7.4–Assignment Sheet Fiction Essay
ENGLISH 350, ESSAY 1: FICTION ANALYSIS
LEARNING OBJECTIVES
- Analyze and interpret texts through close reading and writing
- Develop critical thinking and reading skills
- Exhibit skills in writing with detail and focus
- Center an essay around a thesis
- Apply effective personal writing processes, including invention, drafting, and critical revision strategies
THE BASICS
Please compose the following:
- Length: A 3-6 page thesis-driven Fiction Explication Essay any of the below-listed items in any of the texts (also listed below) we have covered together in class.
- Focus: Items you might analyze: themes, ideas, etc. as well as plot, setting, imagery, characterization, point of view, symbols. The possibilities are almostendless–just make sure to state a claim-oriented thesis and to prove that thesis through textual evidence.
- Texts to choose from: Possible texts to analyze (choose one): (1) Alice Walker, “Everyday Use”; (2) Raymond Carver, “Cathedral”; (3) Carson McCullers, “Ballad of the Sad Café”; (4) James Baldwin “Sonny’s Blues,”
- Remember, explicate via close reading: Your essay should make extensive use of specific details and analysis (i.e. “close reading”) of those details in any text we have covered. Be sure to ground your ideas in the text and will support them via the use of textual specifics.
- Your overall aim: Your aim is to convince readers that you have a reasonable analysis based on a thoughtful, detailed, and focused reading of the text.
- Use MLA Style: Be sure to use MLA style for the first-page heading, page numbers, in-text citations, and Works Cited page. Also make sure, ideally near the essay’s beginning, to name the author and text you are writing on.
REQUIRED LENGTH
3 pages (minimum) to 6 pages (maximum). Please note that to qualify for meeting the minimum length, essay should end no earlier than ¾ of a page down page 3.
SECONDAY SOURCES
No secondary sources are required in this essay. Your focus should be only on the text you are explicating; thus, no secondary sources are required.
FORMATTING AND SUBMISSION
Please use double spacing, 1” margins, a standard 12-point font (Times New Roman, Georgia, or Garamond are recommended), and include an MLA-style heading on Page 1 of your essay. Your essay should use MLA in-text citations and should contain an MLA style Works Cited page. This Works Cited page DOES NOT count toward your overall word count. The Works Cited page must be formatted in accordance with MLA 8. See “Purdue OWL” for specifics.
GRADING
A grading rubric is posted to Blackboard. Please look at it carefully.
ABOUT DUE DATE AND LATE SUBMISSION
Your essay is due, to the relevant Bb assignment dropbox, by 11:59 p.m. on the due date. Any essay not turned in by the time will be considered late, and in accord with the syllabus, grades will drop ½ letter grade per day. Friday through Monday at 8 a.m. counts as one day. ). Any essays not turned in at all will receive a “0” grade (not a grade of “F,” but rather a “0”). No essays accepted seven days after the due date. No email copies accepted. Emailed essays will count as unsubmitted.
