Category: English

https://ballotpedia.org/California_2024_ballot_propositions#On_the_ballot
Choose a proposition that you either agree or disagree with on the ballot this year, and read all the information provided by Ballotpedia.
Next, using the “who supports/opposes this bill” section, find a supplementary article or statement that you can use as evidence.
Inform your audience, evaluate the evidence, and support your stance on this proposition! In other words, write a synthesis essay. Aim for ~650 words.
If you don’t see one you like, as an alternative, look at past propositions that passed, and inform/evaluate the effect of that proposition. Did it work as intended? Was it impactful at all?

Using the feedback you received in the brainstorming activity in Module 7, submit a rough draft of the text you are creating to communicate your research to a new audience. Depending on the genre you have chosen to reach your new audience, you might be submitting a document, a visual/infographic, a video, or a link to an online text like a blog post. Be creative!
While there is no word count for this portion of the assignment, you must generate a text that is detailed enough to effectively communicate an important idea from your research paper to a new audience. You must also meet the conventions of the genre in which you are writing. You should also include a reference list to document the sources from your research paper that you have used in this new text, as well as any new sources you chose to use (new sources are not required).
Along with your draft, submit a rationale (200-300 words) explaining the following:
the audience you are trying to reach,
your intended purpose for communicating to this audience, 
how the type of text you have chosen to write is appropriate for your audience and purpose, and
how you have successfully met the conventions of your chosen genre. 
I have attached below the activity in which you have to do the work on. I payed for two full ppages but since it is a rough draft it doesnt have to be the two full pages, but just in case.

what role should a leader play? What are the responsibilities of leadership? In this unit, you have been reading texts by or about political leaders and others who hold power in a society. Write a literary analysis of two selections from this unit in which you examine the theme of leadership and the ways in which each author conveys his or her message about the role and responsibilities of a good leader. What do the authors of these texts have to say about leadership, and how well do they say it? How does each author present and support his or her claims? Do the authors you have selected agree or disagree about the role and responsibilities of a leader? Analyze how effectively each text communicates its author’s message. 
Your literary analysis should include:
an introduction that
presents a reasonable claim, expressed in a clear thesis statement that presents a compelling claim about the texts
names the author and title of each text you have selected to support your claim
body paragraphs that
present a thorough analysis of your claim
contain textual evidence and details to support your claim
demonstrate a logical organization of ideas
a conclusion paragraph that
restates your thesis statement
effectively wraps up your essay
leaves your reader with a lasting impression, perhaps through an interesting final thought
Introduction to literary analysis
Literary analysis is a form of argumentative writing. When writing a literary analysis, a writer takes a position on one or more works of literature. It may be to demonstrate why an author used a particular text structure or a certain literary device in a written work. Or it may attempt to compare two different works of literature, and how authors treat similar themes. A literary analysis is not a plot summary, however, or a list of details that support a main idea. Instead, it is an opportunity for a writer to share his or her personal perspectives, critical thinking, or interpretation of both literature and works of nonfiction.
Strong argumentative writing begins with an introductory paragraph that provides a general introduction for the topic. It then presents a thesis statement that explicitly states the writer’s position on the topic. The body paragraphs of an argumentative piece of writing, such as an essay, are focused on relevant text details that provide evidence in support of the main idea. Argumentative essays almost always contain direct quotations, or citations, from the texts being analyzed. The language a writer uses in a literary analysis must be clear, coherent, formal in tone, and appropriate to its task, purpose, and intended audience. Argumentative essays stay focused on the main idea and claim by using transition words to help make connections between supporting details and citations. Strong argumentative essays then end with a conclusion that revisits the main point of the thesis statement and summarizes the evidence in the essay. The features of argumentative writing include:
an introductory paragraph with a clear thesis statement
a clear and logical organizational structure
supporting details, including valid reasoning and textual evidence
effective transitions to show the connections between ideas
a formal style and objective tone
proper citations of sources
a concluding paragraph that summarizes the analysis and restates the thesis
Additional information
Be sure to review the rubric for this assignment and the literary analysis example before you begin your paper. Since The Odyssey and 1984 are used in the example literary analysis, you cannot use these stories in your paper. 
Remember, your paper needs to be formatted using MLA. Click here for a template you can use to help you format your paper using MLA.
