Analytical Essay Assignment | Essay

Assignment: Please write a six-page researched essay on a piece of literature that you have ALREADY chosen for one of your shorter papers. So, you should first write your analytical essay and then build on to that for your research paper.

Criteria:

YOUR PAPER MUST BE AT LEAST SIX PAGES LONG NOT INCLUDING THE WORKS CITED PAGE. PAPERS SHORTER THAN THIS REQUIREMENT WILL EARN AN AUTOMATIC ZERO

Your essay must contain a clear and meaningful thesis.
You must provide support for all major claims (both in the form of quotations from and references to the text and from your outside sources).
Your essay must demonstrate effective organization, clear transitions between paragraphs and contain correct grammar, spelling and punctuation.
You must adhere to proper MLA format
Your essay must contain 4 (relevant) outside sources THAT YOU HAVE FOUND VIA THE LIBRARY DATABASE
IF YOU CHOOSE TO DO A CULTURAL STUDY, DO NOT COMPARE YOUR WORK WITH THE PRESENT DAY. FOCUS ONLY ON THE LITERARY WORK.
WORKS CITED SHOULD BE PRIMARILY TIED TO YOUR CHOSEN PIECE OF LITERATURE.

Some possible topics for your research paper:

You could examine the depiction of gender roles in an author’s works

You could examine the issue of class representation in an author’s works

You could look at how race and/or ethnicity figure into any of the works we’ve read

You could examine how a particular work depicts issues of power or control

Outside Sources:

An outside source can be a book or part of a book, a journal, or a review.

Instructions for quoting, paraphrasing, and creating in-text-citations using MLA style:

I am working with the following source: Suozzo, Andrew. “The ChicagoMarathon and Urban Renaissance.” The Journal of Popular Culture 36.1 (2002): 142-159.

If I want to quote this article in my own paper using MLA style I can

BLOCK QUOTE IT LIKE THIS:

In his brilliant essay “The Chicago Marathon and Urban Renaissance,” Andrew Suozzo claims that

Only after a somewhat shaky history in the eighties and early nineties did [Chicago’s ] marathon come together to the point that it can now attain world supremacy in the number of participants. The meteoric rise closely follows the city’s dramatic recovery from a rust-belt city whose future was in grave doubt to a revitalized metropolis capable of retaining an affluent citizenry attracting a body of tourists. (Suozzo 142)

Remember: Any quotation over four lines long needs to be indented ten spaces from the left-hand margin.

I could also use a short quote like this:

In his essay, “The Chicago Marathon and Urban Renaissance ,” Andrew Suozzo claims that the Chicago marathon’s “meteoric rise closely follows the city’s dramatic recovery from a rust belt city…to a revised metropolis” (Suozzo 142).

Here, I don’t indent ten spaces. I simply blend the quotation in with my own writing and include a parenthetical reference at the end.

I could also paraphrase it like this:

It has been suggested that the Chicago marathon’s rise to international fame in the 1900s directly paralleled the city’s return to affluence and fashionability (Suozzo 142).

Note: Even though I’ve re-expressed Suozzo’s ideas, I still need to give him credit.

Creating in-text citations:

In MLA style, the author’s last name and the page number on which the quote appeared go in the parenthesis–that’s it.

Never put an URL in an in-text citation. The information goes on your works cited page. Put the author’s last name in the in-text citation.

If your work has more than one author, put the first author’s name (alphabetically speaking) in the in-text citation or after a quote or paraphrase.

COMMON QUESTIONS:

Here are some answers to a few questions that you might have:

Where can I find sources?

All of your sources will come from the library in either the form of hard-copy books or online articles. The first thing you should do is go the BCCC’s Library website and click on the link for online databases. There you will find a list of all of the sites. Do a quick review of all of the ones that pertain to literature. Once you have your topic, you will find articles that you can use for your paper. Most articles are available right from the source, if not, you will need to contact the library to order the source for you. And of course, you should make use of the library’s catalog to find books for your project.

What is a good topic?

A good topic is one that you can discuss for about seven pages. It should be interesting enough that you will want to spend time on the project. It should also focus on analyzing a piece of work and not on examining the author’s life.

How do I learn how to use MLA style documentation?

Your book has a chapter explaining the process. The library website also has links that can help you. I would strongly suggest spending an hour exploring that site.

How do you incorporate critical articles and books into my paper?

You will need to integrate your material into your paper. The way to do this is to provide a set-up (context), the actual quote, and then some analysis following the quoted material. Be sure to provide documentation following each of your quotes. For instance, you could write something like this:

In agreement, {THIS IS THE CONTEXT—YOU ARE AGREEING WITH SOMETHING} in his book A Doll House: The Untold Story, Tom Muhler writes: “A Doll House appears to offer women salvation, but at the end of the day all we are left with is a giant mess” (24). {THIS IS THE QUOTE WITH PROPER DOCUMENTATION] Here we see how the play’s ending might be even more problematic than we originally might have thought {AND HERE IS YOUR ANALYSIS}.

Are there a required number of quotes from the critics that I have to use?

You must use a minimum of one quote from each critic that you cite in your works cited page.