CASEBOOK ASSIGNMENT

 

Overall view – over the course of the semester, you will compile FOUR excellent secondary sources on your semester text – in each of which the author takes a DIFFERENT contemporary literary approach –  which could potentially be submitted to a publisher as a manuscript for a casebook on your semester text.

 

Entries

            #4 – your critical essay (term paper) in which your analysis will be framed by a contemporary theoretical approach.

            #2 and #3 – each will be an excellent secondary source preceded by a 2-page maximum introductory essay.

            #1 – one excellent secondary source preceded by a 2-page maximum introductory essay.

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Assignment #1: Chapter One

Due:  March 7  to turnitin.com; please bring your hardcopy of the article to class that day to turn in.

Format:  A unified introductory essay to your source, followed by a Work Cited page, followed by a printed copy of your article.

Audience:  scholars in the discipline of English studies, particularly those interested in studying your semester text.

 

Essay

1.  Length – 2 pages maximum (excluding the Works Cited page).

2.  Do not use subheadings in the body of the paper.

3.  Components

  1. Summarize the writer’s argument.  This summary does not mean that you say, “Ms ------talks about the role of women in this essay.”  Instead, you must indicate WHAT she says about women’s roles.  What is the writer’s thesis?  

 

  1. Identify the type of criticism being practiced.  If the writer uses more than one approach, you should also indicate that fact.  Your summary should be clearly related to the type(s) of criticism you name.  Think of the identification as your thesis statement and use the summary to back it up.
  2. Evaluate the quality of the essay—the quality of the argument, the writing, the organization, and the originality of the insights.  Does the writer prove his/her point(s)?  Does the essay teach the reader something?  Does the writer make assumptions about reader knowledge, or does the writer explain things that need to be explained?
  3. Justify your inclusion of this essay.  Why did you choose this essay over others of the same type?  What about the argument struck you as particularly insightful?  Was the essay easier to follow than some others of the same type?  If the essay you chose was the only one of a particular type that you found, you may indicate that; but its solitariness should not be the only reason for including it in the casebook.  You should seek to persuade your audience of the necessity of the secondary source to comprehensive study of your semester text.