Please be sure to run your paper through Turnitin to check for grammar and plagiarism errors prior to submitting for a grade. Keep in mind that any work submitted to the Check Your Work folder WILL NOT be graded or even seen by your teacher. This folder is used solely as a place for you to check your drafts and get feedback before it’s graded. To access the feedback, go to Assessments, Assignments, and click on View Feedback. Your paper should not contain more than 20% of quotes from outside sources, so keep that in mind as you’re reviewing your Turnitin Similarity Report percentage.
In addition to studying techniques authors use to make an argument, you have been reading and discussing stories about the roles and responsibilities of leaders in various societies. In the extended writing project, you will use some of the techniques for argument writing that you have studied to compose a literary analysis.
Since the topic of your literary analysis has to do with what it means to hold power, you will want to think about how the various authors in this unit have portrayed the roles and responsibilities of those in power.  Answer the following questions for two leaders, rulers, or governing forces you’ve encountered in this unit
How much control did he exert over his people?
How did he communicate with them?
What do his character traits and his actions tell you about the author’s beliefs regarding the responsibilities of a leader?
As you write down your ideas, consider:
whether the author of a particular selection presents a compelling vision of leadership.
Do you agree with him/her? Why or why not?
Determining this will help you craft the claim of your literary analysis.
looking for patterns to emerge. Searching for these patterns may help you to solidify the reasons and evidence you use to support your claim when writing your essay.
Do the leaders portrayed in the selections have anything in common?
What important differences do they have?
Use the following model to help you get started with your own prewriting (Remember, since The Odyssey and 1984 are used in the example paper, they cannot be used in your paper):
Text: The Odyssey Book XII by Homer
Extent of Control Exerted: Odysseus asks his men to take an oath and stick to it, but he doesn’t police their actions. He lets them make their own decisions.
Method of Communication: He talks to his men individually, addressing each on a personal level.
Other Notes about Leadership Method: Odysseus shows strengths and weaknesses
Author’s Beliefs about Leadership: A good leader is someone who guides his people in the right direction but doesn’t make them do anything.
Do you agree or disagree with him? Why?: Yes, I do agree because people should be free to make their own decisions. 
Be sure to review and complete the tutorials below before moving on to the next step: 
Thesis Statement
Audience and Purpose
Organize Argumentative Writing: Literary Analysis
Supporting Details

Directions:
THREE paragraphs
MLA-style paper formatting with a good title
Font size: 12 pt.
Font style: Times New Roman
Question: What core values do you find in the phrase, “Life, Liberty, and the Pursuit of Happiness?” and how is it different from the phrase, “Life, Liberty, and the Pursuit of Meaning?” Refer to the article and make some connections and references to what the author is saying As you answer the above question, keep the following questions in mind, and explain them in the course of writing your three paragraphs: a. What does our post-modern society tell us about how to achieve happiness?
b. In what ways have more choices and more personal freedom to choose contributed to a sense that “enough” is a “moving target?”
c. What did the ancient Greeks mean by “living the good life?” What do they mean by “evdomonia?”
d. What does the writer mean by “authentic dialogue?” (See paragraph 10)
e. Explain what Dr. Frankl means when he implies that happiness cannot be pursued, but rather, “it must ensue and it only does so as the unintended side-effect of one’s dedication to a cause greater than oneself or as the by-product of one’s surrender to a person other than oneself.”
f. What is the difference between hedonistic happiness, and happiness that is the result of our pursuit of meaning?

Develop a 1-2 sentence thesis statement for your Essay 3 prompt. Thesis Review If you need a reminder about thesis statements, please review the information below: What is a Thesis Statement?
A thesis statement is a sentence that states the topic and purpose of your paper. A good thesis statement will direct the structure of your essay and will allow your reader to understand the ideas you will discuss within your paper.
Where does a Thesis Statement go?
Your thesis should be stated somewhere in the opening paragraphs of your paper, most often as the last sentence of the introduction. Often, a thesis will be one sentence, but for complex subjects, you may find it more effective to break the thesis statement into two sentences.
More Tips: Your thesis statement should be one to two sentences.
Your thesis statement should clearly present the main idea of your essay and make some kind of assertion. The thesis should be a debatable claim.
Your thesis should not make an “announcement” about what your essay will cover. Instead, it should just present your assertion.For example, a thesis like this makes an announcement: In this paper, I will persuade you to vote for candidates who support education reform.
