Assignment: Making an Argument about Hamlet or Pride and Prejudice

Instructions

This paper should be at least 1500 words long, but you may want to write more. All submissions should be in .doc or .docx format. Please read the instructions and rubric carefully. Be aware that you'll be graded on the basis of the rubric below the instructions. I am using safe-assign, which will detect any plagiarism.

Guidelines (suggested format)

1. Choose one of Hamlet or Pride and Prejudice. This is your primary text.

2. Choose a topic that interests you, related to this primary text. This may be something specific, a more general theme, an approach.

Examples of specific topic: The ghost, Yorick's skull, Curses, The opening or the ending.

Examples of a theme: Wealth, Kingship, Home, Marriage, Family, Class, Love.

Examples of an approach: Feminist, Historicist, Formalist...

You can also look at online archives of literary criticism, like www.jstor.org. Find something interesting that someone has said about your topic. This is your secondary text. If you don't have a topic yet, choose one from what other critics have talked about.

3. Establish a proposition or thesis related to your topic. You will be constructing an argument, so it's very important to be able to clearly articulate your point.

4. Defend your proposition, using BOTH textual evidence from your primary text AND the secondary text that you found in step 2. OR you can use your secondary text as a counterargument, if you prefer. In this case, you argue against it.

5. Cite every quotation. Cite Shakespeare by Act, Scene, and Line. Cite Austen by page number. Cite secondary texts by author, title and page number or webpage.

7. Include a conclusion, which explains what you have gained through your reading. This responds to the all-important "so what?" question.