English 355 Prof LOverman Essay 5 – The Research Paper

Wed: 5/7 Canvas 11:45PM: Post Shortwrite 4- Identify your stories, must include working thesis statement with Annotated Bibliography: Four (4) min. credible outside sources. Post a min of TWO replies to other classmates. Counts double points.

Fri 5/11 Peer Review Workshop – Rough Draft Due – Your final draft will be docked one full letter grade if you fail to bring a working rough draft and participate in the workshop session on this date. You must bring three to four printed copies of your essay for your workshop group. Failure to do so equals non-participation in workshop. If you arrive late, you will not be permitted to participate in the workshop and your grade will be docked. Be sure to have all printing completed the night before. Printer problems or failure will not be excused.

Fri 5/18: FINAL DRAFT DUE uploaded in TurnitIN via Canvas prior to 2:45 pm, 5-7 pages (excluding works cited, but do add works cited page).

Extra Credit LRC visit w/ proof: 10 extra credit points given ONCE for attending LRC during this essay’s drafting process, but you may go as many times as you need to.

Writing Task: Select two or three works from the lists below and in an essay 5 FULL-7 pages (without Works Cited page, but do include one) in length, argue a meaningful connection you have found between them.

Common grounds for discussion could be similarity in theme, idea, problem, characterization, point of view, setting, imagery, diction, voice, figures of speech, social ideology, theoretical lens; techniques utilized by authors … there are numerous possibilities. But you must compare/contrast “like for like” in the two or more works you examine.

The purpose of your essay is to explain your interpretation to readers and persuade them that your interpretation is worthy of serious consideration. You are required to incorporate a minimum of TWO outside credible critical sources in the text of your essay.

See Syllabus Weekly Schedule for page numbers.

You are required to select at least one of the works from List A below:

Ha Jin “The Bane of the Internet”

Gabriel Garcia Marquez, “A Very Old Man with Enormous Wings”

Ernest Hemingway “Hills Like White Elephants”

Junot Diaz “No Face”

David Michael Kaplan”Doe Season”

Cathy Song “Girl Powdering Her Neck”

David Hernandez “Mosul”

Next, select a second work from List B below [OR a second work from list A]:

William Faulkner “A Rose for Emily”

Ray Carver “Cathedral”

Edwidge Danticat “New York Day Women”

Sherman Alexie “What It Means to Say Phoenix, Arizona”

D.H. Lawrence “The Rocking-Horse Winner”

Yusef Komunyakaa “Facing It”

Rita Dove “Sonnet in Primary Colors”

You may NOT incorporate a work not on the syllabus of this course.

Your essay MUST also incorporate research. However, this is not a “research” paper per se, in that your purpose here is not to present all the available material written on these stories. Your research is intended to give you a starting point (an idea to argue with) or to provide support and/or illustration of the points of your argument. In either case, your thesis is driving the essay, not the combined contentions of other writers.

Your Purpose in Writing This Essay:

Demonstrate your ability to look insightfully at short works of fiction.

Argue a significant and meaningful way to interpret these texts.

Present a clear, arguable, and provocative thesis.

Support your argument with clear and appropriate evidence, taken from the texts and from outside critical sources.

Illustrate your ability to correctly interpret critical sources.

Demonstrate knowledge of the rhetorical and argumentative structures in organizing your essay.

Illustrate the proper usage of MLA documentation, in text and in the Works Cited page.

Exercise the skill of writing well-crafted sentences, utilizing standard edited American English.