Instead you might write: Because our education system is in need of reform to better serve students of color, we should vote for candidates who are willing to make the necessary changes.
Before you submit, think about the following:
Can your thesis be more concise/clear
Are you using the best word choices
Is the thesis narrow enough to cover a 6-8 page paper
Is it grammatically correct
This term, we are uniquely positioned, as we are in the midst of dual pandemics: racism/hate crimes and COVID-19, and we just transitioned to a new presidential administration. To engage in these conversations this unit, you will choose an issue that is critical to the current social and political climate and argue your position in a sustained research paper. The assignments will allow you to delve deeply into an issue about which you deeply care and offer your take on the issue’s context, history, and arguments. This unit is designed to sharpen critical thinking, analysis, research, rhetorical analysis, and argumentation skills as well as keep us engaged as informed voters.
Reading and Writing Skills
Over the course of this assignment, we will continue to focus on key academic reading and writing skills, such as summarizing and citing sources. Unlike previous assignments, I will not be giving you the sources to use in your argument. You will be doing your own research and finding credible and reliable sources. The other reading and writing skill we will be continue to work on with this assignment is responding with your own argument. As we have discussed in the the previous essay prompt, academic scholars do not write in a vacuum—their arguments are typically in response to other arguments about the same topic. You will be doing exactly that for this assignment as you support your claims but also consider counter claims. Focusing Questions
Now that you briefly understand what we are doing with this assignment and why we are doing it, I will now introduce our guiding questions. What is one specific social issue that is important to you and your community? How has this issue been presented historically? What would you like to argue/what change would you like to inspire as related to the issue?
Assignment Overview
The section below outlines the specific requirement of this assignment.
Purpose:
The purpose of this assignment is to:
Compose college-level writing.
Participate in academic research
Respond to a topic with an original argument.
Consider counter arguments
Goals
This assignment will help students meet the following Student Learning Objectives,. Synthesize researched material from multiple texts to create and support an argument in response to a prompt. Draw direct evidence from texts in support of claims and analyze how that evidence supports the claim.
Utilize the various phases in the writing process—prewriting, writing revision, and proofreading—to produce clear, articulate, well-supported, well-organized essays.
Students will be able to engage in the research process—including narrowing a topic, researching the topic, evaluating a variety of source material, and correctly documenting sources in MLA format—in order to produce a researched argument.
Students will write effective essays that engage readers and present original ideas or points of view. Emphasis will be placed on thesis-driven essays, which will demonstrate the principles of argumentation, including claims, evidence, and analysis, as well as addressing counterarguments through refutation and concession.
Students will be able to edit their own writing for errors in grammar, spelling, and punctuation.
This essay also addresses all three of our course student outcomes:
Analyze college-level/academic texts by critically evaluating information and applying it to students’ own arguments as evidence.
Synthesize material from multiple texts to create and support an argument in response to a prompt.
Create writing that is clear and concise.
Task
Compose an 6-8 page researched essay that develops a clear and well-supported argument on a specific social justice issue, where the writer (you) addresses the root cause/origin of the issue, provides historical context, takes a stance on the issue and considers possible solutions. MY TOPIC IS: Black Lives Matter vs. All Lives Matter
Create a thesis based on this

Homework Content
Crafting an effective argument is an essential skill to sharpen as you pursue any career, and it also affects interactions within your personal life. In this assignment, you will use logic and emotion to prove an argument. This assignment taps into your ability to write to a specific audience and apply a process to plan, draft, edit, and share your writing. You will also be able to practice writing about a topic you are interested in and incorporating evidence into your writing. Before completing this assignment, review the Academic Writing and Citations Resources located in the Learning Activities folder. These will help you construct an effective persuasive argument and format citations and references.
Choose one question from the list below or create your own question to argue for this assignment. Your finished assignment should persuade someone to accept your point of view, so ensure your topic is debatable (i.e., there should be another side to the issue). You should be able to convince others using your specific reasoning and by incorporating evidence from reliable sources. Why are you best suited for the career you are pursuing rather than another career?
Why is the employer you chose to research in your Wk 2 Writing Reaction and Review assignment better or worse than another employer in that industry?
