1000-1400 words (in the body of the essay, excluding headers, name, date,
title, works cited entries, etc.).
Submission of final draft in both hard copy (printed on paper) and electronic
form (on floppy disk or as an email attachment). Failure to meet this
requirement will result in a letter-grade penalty.
A minimum of eight quotations from the novel. Eight quotations is an absolute
minimum—you may certainly offer more to illustrate or substantiate
your primary claims thoroughly and effectively.
Quotations and other source material must be documented according to MLA
guidelines as outlined on my "quotes and
documentation" page. A works cited page is required.
You must do some research and incorporate
quotes from at least three sources of legitimate scholarly criticism into
the discussion of the play(s). ("Legitimate" means truly scholarly
sources, so items from newspapers or the popular press, reviews or commentary
upon film versions of the novel, encyclopedias, and study aids such as
Cliff's Notes, SparkNotes, Master Plots, etc., are
not acceptable.) No world wide
web sources of any sort are valid—only sources available through
the RSU library or its subscription databases are acceptable.
You
must turn in photocopies or printouts of each secondary source from which
you take quotes. Highlight the quoted passages (on the photocopy
of the criticism, not in your paper).
Note:
Before you begin writing the essay, construct a topic sentence
outline just as we did for the second writing exercise (recall the question,
"How is life difficult for teenagers?"). Begin the outline
with the literal question your paper addresses, then give full topic
sentences that answer the question directly for each primary point in
your paper (i.e. for each body paragraph), just as they will appear
in the essay itself, and conclude the outline with the the paper's overall
thesis, answering the central question directly and combining your essential
points from the various topic sentences. On the date of peer response,
in addition to bringing a complete draft of the paper to class, you
will turn in this topic sentence outline. For a sample topic sentence
outline, see Writing Tip #2.
In
order to "focus narrowly" on the novel, the question
you raise in the outline, each topic sentence, and the thesis
statement should all mention the novel directly (or the author
or some specific aspect of Twain's novel—a character's name,
e.g.).
However,
as with the third paper, this essay should not raise
a literal question in the introduction of the essay itself, but instead
the introduction should culminate in a full and complete answer to the
unstated question your paper addresses—i.e. a thesis
statement. If your topic is argumentative, even though the
introduction presents a thesis statement, you should still explain the
opposing viewpoint in one or more body paragraphs before presenting
your own views (as in the persuasive format).
Very important note: Papers that
do not meet the research requirements—at
least three secondary sources of literary scholarship or criticism,
with photocopied pages attached—will
automatically receive failing grades.
As announced in class,
I am not providing a list of suggested options for this paper, so
one major challenge with the assignment is arriving at an appropriate
topic on your own, one that is manageable and worthy of exploration
in a college-level academic essay. Basically, any significant theme,
motif, issue, technique, or aspect of the novel is fair game. If you
struggle arriving at a valid topic, see me for help.
Reminders:
The
single most important sentence in your essay is the central question
you set up in the topic sentence outline: be sure this question sets
up a viable topic, one worthy of addressing in a college-level paper.
Feel free to email me or call me if you aren't certain about the validity
of your central question.
Offer
concrete evidence (i.e. quotations) to support each of your major assertions.
Every
body paragraph's topic sentence should answer the central question directly.
Sweat
the details: use the GR, N, SS, QD and WP "handouts" and proofread closely.