To fulfill this assignment, you must complete a written analysis of a a specific and well defined singular topic in Toni Morrison’s A Mercy. In this essay, you must make a clear, debatable claim (thesis statement), then work within your paper to defend and support that claim using your own reasoning and evidence from the literary text. You do not need to use any sources outside of the literature (literary analysis focuses on your interpretation and your articulation of a literary argument). For a refresher on thesis statements and literary analysis, see https://spark.adobe.com/page/rIYnWiI1SeHxr.
Learning Outcome: Student will compose an original, specific, and detailed debatable claim about a literary work and compose a sustained and comprehensive essay, using evidence from the literary text, to support and “prove” that claim. This strengthens students’ critical thinking and writing skills and instills them with the ability to make and prove a sound argument (a skill important to literary analysis and beyond).
TIPS FOR SUCCESS:
Always start by composing a thesis statement that narrowly focuses on a singular idea or topic and how that connects to the meaning you glean from the literary work. Essay must make a clear, narrowed, specific debatable claim in response to the promptfocus on ONE and only one topic from the literature. Be sure that your thesis answers the “how” and “why” questions!
Best practice is then to compose an outline so that you properly organize your thoughts and ideas before you begin writing. Remember that if you spend considerable time outlining, your essay virtually writes itself (no blank Word doc stress!).
Orange-Crayon-2.gifESSAY REQUIREMENTS:
Essay must be a minimum of 1,500 words, not including title, works cited, etc. Please include your word count at the top of the first page (Word Count: 1543, for example).
Must reflect 100% YOUR thoughts and ideas. Do not read SparkNotes, eNotes, and other such pages looking for ideas to write about.
Essay must be focused on a clear, singular, original, focused, debatable claim about a facet of the literary work.
Must contain an original and topic-driven title
Introductory paragraph(s) should contain a hook, name author and title of work, and naturally lead directly to the thesis statement (intro should not contain any fluff or summary, unless summary is vital to thesis statement).
Body paragraphs should contain topic sentences that tie back to the thesis, and sentences should be substantive and contribute to “proving” your argument.
Essay must contain evidence from the literary text (quotes, paraphrases, references) that directly support the argument being made. You should include at least five pieces of evidence from the literature in your analysis (this is a minimum), along with the appropriate parenthetical citation for each.
The evidence should be used judiciouslymeaning, only use the words from passages that directly support your argument. Rarely should passages over one or two sentences be quoted in a paper (longer passages typically mean you’re including extraneous detail that is not needed, and this often equates to fluff…which we want to avoid).
Must contain properly formatted parenthetical citations for any quoted or paraphrased words from the primary text. See https://owl.english.purdue.edu/owl/resource/747/02/ for proper format of citations.
Must contain minimal grammatical and punctuation issues, if any, and be typo-free.
Must include a Works Cited page that cites primary text (yes, your Works Cited will only have one source listed. This is good practice!). See https://owl.english.purdue.edu/owl/resource/747/02/ (Links to an external site.) for a properly formatted Works Cited page.
Must be in proper MLA format, which includes an original and creative title, page numbers, text that is double spaced, etc. See https://owl.english.purdue.edu/owl/resource/747/13/ for an example of proper MLA format.
Save in .doc or .docx and submit to Canvas by the due date. I’ve set Canvas to only allow these document types (Google docs and pdfs are not allowable for this particular assignment).
No outside sources should be used. Paper needs to reflect your ideas and your ideas only.
Checklist for Essay Assignment:
Is the topic you have chosen to write about manageable for the length of the paper you are writing? Is it too broad?
Is your title engaging? Does it suggest the approach you are taking in your paper?
Does your first paragraph include a hook, introduce your topic, name the writer and the work (use the authors full name the first time and the authors last name in all further references in the essay!), and end with your thesis statement? Is it interesting? Will it get the reader’s attention?
Is your thesis clear, debatable, specific, and narrowed to focus on only one topic? Does it state the central idea of your paper?
Is your paper organized in a way that your reader will be able to follow? Do all paragraphs that follow t
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