AML 4213: Journeys to America
Spring 2012

SHORT ESSAY INSTRUCTIONS: 4-5 PAGES, DUE MONDAY FEB 27^th, VIA TURNITIN

My goal with this assignment (although the grade counts) is diagnostic: I want to see whether you can develop a main idea coherently and in decent prose, and of course thoughtfully.  The mandatory topics are below.  For the longer Research Essay due later in term, I’ll want you to develop your own topics (I will give some possibilities, however).

TOPICS

Choose one of the topics below, but please don’t address it as a “question” that has a “right” answer.  When I assess papers, I don’t think in terms of right, especially right, poor, especially poor interpretations.  I look for a reasonably tight focus (a paper that doesn’t ramble), thoughtfulness (not just a recitation of class discussion or lecture), and a polished technique (good grammar and punctuation, a non-pompous but not overly informal/breezy style, and so on).  In general, a paper that tries to figure out something from an unusual but profound angle and yet doesn’t quite pull it off will make me as happy, indeed happier, than an essay that sounds like SparksNotes. 

To put this more simply: work hard, but don’t be afraid of taking risks, and try to get in the zone of your own creative thoughtfulness.  To develop a topic the best thing you can do is to stare hard, as it were, at the object of your attention.  Just as with a hobby that you have an interest in, whether football, hip-hop music, video gaming, musing about traveling, whatever … you want to be attentive to nuance.  With hobbies, such comes naturally, because you are naturally intrigued; but you can learn to be so with analysis, also! It sounds cute, but there really is a Zen art to writing and thinking.

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1--Take either Caliban’s first major passage or the scene of Prospero’s odd forgetting of Caliban’s conspiracy against him as a brainstorming cue, and construct an argument/analysis that uses a full or apt range of passages/scenes from the The Tempest yet also makes one of the former passages or scenes central.

2--Ditto in method as above, but consider the concluding radiant/Cross light scene in The Black Robe (if you are interested in writing on film).

3--The Black Robe is based on a novel, based in turn on some degree of accurate historical research.  Analyze the issue of how native American “otherness” is presented in the film.  The film isn’t an anthropological treatise, but it does try at points to almost get us to the “other” side and not just be preoccupied with the priest’s perspective.  Or, perhaps, in order to make the priest’s story rich and complex--the story of his mission of conversion--it needs to somewhat present the native cultural/psychological perspective.  This is what I would call a “meta” topic: not just an analysis of what “happens” in a text (in this case, a film) but also about the parameters of representation per se.

4--Rowlandson: would you say that Rowlandson ever gets to know the Indians?  Or does she use them only for rhetorical/theological purposes?

5--Rowlandson: at the end of her narrative she reflects: “I can remember the time when I used to sleep quietly without workings in my thoughts, whole nights together, but now it is other ways with me. When all are fast about me, and no eye open, but His who ever waketh, my thoughts are ….” What causes her insomnia?

NUTS & BOLTS REQUIREMENTS

1. Your essay should be about 1500 words (that’s equivalent to five pages double-spaced), and should be polished stylistically and, of course, correct in terms of grammar, punctuation, citations, and so on.

2. NO research.  And thus you do not need a Bibliography. You may draw upon my lecture notes/reviews, but do not just parrot my ideas and interpretations.  You do not need to cite me (“Prof. Harvey lecture on….”).  Material provided by the contextual e-texts (on the Renaissance, etc.): for our purposes consider this common knowledge, not requiring citation.

3. Turn your essay in via Turnitin: class ID = 4688367 password = tempest.

4.  Do not provide a cover page; put your name/classname/date turned in/your title at the top of the first page.  Submit in single-spaced (I’m the exception on this, as professors go).

5. Be prepared, should it be requested, to supply a draft stage of the essay (if you're wondering; this helps discourage plagiarism!). This means you must remember to permanently save a draft at some point as you are composing.

6.  An essay with a number of major grammatical or sentence-construction glitches will receive a temporary “0” in Turnitin, with the expectation that it be resubmitted. A late paper will be penalized a notch (e.g., B to B-) for each day submitted late, and only emergencies will allow you to submit your essay late without a penalty.  You can revise this first paper, with the revision grade replacing the original grade.  Because I allow revisions, I do not look at drafts.

