Ex 3: Analytical Essay

• Review the close reading handout. Then brainstorm, using any of the methods we have explored so far.
  
• When you begin to write, keep your focus on the work itself (the specific words on the page). Avoid phrases like "It seems to me..." or "When I first read this, I thought..."
• Write for someone who already knows the story and needs no introduction to the plot, characters, or theme.
  
  
• WEAK: Have you ever needed some time to get up the courage to do the right thing? What if you knew that doing the right thing would put you at risk? Hawthorne's great American classic The Scarlet Letter describes not just one person with that problem, but two. Hester Prynne is a recent arrival from London who, believing that her husband is dead...
  
  (This passage tries to sell the book to someone who doesn't already know it.  I'm asking you instead to write for experienced readers who already know the book well.)
  
  
• STRONG: Dimmesdale's delayed acknowledgment of Pearl mirrors Hester's reluctant exposure of Chillingworth; this parallel reminds us that, after their adultery, both guilty parties commit further sins of omission.
  
  (This version uses a detail about the structure of the story [the mirrored pattern] to support a point about the theme [the universality of guilt].)
  
• Write several connected paragraphs, each of them forming a link in a chain that moves from your thesis statement (our starting point, an answer to a debatable question), through the body (where you give the evidence that supports the answer), to the conclusion (our destination, where we can see new insights that present themselves only after we have worked through all the evidence you supply).

Quote brief passages -- just a few words at a time, and work them into your own sentences.

• WEAK: Leslie is a man who tries to hide his unhappiness from his wife, but does he really think he has a chance to fool his wife? She is too smart for that. This proven by the quote, "She marked his altered looks and stifled sighs, and was not to be deceived by his sickly and vapid attempts at cheerfulness." The quote makes me think that Leslie is mistaken for trying to hide the truth, and that even though he thinks he is being noble, he is the foolish one, for trying to fool his supportive wife.
• GOOD: Because Leslie's "sickly and vapid attempts at cheerfulness" do not convince his perceptive wife, his actions, though high-minded, appear foolish.
  (This paper explores the contrast between Leslie's belief that he is being noble, and Irving's suggestion that Leslie is being foolish. When we know more than a character in the story, and we can put together the puzzle pieces faster than the characters, that's an example of literary irony.)
  

The "WEAK" version makes direct references to the mechanics of writing -- "this is proven by the quote" and "this quote makes me think."  Consider a dancer who knows all the steps but counts out loud to the music, or looks down at her feet. It gets the job done, but calls too much attention to the mechanics that made the accomplishment possible.

Rubric

The rubric (below) is the same as the one I gave you for Exercise 2.