Identify a text’s genre elements.

Identify a text’s genre elements.
Compare and evaluate literary texts.
Analyze in readings and use in writings different patterns of logical thinking, including inductive and deductive reasoning, cause and effect, logos, pathos, ethos, and other rhetorical appeals and strategies.
Use common literary terms for analysis of literature.
Compose thesis-driven arguments about literature to suit different rhetorical purposes, including interpretation, evaluation, and analysis.
Find relevant secondary sources for inquiry-based writing.
Use primary and secondary sources to compose inquiry-driven writing.
Practice conventions for citation and documentation of sources systematically
Develop flexible strategies for reading, drafting, reviewing, collaborating, revising, rewriting, rereading, and editing.
Learn to give and to act on productive feedback to works in progress.
Gain experience at proofreading and editing for presentation of writings.

Select one of the following texts to as your primary essay source:
“Battle Royale,” Ralph Ellison
“Everyday Use,” Alice Walker

Essay Prompt
For your essay you are not guided by any particular prompt, and instead you are to critically read the text and develop your essay based on your individual close reading and analysis of the text.
Your essay needs to be grounded in a literary school of thought, where you will utilize the concerns and thoughts of that literary school to develop your analysis and critical review of the text
Some things to consider:
Consider the author’s use of literary techniques such as structure (how the text is put together), character, setting, dialogue, diction/language, figurative language (simile, metaphor, etc.) and other literary devices such as humor, irony, or ethos/pathos/logos, and how those craft decisions impact the reading experience of the text. Does any of the author’s decisions contribute to the critical review of the text? How does the craft decisions of the author either support or challenge the text’s theme or success of the text?
What have others said about the text? Utilize what has been said to fuel your thesis: How can you extend what they have done, how might you disagree with what has been said and provide a newer argument about the text, how might you enter and enhance the conversation about the text?

Key Component to your Analysis
You may choose to read your text using any literary theory you feel applies to your reading of the text. You are free to apply any theory to the text, but please include critical discussion on some of the craft decisions the author uses, and use that discussion to develop your critical analysis. Here are some craft decisions to consider:
Character
Setting
Plot
Structure
POV
Dialogue
Diction/Language
Theme
Mood
For an overview of different Literary Theories here is a helpful resource,
Feel free to “find” or discover a Literary theory you would like to apply to the text and do more research in the library about it. Purdue OWL offers great questions to get you started on what kinds of questions to ask/apply to the text, but feel free to research the popular theorists of that particular theory and come up with your own questions.

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