Critical Essay II

As you know, you are required to write a 4-to-6-page analytical essay that responds to the second unit of the semester. This page gives the assignment sheet for the second critical essay; click here for an overview of the critical essay assignment.

Assignment Sheet

Due: Your second critical essay is due Monday, 12/1/03, no later than 5 pm, in the envelope outside my office door (Fenton 240) or in my mail box in the English Department mailroom (Fenton 277). It is recommended, however, that you turn your paper in before you leave for Thanksgiving Break. 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); the basic template is Author. Book Title. Place of Publication: Publisher, Date of Publication.); proper MLA format for quotations within a paragraph: "quotation" (12); and blockquote format for quotations five lines or longer. [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).

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 would be happy to offer brief comments on your drafts, so long as you get me them by Th 11/13/03 or see me no later than Monday 11/17/03.

Rewrite Policy: See the critical essay overview page.

Assignment Options: You have multiple options for your second 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--supports the goals of your essay.

• Critical Option #1: It Was Only a Dream.... Many stories in this second unit of the course focus on the borderline between dreams and reality. Your job in this option is to choose any two of those stories and craft and support an argument that addresses the significance and stakes of the similarities and differences between your two writers' takes on and approaches to that borderline.

• Critical Option #2: When Fictions Attack! Many stories in this second unit of the course invert the cliche of "getting lost in a story" by creating fictional situations in which characters from fiction, fable, fairy tales, folklore, mythology, and religion intrude into the "real world." Your job in this option is to choose any two of those stories and craft and support an argument that addresses the significance and stakes of the similarities and differences between your two writers' goals and strategies for representing such incursions.

• Critical Option #3: Fables and Reflections. Many stories in this second unit of the course either reflect on a classic fictional narrative or narratives (fable, fairy tale, folklore, sacred story) or are themselves an attempt to create one. Your job in this option is to either (a) choose any two "reflection" fictions and craft an argument that addresses the significance and stakes of the similarities and differences between your two writers' goals and strategies for reflecting on a classic fictional narrative or narratives; or (b) choose any two modern or postmodern fables and craft and support an argument that addresses the significance and stakes of the similarities and differences between your two writers' goals and strategies for these fables.

Rationale: The critical essay is your chance to practice developing an 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 an 80-minute class period.