Information For All Written Work in this Class

All essays should be typed, double-spaced on standard 8 1/2 x 11 paper. Top, bottom and left margins should be 1", with the right margin (unjustified) approximately 1" also. Type size should be standard 10 or 12 point and printed in letter quality. Put your name and course number in the upper right or left corner. Do not number the first page, but put a number in the upper right corner of all following pages. All papers should have an appropriate title on the first page. You do not need a binder, folder, or separate title page. Do not staple your pages; use a paper clip to hold them together.

When you are revising you will also want to pay particular attention to style and mechanics. PROOFREAD YOUR WORK CAREFULLY. You may wish to have a friend also proofread. Errors of inattention, such as typographical flaws, are easily avoided. Moreover, they can adversely affect your grade if they make their way into your final draft.

You are required to use proper documentation (MLA style) for both in-text citations and your Works Cited page. If you have any questions about MLA style, please ask; otherwise, I will assume you know it, and expect you to use it properly in essays.

Always back up your work: every five minutes isn't often enough. Be sure you have plenty of extra paper and ink cartridges. Don't just save your essay on the hard drive. Back it up on a CD or flash drive so that when your computer crashes (which they like doing best during midterms or the week before finals), you can work on your paper at school or elsewhere. Don't wait until the last minute to start work on your essay -- if you do, it's more likely that your grade will be jeopardized if a problem occurs. Trust us: your computer will crash at the most inopportune moments.  Don't lose your work.  We've all had disasters strike and we all know there are very simple ways to prevent them from recurring.

We are always happy to meet with you at any time to discuss possible paper topics, review outlines and thesis statements, and (with proper advance notice) look over drafts. Please do not hesitate to contact us if you have any questions or need further guidance in writing.

PLEASE NOTE: FAILURE TO TURN IN ANY ASSIGNMENT WILL RESULT IN FAILURE OF THE COURSE, REGARDLESS OF YOUR GRADES ON ANY OTHER ASSIGNMENTS. 

IF YOU FAIL TO SUBMIT A DRAFT TO YOUR GROUP BY THE DEADLINE, OR TO ME, FOR EACH DAY (24 hour period) YOU ARE LATE, THE GRADE FOR YOUR ENTIRE PORTFOLIO WILL BE PENALIZED BY ONE HALF GRADE.

If you run into trouble, please let us know as soon as possible, so we can figure out a way to solve your problem.

Every analytical paper must take a stand. A thesis is your controlling argument and guides the direction of your entire paper. It serves several functions for you as a writer and for your reader and it has several characteristic features:

a) A thesis narrows your focus.

b) A thesis alerts you to what you need to include -- and what does not belong.

c) A thesis provides you with a PURPOSE--to persuade your readers that your argument (interpretation) is right.

d) A thesis needs to be DETAILED, SPECIFIC, and UNIFIED

e) A thesis needs to be an INTERPRETATION, not just an opinion or observation. For example:

Opinion: Gilgamesh is a brilliant story that I thoroughly enjoyed.

Observation: Gilgamesh is about an ancient hero.

Interpretation: In contrast to what we might expect from a conventional heroic tale, the story of Gilgamesh reveals that it is through his failures rather than his successes that the hero gains the most insight into the meaning of life.

f) A good thesis does more than tell what the text is "about." Rather, it tells what kind of an intellectual response the reader should have to the text. It tells what a text means, what position an author has taken, what ideas dominate the text and find support or rejection in it. Don't just DESCRIBE! ANALYZE!

g) A thesis is like a first impression -- it should gain the reader's interest and make her want to know more.

All GOOD papers are papers that have been revised at least once. The more a paper has been revised, the better it gets. When you are revising your draft, here are some questions to ask yourself:

a) What is my controlling argument/thesis? You should be able to state this in one sentence.

b) Does every part of my essay help to advance that argument?

c) Have I included convincing evidence for each point? Are there tangents that should be cut?

d) When I quote, do I analyze how the quotation proves my point? The importance of a certain passage may be obvious to you, since you've been studying the text for weeks. But will it be clear to someone less familiar with the primary text? Don't just toss in a quotation without linking it to the argument of your paper -- this is a "dropped" quotation (i.e., you have just "dropped" it in without weaving it with the rest of your analysis, leaving it to your reader to guess how the quotation is related to your argument).

e) Does every paragraph develop one (and only one) idea fully? Remember to think of paragraphing as a way to help your reader follow your argument. A paragraph that is one sentence long needs to have further development. A paragraph that goes on for two pages has either taken on too complex of an idea or has more than one idea and should be cut.

f) Have I said everything as clearly and directly as possible? Remember, a good way to have a direct and clear style is to AVOID PASSIVE VOICE constructions. If you don’t know what passive voice is, we need to talk.

g) Have I avoided vague generalities? Is my prose specific and free of cliches? Papers which begin with expressions like "In today's society...." or "Throughout human history..." often suggest to the reader that broad platitudes will follow.

h) Does my conclusion add to the essay rather than only summarize? See the notes below on conclusions.....

