LIT4403/IDS4920--Polynesia: Fiction, Film, & Culture
Fall 2001
Prof. Bruce Harvey
INSTRUCTIONS FOR FIVE-PAGE PAPER--DUE WEDNESDAY, OCT. 17
*** If you have two major exams, or essays due, in other classes the same week that this assignment is due, you may submit it on Wednesday, Oct. 24. You must get permission in advance for this option.
HERE ARE THE RULES:
1) The goal is to write a focused, specific analysis of one of the texts/films we've read thus far or are soon to read (you can get special permission to write about a later text,) using your insights, not secondary research materials. You may draw upon information/perspectives gleaned from class, but the ideas and particular angle or interpretive "take" should be your own. Reread the section on the syllabus about how this assignment relates to the longer essay due later in the semester.
2) Stick to one text: no comparative essays, please (except under special circumstances).
3) Your essay should be at least 5 pages long, typed and double-spaced, with normal 1 inch margins.
4) Organization, quality of analysis, and style will all be factors in determining your grade, worth 25% of the course grade. Be sure to photocopy your paper (or make a computer-disk backup).
5) You should consult with me, at least briefly, about your topic--before/after class, via email, or by seeing me during my office hours (or by appointment, if my office hours are not convenient). For those of you new to literary and/or cultural analysis, or nervous about getting a good topic (or nervous about writing matters in general), I especially would like you to talk to me. I will not hand you a topic on a plate, but will help you find one--i.e. help you to develop your own ideas--via email dialogue, etc.
HERE ARE SOME ESSAY-WRITING GUIDELINES
TITLE: Your title is the first chance to make an impression on the reader. A vague title (e.g., "Hester Prynne in the Scarlet Letter ") that could fit any other paper written on the same author gives a vague impression, indicating that the essay to follow likely lacks an argument (I don't mean that you need to be combative, but that you have a thesis supported by evidence).
AUDIENCE: Assume an audience much like your fellow students‑‑an audience 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, however.
IDEAS: Good ideas come not from your abstract memory of a text, but from your close reading and rereading. I do not expect you to come up with something "new" from my perspective, but something "new" from your perspective. If you don't make a discovery in the process of writing the paper, it probably will not be very satisfactory. Idea-discovery is like constructing a house (based upon observations that get built level upon level): it is not an archaeological process of finding hidden meaning. If you worry about being profound, you will not be: you must relax a bit and let the text--its complications--speak to you. At the same time, you need to read very intensely, to pay attention to details that might radiate out into larger patterns of complexity (example: the passage on Hester's needlework).
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, somewhat 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. Finally, if necessary, you should be willing to sacrifice some of your insights for the sake of coherence.
QUOTES: Depositing long quotes in a paper wastes space, and is usually unnecessary because shorter quotes often contain sufficient complexity to unpack. Too few or no quotes, however, suggest inattention to the text or texts. Brief quotes, besides helping to anchor/prove your points, often lead to analytical discoveries.
REVISION CHECKLIST
Three tips for effective revising:
-- Revise with "fresh eyes": revise at least several hours after you've completed a substantial draft.
-- Use a printed copy and revise at a different locale.
-- 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