Is it better to work onsite or remotely? Is it better to work with a team or individually? What is a creative, debatable idea related to your chosen career? Note: This is a good opportunity to conduct further research about the employer you will write your cover letter to in your Wk 4 Summative Assessment: Cover Letter and Reflection. Using your classmates as the audience, write a 350- to 525-word persuasive argument in a structure of your choice about your chosen topic in which you:
State your argument topic. Determine and present your position on this topic. Explain the reasons for your position in paragraph format and include evidence from reliable sources.
Format your assignment by:
Including a clear beginning (introduction), middle, and end (conclusion)
Creating paragraphs that make your perspective and reasons evident
Presenting your position at the start of your argument in your introduction and reviewing it at the end of your work in your conclusion
Writing and editing your response in an electronic document
***Cite your sources and format your assignment according to APA guidelines. Check out the Assessment Support section for a link to the Center for Writing Excellence, where you can find the Reference & Citation Generator.
Note: You might find it helpful to review feedback from your faculty member on previous assignments in this course before completing this assignment.
***Submit your assignment as one Microsoft Word document attachment .doc or .docx.

Do not use statistics or the Internet or any sources or quotes for this essay (or any essay 1, 2, 3) or the paper will fail.  You cannot invent or create your own question.  You cannot change the directions for a paper.  For example, you must write five paragraphs, no more and no less.
You must read all of the directions, first, in order to understand how to write this paper. 
In this paper you will be giving advice to a person who has a problem (He/She says…I say).   Your choice of questions or problems — the topic — are below.
You will invent the person, anyone, who has the problem.  You will just make up a name.  I have a friend named John.
You will write a total of five paragraphs, and each paragraph will be a 1/2 page, double-spaced, in Times New Roman, 12 point.
The entire paper will be 2 1/2 pages.  Too short a paper will receive a lower grade.  A longer paper will not necessarily get a higher grade.  What matters is quality and that you write 2 1/2 pages, double spaced.
Again, for this paper you will write a total of five paragraphs.  You will find the exact choices/topics you will write on farther below, but for now, as an example, suppose you are writing about how to convince someone, John, to go to college (your advice is to help him with his excuses for why he cannot go to college):
Para. 1 – In this paragraph you will begin with an introduction that will say who the person is and describe what a good person he or she is in the majority of the paragraph (around 3/4 of it). 
I have a good friend named John.  He is a good person.  He exercises every morning and tries to eat well.  He is a member of his church and likes to take part in fundraisers for his community.  He has two kids… (and so on, for 3/4 of the paragraph).
Your paper, no matter the topic, will begin that way.  Then, in that same paragraph, make a transition with the words: In spite of these qualities.  In spite of these qualities, John says he cannot go to college.  Next list, as your thesis points, in three separate sentences, his three excuses.  John says he doesn’t have the confidence and never did well in school before.  John also says he doesn’t have the discipline for college and it is just too hard.  Finally, John says college is too expensive.   (Do not use bold).  Now, the last line of the paragraph will say only, I have some advice for him.
(Note: to avoid the monotony of sentences in your introduction — such as,  John plays in a church band.  John runs track.  John earns good grades.  John helps his grandmother — use phrases such as: One thing John loves is…  When he is in church, he likes to…  I have seen him help…  During the daytime, he….  At night, he…  Also, after we got to be better friends, I discovered that John…  Most of all, however, John enjoys… Even though he is not a great guitarist, he loves to play…)
Para 2 – In this paragraph start with a strong topic sentence that is the same as your first thesis point in paragraph 1.  John says he doesn’t have the confidence and never did well in school before.  Yes, you will state that sentence twice, once in the first paragraph and again here, in this paragraph.  It is in fact repeated.  The entire rest of the paragraph will be advice from you.  You should have at least four pieces of advice that you develop, in detail, to help him to overcome the specific problem you mentioned in the topic sentence to start this paragraph.  That means you will not just list four things for him to do, but that you will have four things and give detail to them.  Your advice will help him to overcome his “confidence” problem.
Para 3 – This paragraph is the same as paragraph two in organization, except you will start with a topic sentence that is the same as your second thesis statement, John also says he doesn’t have the discipline for college and it is just too hard, and of course your advice will be different — designed to address his “discipline problem.” Yes, you will state that sentence twice, once in the first paragraph and again here, in this paragraph.  It is in fact repeated. Give four suggestions to him to overcome his issue, but make sure the suggestions are developed and thus longer than just four sentences.  Remember each paragraph needs to be 1/2 a page.