When you are revising, I highly recommend getting a peer review of your essay. You might swap essays with a classmate or a roommate. Or, you can go to the University Writing Center. You might ask your peer reviewer to try to respond to the questions above.

Yes, yes and yes. This is non-negotiable. To avoid these errors, make sure you proofread carefully. How you say something cannot be separated from what you are saying. If I'm spending time correcting mechanical or typographical errors, I'm not able to attend to your argument. Computer spell-checks are easy to use and having your essay on disk makes it incredibly easy to go back and correct these kinds of simple errors.

In analytical or scholarly writing, definitely avoid expressions like, "In my paper, I will..." Don't say what you will do -- as the sneaker ad says: Just Do It. Also, try NOT to use "I" in your paper. This is for the simple reason that almost all of the time, it's unnecessary and can seem like filler.  For example, "In stanza three, I think that Homer uses his most complicated imagery." Since this is your paper, who else would be thinking this about the imagery? Your sister? Your second grade teacher? Just say: "In stanza 3, Homer uses his most complicated imagery."

What very tense should I use when writing about literature?

Use the present tense. Don't say, "In Book I, Athena spoke to Zeus who then promised to help Odysseus." Instead, say: "In Book I, Athena speaks to Zeus who then promises to help Odysseus." Why must you do this? Simple: Because it's the convention. Rules are rules. Sure, there may be times when the past tense is appropriate (i.e., "In stanza four, the poet reflects back on how he felt as a child and what he saw in Nature"). But, by and large, think in the present tense.

Integrating evidence by quoting passages needs to be done cleanly and coherently. When quoting poetry in the text, you will need to maintain an indication of line breaks. This is done as follows: "I met a little cottage Girl: / She was eight years old, she said" (1-2).  Note that there is a space both before and after the / .  If you are going to quote four or more lines of poetry (or prose), you will need to offset and indent the quotation in block form, as follows:

        I met a little cottage Girl:
        She was eight years old, she said;
        Her hair was thick with many a curl
        That clustered round her head.
        (1-4)

With poems, include line numbers; with plays, use act, scene, and line numbers; with novels, and stories, include page numbers. Note the punctuation for page numbers with quotations above.  This follows MLA style for parenthetical quotation.  Again, I assume you know how to use MLA style in your writing.  If you do not know how to do MLA style citations, you will need to learn it by consulting your handbook.

Do not cite lines of poetry or prose and leave them abandoned in your essay. Quotations cannot stand alone, but must be integrated into your prose, both in terms of style, and, importantly, in terms of your discussion. You also need to follow up your quotation with a phrase or two illustrating why the quotation is in there and useful (and not just "filler"). This is called a DROPPED QUOTATION, and they are very vexing to me. In order to avoid a "d.q." DON'T DO THIS:

    Homer opens his epic in a very interesting way. "Sing in me Muse."

As you see, the above quotation is "dropped." To correct this, you can simply and easily insert a colon to connect your sentence with the quotation, and then add a clarification as to why the quotation is being quoted.

    Homer opens his epic in a very interesting way: "Sing in me Muse." Thus, he identifies a female deity as the source of his creativity.

Again, be sure to adequately discuss the quotations you include so that it is crystal clear to the reader why they are included. Random quotations are easy to identify as "filler." Passages you quote should be clearly and significantly related to your argument.  This is especially true if you have a LONG quotation.  The longer your quotation the more you will need to "unpack" it -- to discuss it at length to show why ALL of the quotation is relevant to your argument.

Your conclusion should do two things. It should sum up your paper AND offer some further reflection for the reader. You'll need to review your thesis, but NOT restate it word for word. That's dull. Rephrase it to remind your reader what you've just so clearly shown them. But just summarizing is boring, and you certainly wouldn't want the reader's last impression to be, "What a boring paper." The larger reflection should help prevent that. Is should help to open up the ideas you've been talking about specifically in the poem and connect them out again to wider concerns and questions. For example, you might wish to connect or contrast your conclusions about Gilgamesh with other ancient texts, like the Odyssey. How is this poem unique or different? Give the reader something to chew on and ponder for him or herself. One final note: NEVER start your conclusion with "In conclusion...."

Always have another copy of your paper, on disk or photocopied. When my cat is angry with me, she likes to take her revenge by shredding valuable paper (like your essay) with her teeth. I'm not kidding about this. I try to protect papers, but she is wily and deceptive. Besides, it's always best to play it safe.

This document represents our best efforts to anticipate questions we have from students about writing essays, but it seems that every class always comes up with a question I never anticipated. If you have a problem or question that isn't addressed on this handout, ASK, ASK, ASK!!!!  The only "silly" or "stupid" question is the one that goes unasked. It's always better to ask -- and it could save you valuable grade points. Answering your questions is our job and helping you to get the best possible grade is our goal as your teacher.