Assignment
Each essay should be between 1200 and 1500 words in length and must conform to the formatting parameters set out below. (See “How to Format Your Essays.”) You must upload your essay to the course site as a .doc, .docx, or.pdf file.
Your essay should support a thesis through close reading. Philosophical reasoning is fascinating, and we’ll do a lot of it this semester, but the focus of this assignment should be on close reading. What do I mean by “close reading”? Here are the basic parameters:
- Close reading takes the language of the text or the form of the text as its primary object of analysis. Plot summary doesn’t count as evidence in a close reading essay.
- Close reading makes a claim about some linguistic, formal, or metaphorical detail that is (a) arguable, (b) non-obvious, and (c) is part of some broader interpretive pattern or thesis.
- Close reading typically centers on the interpretation of symbolism, aesthetic effects, or rhetorical operations through word choice. Claims about tone, tropes, imagery, structure, and irony are also common.
- A close-reading claim deepens or complicates our understanding of a text or image.
- A close-reading claim is fine-grained or technical, not general or vague.
Some additional considerations:
- Your paper should not include unnecessary summary or plot description. You can assume your reader knows the plot.
- Your argument should rely primarily on unpacking the language and form of the text; secondary research is acceptable but not necessary.
- The topic sentence at the beginning of each paragraph should state a claim, which is then supported or unpacked by close reading. Your task is to unpack the language of the text to show what’s meaningful but not obvious about quoted passages.
- Only quote passages that you analyze in detail. Don’t provide lengthy blocks of quoted text unless you analyze details from the block quote in its entirety.
When using textual evidence:
- Use a comma to separate the set-up of the quote and the quote itself. Here’s an example: “According to the narrator, ‘X’ (#).”
- An exception to this rule is when you highlight word choice in the stream of your own prose. Here’s an example: “Brooks describes Maud Martha as an artistic person who notices details such as the ‘smoked purple’ and ‘cream-shot saffron’ colors of the sky (30).”
- Place the punctuation after the parentheses with the page number.
- You need a Works Cited page, even if you only cite a primary text.
How to Format Your Essays
In addition to the specific parameters for the essay assignments described, your submissions should conform to the following formatting guidelines (violation of which will be penalized at my discretion):
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Double-spaced
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12-point font; Times or Times New Roman only
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1-inch margins on all sides
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Last name and page number in the upper-right hand “header” of every page after the first
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MLA citation style
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Include your name, my name, the course name, and a word count at the top of the first page. The heading should be left-centered and look something like the following:
Student Name
Professor Mangrum
Course Number: Course Name
1,026 words
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Posts to discussion boards or ungraded/informal assignments do not need to follow these formatting guidelines.
Rubric and Models
Please see the Syllabus for information regarding the use of AI in this assignment.
