Assignment: select ONE author from our textbook and perform an in-depth author study that combines the authors biography with the authors influence on literature and culture. Your purpose in this assignment is to explore several facets of literary study and write an essay that discusses what you learned about the writer from his or her life, works, and literary criticism. Your essay will focus on your synthesis of the writers life and work, and it will make a determination of the writers value in the literary canon or in culture. You may choose a short story writer, poet, or playwright to explore. (THE AUTHOR I SELECT IS Raymond Carver, IT IS AN ARGUMENT ESSAY )
Before you begin writing, youll engage in THREE steps of preparation and research.
Step 1: read several biographies of the writer youve selected. Get to know the writers life and catalogue of works. Read more than one biography, so you can see different perspectives of the writers life, but more importantly to see if the timeline of the writers life and works is confirmed by all biographies you read.
Step 2: read at least THREE works written by the writer. I suggest that if you select a short story writer, you choose only three short stories rather than novels (since we did not and will not cover the novel this term). Read these works fully and completely; actively read for theme, symbols, characters, images, plot, and other literary devices to gain an understanding of the authors body of work. Notice if you start to see consistencies in theme, style, and use of literary devices.
Step 3: read several literary criticisms written on the works youve selected. Literary criticism is the study, evaluation, and interpretation of literary works. These types of essays shed light on the meaning of a literary work, so be sure to avoid Overviews and Plot Summaries of the works youve chosen; these are not considered literary criticisms.
Parts of Essay Submission:
Thesis Statement: The thesis statement for this essay will provide an insight to the authors life and contribution to the literary canon or culture. The literary canon is the collection of literary works that are highly valued by culture and society. All of the authors that weve read so far and will read this term are part of the literary canon. Each has his or her own contribution. Your thesis should address the specific authors contribution to the literary canon or to culture.
The First Draft: The first draft is your first attempt at writing the essay and integrating the research that youve collected. The first draft is a space for you to explore what youve found, to provide valuable insights, to quote and integrate your research, to support your thesis, and to receive feedback. Your first draft will need to include these requirements in order to receive feedback and the points toward your final essay. Part of your first draft submission will be to identify sources that youve already retrieved from the library as support.
Requirements for the First Draft:
Five FULL pages of content; 5 FULL pages means that the content on page 5 reaches to a ONE-inch margin at the bottom
At least 5 sources (please see below the criteria for this essays sources)
MLA format
An introduction, body, and conclusion
An underlined thesis statement at the end of the essays introduction
Properly integrated source material in ALL body paragraphs within the essay. Any material that you directly quote in this essay must have a signal phrase, proper in-text documentation, and a full explanation of relevance
All quoted material is limited to 3 lines or less of content. This means that all quoted material is weaved within the content of your paragraphs. The essay should not contain any blocked quotes or material that is longer than 3 lines of content at one time.
A work Cited page that includes at least 5 sources, all properly documented and following MLA guidelines
No more than 20% of the paper should be quoted material. 80% of the essays content should be your own content.
Sources: The sources for this assignment must come from the colleges library. This means that you will use the librarys electronic database collections or the librarys collection of Ebooks not Google or any other commercial search engine. All of your research and your retrieval of your sources can be done from home. Our classs librarian has created an entire Canvas module for help in using the library and retrieving your sources; please be sure to view it often.
Your sources should consist of biographies on the author, works by the author, and literary criticisms about the authors works. Since our textbook only contains one-to-two works for any particular author, you will need to search for MORE works from this author. You can find the authors primary works (his/her plays, short stories, or poems) through the library.
Within the 5 Works on the Work Cited Page Your Sources Should Consist of:
One biography on the author
4 Literary Criticisms
If you quote from any of the works that the author has written, your source list will contain more than 5 sources; 5 is only the assignment minimum. Therefore, if you quote from any short story, play, or poem from the writer, you must also include the full publication information from that work on the work cited page as well. Since you are required to read at least 3 sources from the writer you choose, you could potentially have 3 more entries on your WC page.
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