ESSAYS

(Updated 02/06/2011 )

You will write two, three- to four-page, typed essays this semester .  In both essays you should make an interpretive argument about the work that you support with direct evidence from the text and your own analysis and reasoning.  Your essay will be your opinion, but you must support your opinion with reasons, explanation, and quotations.  All essays should have an introduction and clearly stated thesis framing the argument.  Make sure your topic is narrow enough to develop in the prescribed length.  See academic honesty statement below.

For the first essay I will give you ten topics from which to choose (see below). If none of them interests you, you may propose your own topic to me (I encourage you to do so).

Here are some possibilities for other topics: 

• discuss an author’s use of standard literary devices (i.e., imagery, metaphor, rhythm,  conflict,  symbol, allusion) for a particular purpose (i.e., to reinforce a theme or to create a particular effect);

• show how an author uses a particular pattern that is appropriate for the idea s/he is trying to develop (i.e., animal references, mythic plots, etc.)

• explain how historical context is critical to understanding the ideas an author is trying to develop (avoid the obvious references—definitely talk to me if you go this route);

• DO NOT WRITE EXPLICATIONS—I'm looking for unified arguments, not line-by-line analyses of entire poems (of course, you will likely include some line-by-line analyses of sections of your poem/work as part of your essay).

There are many other possibilities, but no matter what topic you select, make sure you answer the so what? question in your essay (subtly clarify why your topic is worthwhile).  For example, don’t just argue that Dickens uses indirect characterization, but explain how he uses this device for a particular purpose (to make a specific point about religion).  See me if you are uncertain about your topic. I strongly encourage you to submit your thesis to me before getting too far along.  Here's a link to a good sample essay that was written in a previous class--Shelley paper.

Topic selection/scheduling:

• At least one essay must be about poetry. 

• Essay 1 must be about a work by an author covered on or before March 1.  

• Essay 2 must be about a work by an author covered after March 1. (See list below for suggested works)

• I ENCOURAGE YOU TO SUBMIT ESSAYS EARLY (before the deadline).

• I will not accept late papers.

Major Errors

At this stage in your student career, you should not be making grammatical errors that significantly detract from verbal expression.  When these errors appear in resumes, they will send your application to the bottom of the stack, or when they appear in article submissions, they will send your essay to the rejection bin.  Essays which contain fragments, comma splices, and fused sentences; and also subject/verb agreement, pronoun/antecedent, verb tense, tense shift, and pronoun reference problems will be penalized by following the English Department's minimum standards guidelines.

General Suggestions/Guidelines for Writing about Literature:

1. GET HELP FROM ME AT ANY STAGE IN THE WRITING PROCESS (PARTICULARLY THE TOPIC STAGE).

2. Select a work and a topic in which you are interested; otherwise, the essay will be more painful than necessary to write.

3. Examine the work carefully.  Review it several times, look for patterns or repetitions related to issues you’re interested in, and make careful annotations before you refine your thesis.

4. Construct your argument with an organized plan or outline in which you determine 1) what you aim to do in each section; 2) how you will do it; and 3) what evidence/quotations you will use.  (This is part of the pre-writing process).

5. Develop a clear, specific, unified thesis and argue for it; include the thesis at the end of your first paragraph or in a forecasting paragraph that follows your introduction.  (You may decide to change your thesis after drafting a couple of times.) E-mail your preliminary thesis to me, so I can give you some feedback. 

6. Use specific quotations to argue for and develop your thesis.  Clearly explain the importance of your evidence to your discussion.  Avoid strings of quotations that you fail to explain and relate to your topic. 

7. Write beyond an obvious discussion; avoid plot summary and simple explication.  Remember, your audiences (your peers and I) have read the work. (Note: some teachers ask you not to make this assumption (which is certainly acceptable); however, be aware that I do.)

8. Discuss your topics/essays with me during office hours before you get too far along. 

9. Write with a variety of clear, concise, grammatically correct sentences.

10. Use clear topic sentences for paragraphs. 

11. Use effective transitions between sections and points.

12. Write literary analysis essays in present tense.

13. Write a few drafts and wedge time between revisions. Ask peers to review your papers before you submit them.  Don’t start the essay the night before it is due.

14. Get help from the writing tutors in Mellinger Learning Center.

15. I expect you to spend at least six to eight hours on each of the essays.

Do not use any outside sources on short essays without my written approval (dictionaries, biographical information, historical information excepted).  You may not use or consult Cliffs Notes, Sparknotes, or any comparable study guide.  You may not use ANY web source or conventionally written source.  If I determine that you have consulted a study guide on either essay, you will fail this course.

Academic Honesty:  Plagiarism is copying the words or ideas from another person and not giving that person credit.  I have a ZERO TOLERANCE policy for plagiarism and students who plagiarize will fail the class. (For more information, see also p. 26 "Academic Dishonesty" in the college's 2000-01 catalog and The Bedford Handbook.)

