Assignment

For this assignment, you will be engaging in literary analysis. Be sure to follow the specific guidelines given to you by your instructor (either in class or in the area below).

Essay

This week's writing assignment is your 4-6 page (1000-1500 word) Midterm Essay. The objective is to demonstrate how well you understand the principles of studying fiction and writing critically about literature.

Steps to Success:

Choose a story from among those listed below and read the story several times. There are a wide variety of choices-have fun with the story you choose! Your essay will be assessed on how well you understand the story as well as the quality of your literary analysis of it and your writing form.

Write a 4-6 page paper in which you analyze your story in relation to at least three of the key terms or theoretical approaches we've covered in class so far. See the Weekly Learning Objectives and Key Terms/Concepts lists and the Online Presentations in the Online Classroom and look through the chapter readings in Approaching Literature to find the key terms or approaches you'd like to use.

Follow the structure of an academic essay. Your paper must have an introduction and a clear thesis statement with essay map. Make sure to review all course materials up to this point for help with the structure and form of an academic literary analysis essay.

Your essay should include a 1-paragraph summary of the story you're analyzing (no more than ½ a full double-spaced page).

Your paper must exhibit a clear, organized, coherent form. Every paragraph should have a topic sentence which is logically connected to your overall thesis.

You need to provide ample proof in the form of textual evidence (examples from the text) and share your explication/interpretation in detail with your reader.

End the paper with a strong conclusion (more than a mere summary of main points).

Format your paper in APA style. It should have an APA title page and an APA References list (these pages do not count toward the 4-6 page length requirement). No abstract is needed for this essay. The format should be double spaced, 12 pt. Times New Roman font, with 1" margins on all sides (standard APA format). You should include in-text citations and References citations for all borrowed material (not to do so would be plagiarism).

NOTE: This is not a research paper, so you are not required to do outside research to find information. I would prefer that you utilize only your notes, our course materials, and the text of the story for this midterm literary analysis. The object is to showcase your critical thinking skills and your analysis skills, not your research skills. We will be writing a research essay for the final paper in this course. However, if you choose to utilize outside research, use only scholarly sources from our Online Library and make sure to properly cite borrowed material in APA style.

I will be running all midterm essays through SafeAssign, which detects borrowed material. Do not plagiarize-be a writer of integrity. Plagiarized papers will earn an "F" and students who plagiarize will face consequences according to the Herzing University Academic Dishonesty Policy (available in our course Syllabus as well as in the APA Resource Center in our Online Classroom).

Story Choices:
Flannery O'Connor, "A Good Man Is Hard to Find" (403)
Franz Kafka, "The Metamorphosis" (308)
Kate Chopin, "The Storm" (120)
Nathaniel Hawthorne, Young Goodman Brown" (452)
Gabriel Garcia Marquez, "A Very Old Man with Enormous Wings" (381)
Tim O'Brien, "The Things They Carried" (614)

Helpful information on APA style if you do incorporate source material:

In APA style, any borrowed material, whether word for word, paraphrased, or summarized, must have three components:

o A signal phrase with the author's name followed by the year in parentheses:

o As Alex Johnson (2010) argues,

o Alex Johnson (2010) suggests

o A parenthetical annotation following the borrowed material including the page or paragraph number where the material can be found in the original text:

o As Alex Johnson (2010) argues, even if students don't borrow word for word, if the structure and phrasing is similar or the same, without a signal phrase and parenthetical annotation they are still plagiarizing (p. 33).

o A References page listing References citations for all borrowed material included in the document:

o Johnson, A. (2010). Citing sources correctly in APA style. Milwaukee, WI: Cream City.