October 6, 2010 Archives

Come to class ready to work on your thesis and presubmission for Paper 1.

Paper 1 is a 3-4 page paper literary close reading, formatted in MLA Style -- the same thing as the paragraphs we've been working on so far, only more in-depth.

Keep your focus narrow. Avoid extreme terms like "best" or "never" or "all." You don't have to prove that Chillingworth is the worst villain ever written; you can just claim that "Because Chillingworth's cold villainy contrasts with the warmer, more passionate flaws of Hester and Dimmesdale, [your claim goes here]."

Things to bear in mind:

• If you do compare more than one work, integrate your discussion of both works. That is,
  
• Rather than write two short mini-papers (such as, for example, one on The Scarlet Letter and one on Bartleby, the Scrivener)...
• ...write about themes that appear in both works (such as a moral viewpoint, the depiction of isolation, and the function of the prison).
  
• Your best idea might not be your first. (This means you may need to cut the first few paragraphs, or even the first few pages, to make room to do justice to the best ideas, that may only occur to you after you've spent some time -- and maybe a few hundred words -- working a problem out).
• A workshop is a time to take risks, to be bold, to stretch yourself -- but be sure you can support your claims with direct quotations from the text.

The "Presubmission" asks you to propose a thesis, and include quotations for both the "pro" and "con" sides of your paper.

Pages 68-137 ("Notice" through Chapter 14) Update, 30 Sep:

The ISBN of the book we are using is version we are using is 039598078X

There are many other editions of Huck Finn, but only this one has the scholarly articles and background reading that makes up part of the assigned reading for the course.