Para 4 – The organization of this paragraph is also the same as the form of paragraphs one and two.  But in this paragraph you will start with a topic sentence that is the same as your third thesis statement, Finally, John says college is too expensive.  Yes, you will state that sentence twice, once in the first paragraph and again here, in this paragraph.  It is in fact repeated.  Then give four suggestions for him to overcome his issue.
Para 5 – In summary, you will begin by writing In summary, and then sum up the three pieces of advice you gave him in paragraphs 2, 3, and 4, in order.  I told John to join a study group.  Another thing I told him to do is…  Finish by saying a few words about how much happier he will be if he follows your advice.
Assignment: What will you write about?  YOU MAY NOT WRITE ABOUT COLLEGE.  For this assignment, you will encourage a person with a problem to take your point of view ON ONE OF THE TOPICS BELOW.  Do not use statistics or the Internet or any sources or quotes for this paper or the paper will fail.  You must choose from one of the five question below.  You cannot invent your own question and you cannot improvise (change a question even slightly) or your paper will fail.
Assignment: Write a five-paragraph essay on one of the following to encourage (also you may not write on how to encourage someone to go to college):
1. A smoker to stop smoking (he or she gives excuses why he can’t quit, and you will give advice on how to overcome those excuses)
2. An unhealthy eater to stop eating junk food (he or she gives excuses why he can’t stop eating at McDonald’s, for example, and you will give advice on how to overcome those excuses)
3. A non-religious person to go to church, synagogue, or any other religious place of worship (he or she gives excuses why he can’t go to church — too early, can’t relate to priest, hypocrites, etc — and you will give advice on how to overcome those excuses)
4. A woman and her right to choose (she gives excuses why she wants to have an abortion and you will give advice on how to overcome those excuses; in this paper if you really want to, you may reverse the excuses — that her excuses are NOT to have an abortion, and you will advise her TO have a abortion, if you so choose, but that is a more difficult paper).
5. A substance abuser to stop using alcohol or drugs (CHOOSE ONE DRUG: John says he cannot stop smoking marijuana because of peer pressure, nerves, and addiction, for example.  You will give him advice to overcome three excuses).
In all papers, regardless of if you are writing about a social issue, such as drug abuse or abortion and a woman’s right to choose, use a fake name of a person who has three arguments (or problems) with the issue.  Do not use statistics or the Internet or any sources or quotes for this paper or the paper will fail 
Do not use “you” in this paper.  That is because this paper is in part an exercise in the correct use of third-person pronouns (he or she, etc).  Remember if you are talking to one person, refer to the person as he or she.  If you are referring to more than one person, use the pronoun they.  Do not use “you,” as in, You should seek help in the financial aid office, or, Dan, you should go to the financial aid office.  Write, Dan can go to the financial aid office and get a FASFA form and fill it out.  Also, he can…  Use the pronoun he — He can get help at the College.  Don’t direct him: Go to the College.  See an advisor.  Rather, Dan should also consider seeing an advisor.  OK?
Advice is a noun.  Advise is a verb.  My advice is for him to get up earlier…  I advised him to use Nicorette gum…  One piece of advice I gave to John is to…
Healthy in an adjective.  John does not eat healthy — is incorrect.   John does not healthy food — is correct.
In your body paragraphs, use transition words for clarity: first, second, moreover, however, also, besides, he should not forget to, he should also remember to, he tends to, seldom, usually, however, he should watch out for, etc.
So that is the assignment.  If you want more detail, please note the following:
The entire paper is five paragraphs.  But below we will look in more detail at how to write the body paragraphs (the middle three paragraphs), of which there will be a total of 3.  Below is an example of those paragraphs — a sample.  Please read it:
(DO NOT WRITE ON THIS TOPIC) How to convince someone to stay in college at CVC.
What would you tell him (or her)?  How would you address three complaints he has?  For example, he says the following to begin with:
John says he doesn’t have the confidence and never did well in school before.
What are four suggestions you would give him from your own experience?  Remember that those suggestions must address his feeling that he is not confident about his ability.
a. I didn’t have confidence, either, when I started college.
b. He can join a study group.
c. He can get help from a tutor.
d. He can take fewer classes, which will give him more time to concentrate on the classes he does take.
Next paragraph and another excuse: He doesn’t have the discipline and college is just too hard.
