ENGLISH 2308 : ANALYTICAL ESSAY #1
If, in creating an interpretation, the writer of the essay has based the statements on the text, has provided evidence and not ignored contradictory evidence, has argued logically and clearly, and has done so in clear, concise language, then the interpretation is valid.
- Harbrace Guide to Writing about Literature (4)
IMPORTANT DUE DATES:
Mandatory Workshop: 19 March 2013
Essay #1 Due: 26 March 2013
- Harbrace Guide to Writing about Literature (4)
IMPORTANT DUE DATES:
Mandatory Workshop: 19 March 2013
Essay #1 Due: 26 March 2013
What is a Critical-Analytical Essay?
An essay which interprets the meaning of a text by carefully considering such things as genre, structure, setting, characters, contexts, symbols, motifs, themes, allusions, et cetera. The writer performs a close, careful textual analysis in order to develop a specific argumentative thesis which works to elucidate the overall meaning of the text.
Workshop (*Mandatory*): Draft Due on 19 MARCH 2013
Completed typed drafts of papers must be peer evaluated by the scheduled deadline for final versions of the assigned essay to be eligible for passing grades; therefore, attendance is required at the peer evaluation-workshop. Students must bring two copies of a completed, typed draft, one for the peer reader(s) and one for the instructor. The draft must be at least two pages in length (500 words) with a working thesis. Students not attending the workshop will lose 10% off the final grade of their paper unless previous arrangements were made with the instructor.
ESSAY 1 REQUIREMENTS AND GUIDELINES:
DEADLINE: Essay Due at the Start of Class on 26 MARCH 2012
LENGTH AND FORMATTING REGULATIONS:
Four to five pages in length (1200-1500 words); double-spaced; 1 inch for all four margins; 12 point font of New Times Roman.
The essay must also follow the MLA format style, and must have a properly formatted Works Cited. Marks will be deducted for this essay if proper MLA Format is not followed.
Your essay should be held together by a paperclip. At the back of the essay, behind the Works Cited page, you need to attach your Peer Response Sheet that your reviewer(s) completed for you during the in-class essay workshop.
Be sure to include the Integrity Statement, signed and dated by you. It can either be underneath your concluding paragraph of your essay, or at the bottom of the Works Cited.
INTEGRITY/ETHICAL STATEMENT: "By my signature, I declare that these are my words, my ideas, and my work and is not the work of another.”
SIGNATURE: ___________________ DATE: _______________________
LENGTH AND FORMATTING REGULATIONS:
Four to five pages in length (1200-1500 words); double-spaced; 1 inch for all four margins; 12 point font of New Times Roman.
The essay must also follow the MLA format style, and must have a properly formatted Works Cited. Marks will be deducted for this essay if proper MLA Format is not followed.
Your essay should be held together by a paperclip. At the back of the essay, behind the Works Cited page, you need to attach your Peer Response Sheet that your reviewer(s) completed for you during the in-class essay workshop.
Be sure to include the Integrity Statement, signed and dated by you. It can either be underneath your concluding paragraph of your essay, or at the bottom of the Works Cited.
INTEGRITY/ETHICAL STATEMENT: "By my signature, I declare that these are my words, my ideas, and my work and is not the work of another.”
SIGNATURE: ___________________ DATE: _______________________
Assignment Description:
This assignment involves an extended examination of either The Devil's Highway or Into the Wild, or a comparative analysis of the two texts. You are to write an analytical essay, developing a concise and persuasive argument (your thesis statement), backed up by textual evidence from the text(s) you choose to write on. Be sure to incorporate at least three direct quotations from the text(s) into your paper’s argument.
Keep in mind that essay prompts are the starting point for your thinking (*they are not the thesis statements!*), and that they tell you only the general area of investigation. Topics must be narrowed down into a tight, concise focus—the thesis of your paper. “Like the bull’s eye in the middle of a dartboard, the thesis statement is the center that holds your argument together. An essay succeeds because the point to be made is directly on target, and the significance of the point is firmly established” (Joanne Buckley, Fit to Print 6). Indeed, remember that the thesis statement is the center of your thought, the point of your paper. Therefore, your thesis statement should explicitly state WHAT you are going to examine and WHY an analysis of what you have chosen to examine is important in understanding the text(s).
Keep in mind that essay prompts are the starting point for your thinking (*they are not the thesis statements!*), and that they tell you only the general area of investigation. Topics must be narrowed down into a tight, concise focus—the thesis of your paper. “Like the bull’s eye in the middle of a dartboard, the thesis statement is the center that holds your argument together. An essay succeeds because the point to be made is directly on target, and the significance of the point is firmly established” (Joanne Buckley, Fit to Print 6). Indeed, remember that the thesis statement is the center of your thought, the point of your paper. Therefore, your thesis statement should explicitly state WHAT you are going to examine and WHY an analysis of what you have chosen to examine is important in understanding the text(s).
