Choose ONE
1. Write a brief essay in which you reflect on the difference it would have made to “Slide to Unlock” if the author had written it in the first or third person rather than the second.
2. Thinking about “Eyeball,” write of a time/situation when you didn’t fit in or weren’t accepted and possibly received criticism for it (got picked on). Maybe, like the narrator, you had a physical issue that kept you from participating in or excelling at a particular activity; OR discuss the references/allusions/parallels to other genres (literature, comics, movies).
One important thing to remember when writing about literature: Always include the literature title and author in the introduction of your essay. This establishes a point of reference between your writing and the literature. You’ve got to show a relationship between the two pieces of writing.
This essay needs to be a minimum of 300 words. Please double space your essay and submit it through the assignment drop box as a Microsoft Word document.
NO PDF FILES. I will not accept them, you will receive a zero, and you won’t be allowed to resubmit the assignment.
There are a couple of items below that you need to read and follow:
Some Guidance for Your Essays:
When writing essays about literature, one goal is to show your understanding of the work by relating to it in some way. Each piece of literature we read in this class has a theme or motif running through it. For your first essay assignment, the topic choices are both fairly easy to relate to in some way.
Here’s how I would like to see your essays organized.
Format: APA style formatting with a title page, headers, page numbers, and References page*.
*You’ll always need a References page because I expect you to quote the literature at least once in each essay. There is an example of the correct way to cite the text in the Week 1 folder. It is an example, so you’ll need to change the author, publication date, and title.
Content:
I. Introduction: This paragraph can begin with a broad statement related to your topic. In the next sentence or so, you should state the author and title of the work you are writing about so the reader can understand the relationship between what you’ve read and what you’ve written. There may be a sentence or two related to the main theme of the literature or a brief synopsis of the story to further relate your ideas to the literature. The final sentence or two should be the thesis statement presenting your controlling idea to the reader.
II. Body: Each paragraph should relate to your thesis. You’ve written enough essays in 1101 to know this. Use examples/quotes from the text to support your main idea. I am also perfectly okay with your using other outside sources to support your essay as long as you document them properly with both in-text citations and a full citation on the References page. One danger of writing about literature is spending too much time retelling the story. I’ve read the literature; I don’t need you to tell it to me again. I need you to show me you understand the literature by showing me how you relate to it.
III. Conclusion: Wrap it up. Mention the title of the story/poem again to remind the reader that everything you’ve written has been relating to that piece of literature. Then bring your writing to a close.
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