The purpose of this essay will be to demonstrate to me that you can argue effect

The purpose of this essay will be to demonstrate to me that you can argue effectively about literature. You should have a clear thesis statement that you then support with specific evidence throughout the rest of your essay. Your evidence will come from the text itself and from secondary sources as well. This essay is not a plot summary, response paper, book report, or explication. Instead, it is a persuasive analysis in which you enlighten the work of literature you are writing about. You should assume that your reader is familiar with the literature you are discussing and address that reader accordingly. The specific topic concerning literature is up to you, and the approach you use in your analysis will also be up to you. You are welcome to employ whatever analytical tools seem appropriate to your topic and to your interests. Your essay must deal with literature we are studying in this course. Look at the list I have given under “Course Paper texts”. You may discuss one or two works of literature but no more than two works. For example, you can write a comparative analysis of the female characters in “The Woman’s Swimming Pool” and “In Camera,” OR you can do an in-depth analysis on the role of desire in Mo Yan’s “The Old Gun”(it is up to you!).
You must have at least FOUR secondary sources. NO BLOCK QUOTATIONS (any quote that extends beyond 4 typed lines). These sources must be scholarly. Remember, you are in college and your writing must reflect scholarly thinking and presentation. This is not your weekly
discussion board responses. It must reflect your mastery of ENG 1101/1102. Papers should be double spaced, with 1” margin on the left and 1.5” margin on the right. Please use 12-point Times New Roman. Cite your sources according to MLA. You should have a minimum of FOUR outside sources. Do not use Internet sources unless the exact same source exists in a printed form and merely happens to be on-line in a full text version. Papers will be graded on the originality of argument, use and integration of textual evidence, development of detail, and mechanics of writing. Plagiarized work will fetch you an “F” in the COURSE! When I grade the paper, I will look for well thought-out thesis and support, idea development, organization and “flow” (logical transitions, topic sentences), clarity of expression (grammar and
punctuation), and adherence to MLA formatting (Font, Spacing, Titles, Headings, In-text Citations, Documentation).
Word Requirement : MINIMUM of 8-9 double-spaced pages (9th page will be Works Cited)
Value: 20% of your final grade
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You may write your Course Paper ONLY on (any one or more of) the following texts:
Federico García Lorca (Avant-garde/ Spain): Lament for Ignacio Sanchez Mejías
James Joyce (Modern/ Ireland): The Dead
Mo Yan (Modern/China): The Old Gun
Rabindranath Tagore; (Modern/ India): Kabuliwala
Hanan Al-Shaykh (Modern/ Lebanon): The Women’s Swimming Pool
Naguib Mahfouz (Modern/ Egypt): Zaabalawi
Doris Lessing (Colonial/ Rhodesia): The Old Chief of Mshlanga
Nawal El Saadawi (Feminist/Egypt): In Camera
Leslie Marmon Silko (Post [-] colonial/ United States): Yellow Woman
Toni Morrison: Recitatif
Alice Munro (Contemporary/ Canada): Walker Brothers Cowboy
Pablo Neruda (Modern Romantic/ Chile): Tonight I Can Write; Ode to the Tomato
Clarice Lispector (Modern/ Brazil): The Daydreams of a Drunken Woman
Jorge Luis Borges (Modern/ Argentina): The Garden of the Forking Paths
Katherine Mansfield (Modernist/ New Zealand): The Garden Party
Witi Ihimaera (Postcolonial/ New Zealand): This Life is Wear
1. Tentative thesis statement: With a goal of crafting an original final research paper, you are required to compose a tentative thesis statement based on one (or more) of the texts we are studying in this course. Your thesis/ claim must be argumentative in nature. For e.g. If you are writing about Lessing’s short story, you could write a statement as follows that will be your thesis: Lessing’s protagonist in “The Old Chief Mashalanga” exemplifies the positive changes in a little girl when she recognizes the privileges and power that colonialism has historically endowed her. Your thesis should NOT be more than ONE/ TWO sentences long. More information on Thesis statements @Strong Thesis Statements – Purdue OWL® – Purdue University. Points will be taken off if the thesis statement is more than TWO sentences long. 2. Compile an annotated bibliography that will document the research you will do to establish your claim. Please read the instructions for the course paper to understand the expectations for which this assignment is key.This bibliography will contain a minimum of FIVE entries.First of all, cite your source according to the MLA documentation style (alphabetically). Then, for each annotation, you should include the following three steps:
A brief summary of the source you are using
The author’s main thesis (explicit or implicit) in your own words
Your plan for how this source will be used in your paper or the reason for rejecting it