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Paper 4

Read the assignment carefully.

Address this topic: A Christmas Carol has remained popular from first publication to the present day. In fact, Dickens's "Christmas book" has become deeply ingrained in our culture even for those who have not read it: nearly everyone knows what a "Scrooge" is and what "Bah, humbug!" means. A Christmas Carol is very much a work of its time—it's quintessentially "Victorian" in many ways. But what makes this novella so perpetually "current" or relevant? Think of how the world has evolved many times over since the 1840s: we have seen the advent of the automobile, telephone, radio, and television; World War I, the Great Depression, and the cataclysm of World War II; the Nuclear Age; the Internet, cell phones, and even a reality-TV-star U.S. president! Through all this and more, why does Dickens's Christmas book still so evidently speak to us now? Include quotations from at least three "staves" to illustrate your claims; also include quotations from two scholarly sources as noted below..

blue bullet Minimum length is 900 words, maximum 1250 words (in the text of the essay, excluding headers, name, date, title, works cited entries, etc.).  As with previous papers, your introduction should end in the literal central question that the rest of the paper strives to answer.

blue bullet Format your paper—margins, headers, titles, etc.—following the simple stuff page, as we have all semester. For guidelines on quotation and documentation, see the quotations page.

blue bullet Eight quotations from the novella are a required minimum.

blue bullet Also required are quotations from at least two separate secondary sources of legitimate scholarly criticism or commentary on Conrad's novella: this means you need at least one quote from two different sources. ("Legitimate" means truly scholarly sources, so items from the popular press, reviews of films, encyclopedias, and study aids such as Cliff's Notes, SparkNotes, Master Plots, etc., are not acceptable.) You should most emphatically not consult any open-access world wide web pages outside of our course materials while preparing your paper. For access to many scholarly articles and other materials in full-text electronic form, see the MGA Library website.

Hugely important: resist the thought of incorporating any material whatsoever produced by generative artificial intelligence. As a refresher, recall this from our syllabus:

Plagiarism includes allowing someone else to prepare work that you present as your own:

Note: "Someone else preparing your work" includes essay-writing services and generative artificial intelligence (AI) such as Chat-GPT, MS Copilot, Google Gemini, or any "writing assistance" programs such as Grammarly, paraphrasing tools, etc. All work in this class must be your own except where properly cited or disclosed. The use of artificial intelligence writing tools or generative AI tools is prohibited at any stage of the work process, including discussion posts, informal critical responses, midterm and final exams, and the formal paper. Stay far, far away from generative AI! If you have questions about specific online writing tools, talk with me before submitting any work that may include writing assistance you are not entirely certain about.

Paper proposals: as with previous essays, compose a paper proposal in the form of a topic sentence outline

blue bullet beginning with the question your essay will strive to answer,

blue bullet followed by each body paragraph's complete topic sentence in direct answer of that question, as it might appear in the essay itself,

blue bullet and ending with a thesis statement that a) answers the question you are addressing, and b) ties together the primary points in your topic sentences.

The question you raise to begin this outline should be a literal question—an interrogative sentence ending in a question mark, not merely a statement of what the topic or subject is. For full explanation of topic sentence outlines, including examples that would be good models to follow, see the paper proposal assignment page.

Feel free to contact me for help. If you would like to meet face to face but my office hours don't mesh with your schedule, let me know, and we'll make other arrangements. We can meet over video or by telephone. Don't be bashful! I am happy to help each of you set up and develop strong, successful papers.



Reminders:

blue bullet Make every topic sentence answer the central question directly.
blue bullet Introduce all quotes: see nugget 3.
blue bullet Sweat the details: use the Golden Rules, Nuggets, Simple Stuff, and Quotations pages and proofread carefully.
blue bullet Offer concrete evidence (quotes) in support of each of your major assertions.
blue bullet See me in the office or email if you have questions or problems. 

Use the Writing Center! I encourage you to see tutors for help with your papers in the Writing Center (TEB 226). We have well-trained, qualified tutors who can give you plenty of one-on-one attention with any aspect of the writing process. Be sure to take a copy of this assignment with you to any tutoring session, or show your tutor this assignment page on the web. Set up an appointment at https://www.mga.edu/student-success-center/writing-centers.php.