POSSIBLE ESSAY #1 TOPICS:
1. Discuss the representation and role of landscape as character in the text(s).
2. Explore the representation and role of food in the text(s).
3. Examine the text(s) using Orwell’s rules from “Politics and the English Language”.
4. Compare/contrast Jonathan Swift’s “A Modest Proposal” to The Devil’s Highway.
5. Examine the text(s) via Aristotle’s Ars Rhetorica: ethos; pathos; logos.
6. Compare/contrast the journeys – or the “heroic quests” (or anti-heroic quests) -- taken in The Devil’s Highway and Into the Wild.
7. Examine Into the Wild via Thoreau’s Walden or via Tolstoy’s ideas of “asceticism […] moral rigor” and “renunciation” (Krakauer ii).
8. Explore the development of a major theme in one of the texts. For instance, in The Devil’s Highway, develop a thesis regarding: “migration is a white phenomenon”; “globalization”; “the heroic quest”; “the journey”; “xenophobia”; “the stupidity of the border politics”; “survival”; or “borders.” Or, for Into the Wildˆ, develop an argument regarding any of its major themes: “frontiers”; “survival”; “the heroic quest”; “the journey”; “the spiritual awakening”;
9. Analyze the use of literary and/or historical allusions that appear throughout Into the Wild OR The Devil's Highway.
10. Explore Into the Wild through the ideas of Transcendentalism.
11. Krakauer uses, in the final chapter of Into the Wild, the following epigraph from Pasternak’s Doctor Zhivago, with McCandless’s underscoring of passages made clear:
Now what is history? It is the centuries of systematic explorations of the riddle of death, with a view to overcoming death. That’s why people discover mathematical infinity and electromagnetic waves, that’ why they write symphonies. Now, you can’t advance in this direction without a certain faith. You can’t make such discoveries without spiritual equipment. And the basic elements of this equipment are in the Gospels. What are they? To begin with, love of one’s neighbor, which is the supreme form of vital energy. Once it fills the heart of man it has to overflow and spend itself. And then the two basic ideals of modern man—without them he is unthinkable—the idea of free personality and the idea of life as sacrifice.(qtd in Krakauer 187; emphasis is McCandless's).
Using this passage as a jumping off point, explore either text in relation to Pasternak’s ideas presented here.
12. A topic of your own choosing, but you must first obtain permission from the instructor before beginning.
2. Explore the representation and role of food in the text(s).
3. Examine the text(s) using Orwell’s rules from “Politics and the English Language”.
4. Compare/contrast Jonathan Swift’s “A Modest Proposal” to The Devil’s Highway.
5. Examine the text(s) via Aristotle’s Ars Rhetorica: ethos; pathos; logos.
6. Compare/contrast the journeys – or the “heroic quests” (or anti-heroic quests) -- taken in The Devil’s Highway and Into the Wild.
7. Examine Into the Wild via Thoreau’s Walden or via Tolstoy’s ideas of “asceticism […] moral rigor” and “renunciation” (Krakauer ii).
8. Explore the development of a major theme in one of the texts. For instance, in The Devil’s Highway, develop a thesis regarding: “migration is a white phenomenon”; “globalization”; “the heroic quest”; “the journey”; “xenophobia”; “the stupidity of the border politics”; “survival”; or “borders.” Or, for Into the Wildˆ, develop an argument regarding any of its major themes: “frontiers”; “survival”; “the heroic quest”; “the journey”; “the spiritual awakening”;
9. Analyze the use of literary and/or historical allusions that appear throughout Into the Wild OR The Devil's Highway.
10. Explore Into the Wild through the ideas of Transcendentalism.
11. Krakauer uses, in the final chapter of Into the Wild, the following epigraph from Pasternak’s Doctor Zhivago, with McCandless’s underscoring of passages made clear:
Now what is history? It is the centuries of systematic explorations of the riddle of death, with a view to overcoming death. That’s why people discover mathematical infinity and electromagnetic waves, that’ why they write symphonies. Now, you can’t advance in this direction without a certain faith. You can’t make such discoveries without spiritual equipment. And the basic elements of this equipment are in the Gospels. What are they? To begin with, love of one’s neighbor, which is the supreme form of vital energy. Once it fills the heart of man it has to overflow and spend itself. And then the two basic ideals of modern man—without them he is unthinkable—the idea of free personality and the idea of life as sacrifice.(qtd in Krakauer 187; emphasis is McCandless's).
Using this passage as a jumping off point, explore either text in relation to Pasternak’s ideas presented here.
12. A topic of your own choosing, but you must first obtain permission from the instructor before beginning.