Critical Essay

As you know, you are required to write a 4-to-6-page analysis of the narrative strategies of a particular writer and work from the first unit of the semester. This page gives the assignment sheet for the critical essay; click here for further advice on drafting and editing thesis-driven papers.

Assignment Sheet

Due: Rough draft due in class Friday, 9/27/02, for peer review. Final draft due Monday, 9/30/02, at the start of class. It is your responsibility to complete your papers on time in the proper format; late papers will be accepted, but they will lose one-third of a grade for every day they are late and I will not provide comments on them.

Format: 4-6 pages (roughly 1000-1800 words), double spaced, with reasonable fonts, font sizes, and margins; title that indicates main argument of paper; heading that includes your name, the course name or number, and the date; bibliography and citations in MLA style (see the links page for explanations of this style of citation); proper quotation format for quotations within a paragraph: "..." (12); and blockquote format for quotes five lines or longer. You must turn in with your paper your first draft and the form your partner(s) in the peer response workshop filled out, along with a two- or three-paragraph description of your writing/revision process and explanation of how you used the feedback and suggestions from your partners. [Please be aware that you'll get a better grade if you first develop your ideas fully, without feeling that you have to stop at a certain page or word limit, and then go back and condense, cut, and otherwise revise so as to be as concise, clear, and persuasive as possible. Don't let the page limit limit your exploration of ideas.]

Criteria for Evaluation: Your grade for the critical essay will be determined by the coherence and validity of the paper's arguments, the effectiveness of the paper's structure in conveying your ideas and convincing your audience, and the quality of the paper's prose (including grammar, syntax, and punctuation). Your grade for the creative/critical essay will be determined by the success with which your story draws upon and transforms the narrative strategies of your source text and by the quality of analysis and prose in your author's note/afterword (including grammar, syntax, and punctuation).

Audience: In general, think of your immediate audience as those who have taken and are taking this class; hence, you can assume that your readers have read the texts you're writing on and you don't have to include the kind of background that someone not taking this course would need.

Draft Policy: I'd be happy to read rough drafts on any of these options that you want to give me; please give me a draft no later than the beginning of class on W 9/25 if you want comments on it via e-mail. I will be out of town Th-Su and will be unable to comment on drafts during that time.

Rewrite Policy: I will accept rewrites of the critical essay, so long as you get them to me within two weeks of receiving comments on your previous draft from me. Those who get their rewrites in on time can have their original grade replaced by the new grade.

Assignment Options: You have multiple options for your critical essay; you do not have the option of inventing your own topic for this assignment, but must instead choose one (1) of the following options. Extra research is not required for any of the critical options, although it is permissible, so long as the argument you are making is your own and the evidence you draw on to support it--including, of course, relevant and important passages from the text(s) you are analyzing--support the goals of your essay.

• Critical Option #1: What is the purpose of storytelling? Use one of the following as your test case: The Arabian Nights; Haroun and the Sea of Stories; or any pair of short stories assigned for discussion before the day the draft of the critical essay is due. Try to generalize based on the storytelling in the text(s) you choose to focus on; do not limit your argument strictly to the ways stories work for the readers of that text (e.g., not all stories are told like Shahrazad's to prevent the death of the storyteller). When considering how to generate and support a central argument, try finding particular passages that suggest what the purpose of storytelling is and/or using at least one specific story-within-a-story to discuss how storytelling works. The point of this option is for you to back up some general claims about the ends of storytelling using examples drawn from the first two-thirds of the unit on "The Scheherazade Situation." Many of the stories and novels in this unit are "about" death, loss, disaster, oppression, and other realities of life--how and why do writers and storytellers respond to these realities through the act and art of storytelling?

• Critical Option #2: What are the powers of narrative? Use one of the following as your test case: The Arabian Nights; Haroun and the Sea of Stories; or any pair of short stories assigned for discussion before the day the draft of the critical essay is due. Try to generalize based on the the ways storytelling affects listeners/readers, for good and ill, in the text(s) you choose to focus on; do not limit your argument strictly to the ways stories work for the readers of that text (e.g., not all stories change a king's mind and heart like Shahrazad's). When considering how to generate and support a central argument, try finding particular passages that suggest what the powers of narrative are and/or using at least one specific story-within-a-story to discuss how storytelling affects listeners or readers. The point of this option is for you to back up some general claims about the effects of storytelling using examples drawn from the first two-thirds of the unit on "The Scheherazade Situation." Many of the stories and novels in this unit are "about" death, loss, disaster, oppression, and other realities of life--how is the telling or writing of a story an adequate response to these realities?

• Creative/Critical Option #1: Write your own frame-like story with a smaller tale within it (a la The Arabian Nights). Be sure to use at least some of the strategies that Shahrazad uses to keep the story going, to relate your internal tale in some way to the frame story, and to resolve your frame story in some way in the end. You may set your story in any place or time period you choose; the setting, plot, and characters do not have to have anything to do with The Arabian Nights. After you have written your story, write at least two pages analyzing what narrative strategies you have borrowed or transformed from The Arabian Nights and how your strategies and goals relate to Shahrazad's--and append this as an author's note or afterword to your story. You might also consider addressing in this option relevant aspects of Critical Option #1.

• Creative/Critical Option #2: Write a children's fantasy story that doubles as a commentary on the uses and abuses of stories and storytelling (a la Rushdie's Haroun and the Sea of Stories). You may set your story in any place or time period you choose; the setting, plot, and characters do not have to have anything to do with Haroun and the Sea of Stories. After you have written your story, write at least two pages analyzing what narrative strategies you have borrowed or transformed from Haroun and the Sea of Stories and how your strategies and goals relate to Rushdie's--and append this as an author's note or afterword to your story. You might also consider addressing in this option relevant aspects of Critical Option #2.

Rationale: The critical essay is your chance to practice developing a critical argument that stems from your response to the assigned texts and our class discussions of them. Treat it as an opportunity to move beyond what we do on the listserv--making observations, asking questions--and in class discussions--developing hypotheses, opinions, and possible answers to key questions--by trying to support a hypothesis, convince someone else to accept your opinion, or persuade your audience that your answer is not only possible but is also highly plausible. The critical essay is a place to pursue some of the key issues of the course in more depth, at greater length, and with more textual support than we are typically able to do in a 50-minute class period. Since one of the best ways to show what you've learned about the purposes and powers of narrative is to make up a narrative of your own that exemplifies your beliefs on these issues, I've given two creative/critical options, as well. Creating something and analyzing the thought process during or behind that creation can be as meaningful a writing/learning exercise as analyzing the product of another writer's thought processes (of course, as any working writer will tell you, the two go hand in hand).