7. Refer to the Checklist below and please note the Grading Scale. Bottom line: think hard and you get rewarded!

8. Finally, pleaszzzeeeee … try to have intellectual fun with your paper.  Try to get yourself in the “zone” (the way you appreciate a hobby) in which you take unself-conscious pleasure in analyzing; stop worrying about a grade and getting it right, and so on.

GRADING SCALE

A = Focused, interesting main idea suggesting that you read, re-read, and probed around the text at hand. Prose is not merely correct: it is compelling and sophisticated. Organization makes sense given the topic and argument of the paper. The paper is of sufficient quality that it could be put online as a sample paper.

B = Main idea and development are clear, but the organization is weak in a section or two, or there are a few sentence or punctuation glitches that suggest careless editing.

C= Paper has a main idea, but not thought through by attending to the text actively. Organization falls apart at key moments. Sentence construction, although usually correct, is often imprecise or wordy. Nearly every page shows signs of careless editing.

D = The thesis is vague, and the organization is very chaotic.  The paper indicates little insight about or basic understanding of the author/text. Or the prose/grammar suggests the need to go to the Writing Center.

F = The paper was not turned in.  Such will receive (on a 0-100 scale) a “0”.

EDITING/REVISING CHECKLIST

Three tips for effective revising:

  --        Revise with "fresh eyes": revise at least a day after you've completed a substantial draft.

  --        Use a printed copy and revise at a different locale than your computer.

  --        Revise in four "loops," using the revision checklist below.

 Yes      No                   CONTENT

____    ____    sharply focused: no extraneous material

____    ____    complex aspects of issue thoughtfully examined

____    ____    judicious use of supporting specifics/quotes

                                  ORGANIZATION & DEVELOPMENT

____    ____    unified paragraphs, with clear topic sentences

____    ____    transitions between ideas and sections of essay

____    ____    essay unfolds stage-by-stage, no unnecessary "back-tracking" or repetition of sections

                                   PROSE STYLE

____    ____    straightforward and precise phrasing, without sentence fragments or run-ons

____    ____    few boring "is" verbs

____    ____    appropriate use of transition words

____    ____    varied sentence length and patterns              

                                   CORRECT GRAMMAR, ETC.

____    ____    correct use of possessives and punctuation

____    ____    correct match between verbs and subjects

____    ____    no typos/misspellings

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TIPS FOR LITERARY ESSAY WRITING

The tips below (examples come from a variety of classes) largely apply to your longer/research essay, not this shorter one.  But I offer them now to encourage new more productive habits of idea-generating/paper writing, and to introduce you a bit to the expectations for the longer essay. 

1.  IDEAS EMERGE FROM THE TEXT.  Abstraction will only carry you so far.  It’s best, once you have a glimmer of an idea, to read and re-read, taking notes, circling important symptomatic passages, and making connections with kindred passages.  It is quite possible to have whole paragraphs or more in your essay without reference to a particular passage (i.e. no quote), but such paragraphs can only emerge if you are truly intimate with a text and really focused on it.  Look for the little oddities, etc., that lead you to track down patterns of tension in the text.  Such doesn't mean that you end up writing about trivia; it just means you avoid starting with abstract themes or issues in your brain-storming/idea-generating process.

2.  ARGUMENTS ARE NOT DICED-UP THEMES.  One does not want to say "the theme of marriage has three aspects in Middlemarch."  We are taught to think that way in high school and in composition classes.  Maybe we need to start out that way, but it leads to limited rhetorical possibilities and limited argument sophistication.  It is better to think of a text as having an issue that it is "obsessed" by and needs to find a "remedy" for.  Then you sort of play doctor/detective.  Maybe even start your paper with an odd quote that manifests, as it were, a symptom.  And then you uncover layer by layer the complexities of the issue/problem, and then show how the problem is resolved or not resolved.  In an ideal student world, these complexities and issues resonate with something within you, which makes you want to chase down meaning.  The reader doesn’t want to know what your obsessions are, but I do believe personal connections to your “objective” material makes for stronger, more incisive, and interesting arguments usually.

