Note the information you will need to write parenthetical citations for each quotation (see the Basic Requirements below). It’s usually best to keep the list in chronological order, discussing the text from beginning to end. As you write your draft, you can refer in later portions of the essay to something you said earlier in the essay if necessary. If the theme is true for the literary work in question, you will be able to see quotations throughout the text, not just in one spot.
6. Write a introductory paragraph for your essay. The first part of the introduction should include the author’s full name and the title of the text, properly formatted (called “identification”). (Note: Later in the essay, you can refer to the author by last name only, but never by first name only.) Make sure you format the title of the text properly. This leading part of the paragraph should introduce and logically lead up to your thesis statement, which should end your introduction. This essay is a short one, so don’t write your supporting ideas in the introduction; save the support for the body of the essay.
7. Write the body paragraphs for your essay, supporting your chosen theme as it applies to the literary work. Incorporate quotations from your list as you go along, still in chronological. The quotations are the “facts” in your essay that support your ideas. You may paraphrase, but quotations are much stronger support. As you write, format your quotations (and paraphrases) well: start with an signal phrase (review the first lessons in the course and see the Basic Requirements below), followed by the quotation or paraphrase, followed by the parenthetical citation, followed by your interpretation, where you explain how the quotation or paraphrase helps support the topic sentence of the paragraph or the thesis statement. Do not go on to a new idea, a new quotation/paraphrase, or a new paragraph without providing interpretation.
8. Write a concluding paragraph that brings your essay to a logical close. Don’t just repeat everything you already wrote. You can restate, but keep in mind that restating something means saying it in a complete different way from how your originally wrote it in the introduction or the body of the essay. Make sure you have a real paragraph (at least two sentences), not just one sentence.
9. Create a title for your essay. It should focus on the title and theme you are working on:
Template: ___theme in Title of Work___
Example Title: Power in Tartuffe
Be careful about formatting your title because you really have two titles in the previous example, (1) the title of your essay that happens to include (2) the title of the work you are analyzing. Notice that in the example above, I have capitalized the entire title (cap the first word and all nouns, pronouns, verbs, adverbs, and adjectives) and put the title of the work in either italics or quotation marks, whichever is required.
10. If you use only the text provided in the course, you do not need to write a Works Cited. (This is my way to make the assignment a little easier. But, keep in mind that normally you would need a Works Cited anytime you use sources in a paper.) However, if you do not use the materials in the course, for example if you use a book instead of the PDF file for Candide, you must provide a Works Cited for all the sources you use in the paper. The simple way out is to use the course materials.
11. Don’t be tempted to ignore the “Basic Requirements” below. Following them will help you earn the best grade you can for your work.
Basic Requirements:
? Follow the format requirements listed in Ground Rule #5 in the syllabus.
? Write at least 2 to 3 full pages of analysis. If you don’t reach the bottom of page 2 (following the format requirements in Ground Rule #5 in the syllabus), your paper is not well-developed enough and will lose credit.
? Do not use secondary sources. Use your own ideas and the works you are analyzing, not something you found on the Internet or anywhere else except your own head.
Make sure you treat those linked web pages in the course like the sources they are, with signal phrases that identify the title of the web page, quotation or paraphrase from the web page, and a parenthetical citation (use paragraph numbers for a website even if that means you have to count the paragraphs yourself). Outside sources will lower your grade.
Introduce all quotations and paraphrases adequately with an signal phrase rather than “dropping” them into the paper with no introduction. You should provide a signal phrase before each quotation or paraphrase, giving some context for the quotation. If your quotation comes from the narrator of a story or the speaker of the poem, you can say:
Signal phrase templates/examples:
The narrator says, _____________ ( ).
The speaker says, _____________ ( ).
Voltaire writes, ______________ ( ).
You can use the signal phrases to make sure I know to which work you are referring, so another kind of signal phrase could be:
In “When in Disgrace with Fortune and Men’s Eyes, Shakespeare writes, ____________ ( ).
Notice that the introductory signal phrases use present tense, which is the tense you should use to analyze literature. Also, while the parenthetical citation is blank in these templates, you need to fill in the appropriate information.
If a character is speaking, the signal phase should tell who is speaking to whom.
Dr. Pangloss tells Candide, _____________ ( ).
Be careful to avoid a run-on if you introduce a quotation with a complete sentence.
Fused Sentence:
Cunégonde is happy when she speaks to Candide “_____” ( ).
Comma Splice:
Cunégonde is happy when she speaks to Candide, “_____” ( ).
Corrected: Cunégonde is
Signal phrase templates/examples:
The narrator says, _____________ ( ).
The speaker says, _____________ ( ).
Voltaire writes, ______________ ( ).
You can use the signal phrases to make sure I know to which work you are referring, so another kind of signal phrase could be:
In “When in Disgrace with Fortune and Men’s Eyes, Shakespeare writes, ____________ ( ).
Notice that the introductory signal phrases use present tense, which is the tense you should use to analyze literature. Also, while the parenthetical citation is blank in these templates, you need to fill in the appropriate information.
If a character is speaking, the signal phase should tell who is speaking to whom.
Dr. Pangloss tells Candide, _____________ ( ).
Be careful to avoid a run-on if you introduce a quotation with a complete sentence.
Fused Sentence:
Cunégonde is happy when she speaks to Candide “_____” ( ).
Comma Splice:
Cunégonde is happy when she speaks to Candide, “_____” ( ).
Corrected: Cunégonde is
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