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English 3563 |
Assignment One
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| Due Dates: | Requirements: |
| Working Draft—September 22, 2006 Final Draft—September 29, 2006 |
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To construct a persuasive argument about the meaning of a brief passage from a selected work of literature. The argument should be based on a close reading of the text in question. Close reading is a skill that will help you in subsequent assignments for this class.
| These people were found to be of the same race and manners with those already observed, without any religion that could be discovered; they had never remarked Indians whom they kept on board the ships to be engaged in any sort of devotion of their own, but they would, upon being directed, make the sign of the cross, and repeat the Salve and the Ave Maria with the hands extended towards heaven. (Christopher Columbus, "from Narrative of the First Voyage to America, 1492-1493," Heath Anthology of American Literature, Vol. A., p. 124) | Had those worthie Fathers, and their memorable off-spring not been more diligent for us now in these Ages, the wee are to plant that yet unplanted, for the after livers: Had the seede of Abraham, our Saviour Christ, and his Apostles, exposed themselves to no more daungers to teach the Gospell, and the will of God then wee; Even wee our selves, had at this present beene as Salvage, and as miserable as the most barbarous Salvage yet uncivilized. (John Smith, "from A Description of New England," Heath Anthology of American Literature, Vol. A., p. 266) |
| In silence ever shall thou lie, Adieu, Adieu, all's vanity. Then straight I 'gin my heart to chide, And did thy wealth on earth abide? Didst fix thy hope on mold'ring dust? The arm of flesh didst make thy trust? Raise up thy thoughts above the sky That dunghill mists away may fly. Thou hast an house on high erect, Framed by that mighty Architect, With glory richly furnished, Stands permanent though this be fled. (Anne Bradstreet, "Upon the Burning of Our House July 10th, 1666," Heath Anthology of American Literature, Vol. A., p. 409-410, ll. 36-46) |
When that this Bird of Paradise put in This Wicker Cage (my Corps) to tweedle praise Had peckt the Fruite forbad: and so did fling Away it Food; and lost its golden dayes; It fell into Celestial Famine sore: And never could attain a morsell more. (Edward Taylor, "Meditation. Joh. 6.51. I am the Living Bread," Heath Anthology of American Literature, Vol. A., pp. 403-404, ll. 7-12) |
Choose one of the above passages.
Take notes including specific details in the passage that explain its meaning and significance. Such details include word choice, comparison/contrast, imagery, punctuation, and anything else the author has used in order to make his or her meaning clear to an audience. (It may not be possible to find an example of each of these elements.) Focus on those that are the most useful in explaining the meaning of the passage.
Formulate a thesis statement summing up the meaning and importance of the chosen passage. This thesis will undoubtedly change as you write your paper, but at least it will give you a starting point. A good thesis is arguable rather than obvious.
Write a draft of your argument about the passage in question. Refer to specific words and phrases in the selected passage in order to support the points in your argument. You may also refer to other quotations in the larger work, as long as you maintain your focus on the passage in question.
Bring a word-processed, correctly formatted draft of this paper to class on September 22, 2006 for peer editing. Include the entire chosen quotation at the top of the first page.
After considering feedback you received from peer editors and reconsidering your own argument, revise your paper.
Proofread your draft to identify and correct spelling and grammatical errors.
Turn in the completed final draft along with a peer-edited working draft in class on September 29, 2006.
Close reading means paying careful attention to details in a written work. Since you will be looking more closely at this passage than most people who read it, your paper can offer perspectives on its meaning that will interest your audience and challenge their expectations. In analyzing a brief passage, you may ask yourself the following questions:
What, literally, takes place in the passage?
Where in the larger work does the passage occur?
Who speaks in this passage? To whom?
How is this passage different from any other passage in the text?
Does the author use any terms that will be unfamiliar to 21st-century readers? What do these terms mean? How have these terms changed since the author first wrote the passage? NOTE: These passages are from a time before the regularization of many spelling rules. Thus, the writer's misspelling of a particular word most likely tells us very little about his or her intentions.
Does the author use any imagery in making his or her point? The most common forms of imagery include metaphor, simile, personification and symbol. Not all passages contain clear examples of imagery, however.
Does the author allude to any other works of literature? The Bible is one common source of allusions in early American literature and it is often worthwhile to look at the Bible to see original verse or verses.
What will make this paper interesting to an audience consisting of your classmates, your teacher and yourself? You will want to tell them something new-that would not otherwise have occurred to them after reading this passage.
Remember: A close reading of a passage is not the same thing as a summary of the passage. A close reading provides much more insight into what the passage means and gets beyond the obvious interpretations of it. Resist the temptation to let the structure of the chosen passage determine the organization of your analysis of it.
I have based the following writing tips on common difficulties that students encounter when writing papers for this class.
Develop an arguable and interesting thesis statement that applies directly to the passage (i. e., that you could not write about any other poem).
Example:
Thence it may at once be seen, that to bring all these people to be Christians and to the obedience of the Imperial Majesty, they must be won by kindness, which is a way certain, and no other is. (Alvar Nuñez Cabeza de Vaca, From The Relation, The Heath Anthology of American Literature, Volume A, p. 150)
ARGUABLE THESIS: While the language of this passage is politely indirect, it evokes the horrific alternative to the course of action that Cabeza de Vaca recommends, which is to convert Native Americans through acts of kindness.
NOT AN ARGUABLE THESIS: In the above passage, Cabeza de Vaca argues that the Spaniards should convert the Native Americans through acts of kindness.
Organize your argument around this thesis statement. Think of between two and four sub-points and structure your argument around them.
Sample Outline (for the above thesis):
MLA format means you should include a list of works cited at the end of your paper, even if it only includes one work. For example:
Bradford, William. From Of Plymouth Plantation. The Heath Anthology of American Literature. Volume A. Fifth Edition. Ed. Paul Lauter. New York: Houghton Mifflin, 2006. pp. 326-346.
NOTE: Since this is a web-page, the indentation of the above bibliographic entry is incorrect.
Please note differences between this format and the parenthetical citation format of the above passage selections. They are not the same.
Some grammatical tips:
Avoid using the passive voice whenever it is possible to do so. When writing in the passive voice, you remove the subject from the sentence or at least de-emphasize it. This makes writing less engaging to most readers.
Example:
ACTIVE VOICE: Huck loves Emmeline.
(Note structure: subject/verb/object)
PASSIVE VOICE: Emmeline is loved.
(Structure: object/"to be" verb/past participle)
ACTIVE VOICE: Huck loved Emmeline.
PASSIVE VOICE: Emmeline was loved.
(Passive voice can exist in any verb tense.)
Avoid contractions when writing college papers. Replace they're with they are and replace don't with do not (these are just a few examples of the numerous possible contractions out there.
Italicization is the best way to signal that you are referring to a word itself and not to the thing that the word represents. Notice how I am using italicization of the terms in the following section "d". You should also italicize titles of books (even in parenthetical references and lists of works cited) and foreign-language words like je ne sais quoi.
The word it's (with an apostrophe) is a contraction of it is. The word its (without an apostrophe) is the possessive of it. Its and whose both deviate from the above rule about possessives.