3.  DO NOT GO INTO CELEBRATION MODE, as if you writing an introduction to some high-school edition of the text.

4. DO NOT RUN TO THE LIBRARY IMMEDIATELY.  You must think through some issues before you conduct research.  If you "own" an idea initially, your research will have direction and focus and you will be less likely to get lost in the morass of other scholarly perspectives.  But ultimately you must be in dialogue with other specific interpretations.  Good scholarship assumes an audience that is engaged in ongoing dialogues about authors or texts or issues. 

5. REVISION AND RE-THINKING IS NEVER DONE.  Everyone's draft-to-completion process works differently.  But usually you have to go through a draft over and over and over again, heaping on layers of complexity, twists and turns, more "But this is not the real malaise the family suffers from.  If we go back to the first scene, the real problem turns out to be...."s.  The obvious challenge with this is that you do not have time to slowly cook the paper.  But that, nonetheless, is what I am asking of you.

6. REPEAT ABOVE!

7. AUDIENCE: Assume an audience much like your fellow students--familiar with the work, but unfamiliar with your particular approach, and therefore requiring specific examples (textual evidence) to understand, appreciate, and accept your analysis and argument. Avoid plot summary or tedious repetition of an author's points without higher level analysis, however.

8. PLAY WITH TITLES (AND SUBSECTION TITLES, IF THE PAPER IS LONGER THAN 12 PAGES) early on in the process.  This may seem to go against the "don't think abstractly" rule, but trying to come up with clever titles in fact can work as a good way of brainstorming, as long as you see them as being provisional.  You might not even know what your title means initially!  Sub-headings--when you’re writing a longer paper--can help control some of those wacky ideas that get too wacky, because you know whether sub-contents fit the sub-label.  And please: your main essay title is the first chance to make an impression. A vague title (e.g., "Melville’s Bartleby") that could fit any other paper written on the same author gives a vague impression, indicating that the essay to follow likely lacks a focused main point. Nothing is more irritating (to me) than a vague title: it indicates, immediately, carelessness.

9.  WE MUST KNOW YOUR THESIS/MAIN POINT BY THE END OF YOUR INTRODUCTION.  But don't think of a thesis as capturing the entirety of your argument or analysis.  All that is needed is a nomination of the main issue/question in play (not the answer).  This allows for an inductive rather than deductive approach. (Many of my tips are suggesting an inductive method of getting ideas and composing.)  Please do not start off with weighty generalities about morality, the human condition, and so on. Avoid the "funnel" opening paragraph if possible.  If your introduction is more than a single paragraph (it might be two paragraphs if, for instance, you were setting up an author in terms of especially pertinent historical or cultural background), give an extra line space between the introduction and paper proper.

10. QUOTES.  Depositing too many long quotes in a paper wastes space. Too few or no quotes, however, suggest inattention to the text or texts. You should probably have one or two longer, inset quotes, which you set up and analyze; the purpose here is to indicate that there are especially key or symptomatic passages that warrant lingering over because they are so revelatory.  Quotes, besides helping to anchor/prove your points, often lead to analytical discoveries as you ponder/unpack them.

11. FIRST REAL SECTION OF YOUR ESSAY MIGHT BE HISTORICAL.  After your introduction, depending upon your topic/text, you might have some background information about the author, the era, the place, etc.  This is reassuring to the reader because it makes you seem knowledgeable.

12. DEVELOPMENT.  Good essays unfold a major idea or argument stage-by-stage, in a manner that will be compelling and convincing to the reader. This means that the old, boring high-school strategy of breaking down your basic idea into three (more or less disconnected) subpoints may not be the most suitable arrangement. Instead, for example, an essay (depending upon the thesis, of course) could in the first fourth highlight some intriguing contradiction or tension in a text; the next fourth might frame the tension in terms of a larger moral, literary, philosophical, religious, or historical debate or issue; and the last two fourths would illustrate the ramifications of the tension for the text you're exploring (tensions resolved? and if so, by what means? tensions not resolved? and if so, how does the author/narrator cope with irresolution?). An essay can be thoughtful and well-organized, and yet still be confusing to the reader. Most often this occurs because the essay writer needs to provide clearer sign-posts to the overall argument. At crucial junctures (the topic sentence for a paragraph introducing a new stage of your argument), try to foreground analytical points rather than just something about character or the plot or the page-by-page sequence of a text's ideas.