Documentation/Works Cited/Format

Use Modern Language Association (MLA) parenthetical documentation and a Works Cited page. Visit Bedford’s wonderful website at http://www.dianahacker.com/resdoc/humanities/intext.html for guidelines on in-text citations—pay special attention to item #10 on novels, plays, and poetry.

Common Mistakes:

Putting the period in the quotation instead of after the parenthetical note.

• Incorrect: Wordsworth said that "poetry is emotion recollected in tranquility." (345)

• Correct: Wordsworth said that "poetry is emotion recollected in tranquility" (345).

Failing to include slash marks to indicate line breaks.

• Incorrect: The Mariner tells how cold he was: "My lips were wet, my throat was cold, My garments all were dank" (305-6). 

• Correct: The Mariner tells how cold he was: "My lips were wet, my throat was cold, /  My garments all were dank" (305-6). 

Failing to block quotes of four or more lines.

• Incorrect: Wordsworth contributed this stanza to Coleridge's "Rime of the Ancyent Mariner": Water, water every where, / And all the boards did shrink; / Water water, every where, / Nor any drop to drink" (119-22).

• Correct:   Wordsworth contributed this stanza to Coleridge's Rime of the Ancyent Mariner:

  Water, water every where,

  And all the boards did shrink;

  Water water, every where,

  Nor any drop to drink. (119-22)

Note that there are no quotations around block quotes (unless there are quotes around the original quote as in dialogue.  Also note that the period follows the quote and there is no period after the parenthetical note.

Essay Evaluation Sheet

English 221—

Grading Checklist  √+ = very good    √ = adequate    √- = needs work           - = poor

The writer. . .

Topic/Thesis

Development/Analysis

Organization

Sentence Structure/Mechanics/Diction

Overall Impression

Possible Topics for Essay 1

Use the following questions as triggers to help develop your thesis and essay. Just answering the question won't suffice--you need to generate a thesis from the question.  (You may propose other topics to me if none of these appeals to you)

1. Argue for whether Barbauld's "To the Poor" is a conservative or progressive poem and show how she uses poetic devices to make this case (make sure to present a plausible definition of terms in your introduction).

2. Argue for how Blake uses poetic devices to criticize conventional education systems in "The School-Boy."

3. Coleridge comments on the relationship between work and hope in his sonnet "Work Without Hope." What point is he making about this relationship and how does he use poetic devices to make this point?

4. In "The Fornicator" Robert Burns writes about a confessed fornicator.  Explain how this Burns uses poetic language to develop a particular attitude or position on fornication.  In other words, what overall point about fornication does he try to make and how does he make it?

5. Several readers have viewed William Wordsworth's "Nutting" as about a sort of rape of Nature and the guilt the speaker feels after defiling the environment.  Explain how Wordsworth's language enacts a sort of rape of Nature and explain what point Wordsworth seems to be making with this poem. 

6. In the sonnet "The world is too much with us" Wordsworth offers a commentary on the materialism that is becoming prevalent in the early nineteenth century.  Argue for how he uses natural imagery and allusions to make a specific point about materialism.

7. Dorothy Wordsworth writes about sickness in "Thoughts on my Sickbed."  Explain how she uses poetic devices to describe a sort of healing.  What enables her to heal from this sickness?

8. Byron's "On This Day" is a mid-life crisis poem in which the speaker (it happens to be Byron in this case) tries to find a reason for living.  What does he think will give life meaning and how does he use poetic language to convey that idea?

9. Felicia Hemans depicts the life of young women in "Evening Prayer, at a Girls' School."  Argue for whether the poem is conservative or progressive in its view of women's positions in society and explain how she uses poetic devices to express this view.

10. The speaker of Keats's "Bright Star" wishes for a special kind of steadfastness in relation to his lover.  Characterize the steadfastness that he is discussing and explain how he uses poetic devices to describe this steadfastness.

Works for Essay 2 Choose one of these works to write essay 2 about--see basic guidelines above.  If you want to write about another work, you need to ask my permission.  I encourage you to show me a tentative thesis statement before you get too far along. 

• R. Browning--"Fra Lippo Lippi"

• E.B. Browning--Sonnet 13 from Sonnets from the Portuguese

• Arnold—"Dover Beach"

• Hopkins—"Thou Art Indeed Just Lord"

• Wilde—"The Harlot's House"

• Custance—"The Masquerade"

• Hardy—"Channel Firing"

• Conrad--Heart of Darkness (deal with an issue we didn't address)

• Rosenberg—"Dead Man's Dump"

• Yeats—"The Wild Swans at Coole" or "Among School Children"

• Joyce—"Clay"

• Rhyss--"Mannequin"

• Lawrence—"Piano"