Posted: September 16th, 2017

English 2327: American Literature, Colonial Period to 1865

English 2327: American Literature, Colonial Period to 1865

Essay 1: Short Midterm Essay Assignment
General Instructions:
1. The assigned length is approximately 3 ½ to 4 pages. This should work out to about 1000-1100 words.
2. The due date is listed on the Course Calendar.
3. Use MLA format. (Information on MLA format, including sample papers, can be found in several of the files/links in the Essay 1 Folder.)  I also discuss MLA format in the Module 1 Notes and Comments.
4. This essay must be turned in directly to www.turnitin.com (Links to an external site.). Instructions for Turnitin can be found in the Short Midterm Essay (Essay 1) folder on the course homepage.
5. Avoid using first person “I.”
6. This is intended to be first and foremost a literary analysis. It is not meant to be a biography or a history essay. Some biography or history may of course be present, but the focus of the essay should be on the literature.
7. Most important: Have a thesis. The thesis should be a sentence at the end of your introduction paragraph. The thesis is your argument for the essay. The rest of your essay sets out to prove the point made with your thesis.
8. Do not use any outside/secondary sources. This essay is meant to be your argument, your opinion on the topic being discussed. You may use your textbook as a “source” (e.g. information from the Introduction sections of the book). Any quotes from the textbook (other than the actual literature being discussed) should cite Belasco and Johnson and a page number.
9. Of course, you should quote from the literature being discussed. You should use relevant quotes that help make your points. Be sure that these quotes flow smoothly with your own sentences and paragraphs. For quotes from prose works (stories and essays) cite just the page number from our book. For quotes from poems, cite only the line numbers.
10. Though you are being asked not to use secondary sources, if a source is used in any way, always, always, always be safe and cite the source.
Topic:
This is to be, essentially, a comparison essay.
•    I would like you to select a work (or works) by one author in the first 4 modules. You may also select one or more of the Native American Origin stories.  If you select a poet, you may focus on 1 poem alone, or on multiple poems.
•    What central themes, values, and/or ideals are being expressed by this work?
•    So that you focus first on the literature, you might select a few specific passages (or stanzas, if from poetry) and discuss how these reveal or deal with the theme/value/ideal you have identified.
•    Then, bring the work to the present day by discussing how those same themes/values/ideals are revealed, missing, changed, devalued, still-present, or whatever the case may be, today. What has caused those changes, if any? If they still are with us, in what form do we see them?
•    Another approach might be to discuss how a modern person might react or deal with the situations presented in the passages selected. Or, how the speaker or narrator of the passages/stanzas selected might react if placed in today’s world.
•    There are all sorts of possibilities with this. The more specific you can be, though, the better. You will be speaking in generalities, to some extent, but the best papers will use plenty of specific examples—both to the literature and to today’s world—to make the points clear and interesting.
When I grade this essay, I will look for:
•    A strong, clear thesis.  This thesis will be at the end of the introduction.
•    An introduction paragraph that introduces the central issues of the paper as well as the author and title of the primary work being discussed.  This introduction paragraph should end with the thesis.
•    Good use of specific references to/quotes from the literature.
•    Logical paragraphing. Each paragraph should have a unique issue as its focus.  Each of these “issues” should, of course, be related to the thesis.
•    A good balance in the comparison aspect of the paper.  There should be a fair balance between the “then” and “today” portions.  It doesn’t have to be 50/50, of course.  There likely will be a bit more discussion of the literature and the “then” side.
Good luck!  Message me with any questions.