There are two basic patterns of development:

Deductive: here, you state the thesis of your argument (your main point) directly up front and proceed to provide evidence for your main point.  For example: you could make your main point "Equiano's obsession with status is not defensible" or "Equiano's obsession with status is justified."  And then the subsequent paragraphs would present aspects of your position and your evidence for those aspects.

Dialectical/inductive: here you proceed to make successive more complex discoveries through a thesis--antithesis--synthesis pattern.  For example: the first third of your paper would explore how "Equiano is obsessed with status"; the second third would explore "how Equiano is in fact filling in a void with status seeking"; and the last third would pull the two ideas together through a more complex observation, that "Equiano fills in his grief of being exiled from his native country by seeking to emulate the status values of European culture" (note how what seems to be a negative point about Equiano--that he is a sell out by seeking status--ends up to be a more complex positive point).  Rhetorically, in your introduction you may want to state your overall point as "Equiano fills in his grief..." or you might want, without being vague, to state the thesis as a problem that your paper in effect solves, but without giving the solution immediately: "Clearly, Equiano's eagerness to obtain status makes his character a vexing one if we assume he should remain consistently loyal to his native country or identity."

13.  IF YOU DON'T, DO READ YOUR OWN PROSE ALOUD for a better style.  It is easy to start getting pompous sounding and lost in verbiage.  I do it all the time!  ALSO: print out a hard-copy and edit from a hard-copy, at least once during your drafting of your essay. A lot of slop occurs because you compose and edit on a PC.  Print your essay draft out in a smaller/different font (this helps defamiliarize you from your own words), go into your livingroom or take a bath with your essay, pen in hand, etc etc, and edit… anywhere not in front of the PC.

14.  PAY ATTENTION TO WHAT WORKS FOR YOU WHEN YOU READ SCHOLARSHIP.  This may mean specific rhetorical maneuvers (i.e., how to write an introduction), or just words that you've never used before and that have a lot of critical-theoretical possibilities packed within (“gaze” for instance).  It sounds dull, but you should start keeping a list of such words if you are into literary theory.

15.  DO NOT BE AFRAID OF BEING THEORETICAL, BUT DEMYSTIFY THEORY BEFORE YOU BEGIN USING IT (THIS TIP IS FOR THOSE INTERESTED IN LITERART THEORY).  Applying theory can be the direct, self-conscious application of a theoretical perspective (and perhaps querying the utility of the perspective at the same time); or the theory can mostly be in the sort of issues/content you focus on (gender issues, sexuality, body stuff, imperialism, othering); or it can be the use of a certain vocabulary (gaze, other, compulsory heterosexuality, and so on).  The extent to which you actually cite theorists in your essay, if you are so inclined, is going to be highly variable according to your topic, personal style, background and so forth.  Theory (to me) is best used as a brainstorming device--a lens that helps you see things you might not already see.  Your own idiosyncratic interests and the need for a cogent, coherent argument that YOU believe in will do the rest.  That's why I repeat the mantra of "listen to the text" AND "listen to your response."  You want to avoid the ventriloquy effect of many contemporary scholarly-interpretive essays, which often all sound very much alike, all making the same moves, all citing the same theorists, and so on. In essence, the best writing happens from playing intellectual ping-pong with yourself.

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Finally, let me repeat: I’d much prefer a somewhat risky thoughtful paper than a paper that boringly discusses a “theme” in three major sections.  I cannot give you permission to meander, but I find that students sometimes in their effort to be tidy (with outlines of ideas, for example) actually turn out to shut down thought.  They think they want to write about “X”, and rather than seeing that “X” is very complex, do a sort of highschool equation a+b+c=x.  Bottom line: if you know what your paper is about before you write your paper, it will be a bad paper!