English 345

Prison Literature

Spring 2014

Lockard

Paper 1: The Nation’s Prisoners

Preparation

  • Read Allen’s A Narrative of Ethan Allen’s Captivity and McCain’s Faith of My Fathers

Question

Respond to the following essay topic: compare and contrast the prison memoirs of Ethan Allen and John McCain. How do honor and its codes function in these two narratives? What are the relationships between honor, class, culture and nationalism?

In all papers for this course, remember the principle: answer the call of the question.

Ethan Allen

Evaluation

A persuasive paper will be one that frames a broader argument from the outset, and employs brief textual evidence in support of the specifics of that argument. Remembering that these few pages are an exceedingly brief space in which to frame an argument, ensure that your response has a single, analytic, and unifying thesis, not multiple

argumentative claims. Your paper should not be one that is simply a paragraphed checklist of disparate observations, followed by a gross generalization, irrelevant truism, or false conclusion. Above all, I love a paper that is both passionate and well-argued.

Your paper will be graded on the basis of (a) a clear and convincing argument that emerges from the beginning; (b) a focused examination of the implications of that argument throughout the paper; (c) appropriate use of brief citations to provide evidentiary support for the argument; and (d) competence of writing skills and absence of technical errors. There will be a significant grade deduction for disregarding the terms of the question.

Technical

This paper should total 4complete double-spaced pages, not including a title page. Use 1-inch margins and 12-pt. Times New Roman type. Short papers will be marked down.

Single-space citations and use parenthetical page references (no footnotes). Text citations should be very brief, illustrative, and no more than a line or so. Excessive use of quotations will lead to a grade mark-down, as will short papers.

In stylistic terms, avoid unnecessary first-person reference (e.g. “I think…”) or overuse of the passive voice.

Do no library or online research. Your ideas are what matter, not someone else’s opinion. For this reason, plagiarism will be treated in strict accordance with university policy guidelines.

Due date: Sunday, February 2, 11:59pm, as a deposit via Blackboard. Late papers will not be accepted without medical certification.