Four suggestions:
a. College is hard for most everyone.
b.
c.
d.
Now develop those four suggestions into a paragraph.  The paragraph begins in the following way.
John says he doesn’t have the discipline and college is just too hard. The first thing I would tell the student is that I lacked discipline when I first….
B.   Here is a more detailed example of how the body paragraphs (paras. 2,3,4) will be outlined:
2.    John says he doesn’t have the confidence and never did well before.
a.  the student must understand that most entering students don’t have confidence
b.  college is a place where professors help students to build confidence (say how, give examples)
c.  many other college students never “did well before”; this is the student’s chance to start again, and just think what will happen if the student does do well (give realistic and sky-is-the-limit examples)
d.  it is better to try than not to try—imagine the alternatives (give examples of grave, threatening consequences)
3.  John says he just doesn’t have the discipline and college is too hard.
a.     college is a place where discipline is often learned for the first time
b.     we have patient professors, bright tutors, and experienced students to help the student learn concentration
c.     available at CVC are many clubs, organizations, and athletic teams that also assist in building discipline (college is not only about the classroom)
d.     many, many successful people started out feeling the same way
4.    John says college is too expensive.
a.   college is expensive for most everyone who goes to college; imagine the cost of not having an education (again, some dark, grave, life-shattering examples will do great here)
b.    student aid and loans
c.    make sacrifices, such as no more clubs, clothes, or unlimited cell-phone plans
d.    compare CVC to expensive colleges
e.   Those are the body paragraphs.  How to write paragraphs one and five (the first and the last paragraphs) are above.   Please write to me if you have questions.

For this essay, you will choose Macbeth as your main text.
In your essay, you should begin by posing an argumentative thesis statement that promises to explore an interesting aspect of the text you’ve chosen. An argumentative thesis statement is one that requires proof and one that can be refuted by a different interpretation of the text. You will use quotations from the text to support your argument. Your argument should make an important intervention into interpretations of the text, and should not simply reiterate material discussed in class.
You may choose your own topic and thesis, and we encourage you to choose something that interests you. One way to begin thinking about this essay can be by posing a question, one to which your thesis statement will provide a robust answer.
An example of a thesis statement from an A paper on Aphra Behn’s Oroonoko has all of the elements we’re looking for in a thesis statement. This student offers a thesis statement that (a) requires textual evidence that must be clearly analyzed and explained by the student, (b) is one that could be refuted by differing interpretations of the evidence at hand, and (c) makes an important intervention into interpretations of the text (in this case, arguing that Behn uses the ambiguous narrator to influence English readers into thinking about the violence of slavery). Your intervention should also comprise the “so what?” of your thesis—the explanation of why it is an important intervention to make in the study of your text. This thesis statement requires substantive argumentation to prove the student’s point:
In her prose piece Oroonoko, Behn frames the narrator as a connection point between the English readers and the characters of the story, using the narrator as a means of implicating the readers in the violence of slavery.
Two caveats: First, beware of making any sweeping generalizations or assumptions about the lives of early modern peoples (such as: women were always oppressed and never allowed to speak; or: Shakespeare represents every lived experience in early modern England). Your essays should avoid such tropes and instead should explore the nuances of your arguments as evidenced by the text. All of this is to say: the argument you make and the ways you prove your thesis should be grounded in textual evidence in the form of quotes that require analysis, rather than in larger assumptions or generalizations.
Second caveat: Try to avoid only rehashing arguments made in class. I am looking for fresh thinking on these texts. You can certainly use bits and pieces from class as jumping-off points, but the bulk of your essay should be your own thoughts and arguments about the text.
Research Component
This essay should also incorporate research from at least 3 scholarly articles.
A scholarly article is one that appears in a peer-reviewed journal or publication, or as a chapter in a book. 
Useful databases for this kind of research include the MLA International Bibliography (although they only link to articles/book chapters, so some may be inaccessible); JSTOR; and ProjectMUSE.
Avail yourself of Interlibrary Loan services for texts not held by the library.
Please include your scholarly sources on your works cited page.
You should engage with each scholarly source: that is, your quotations from your sources are not self-explanatory. Tell your reader how this source helps your argument. That can happen in several ways: you might disagree with the article’s premise, and you can explain how your counterinterpretation is correct; the article might illuminate something about the text you’re analyzing that helps support your argument; or the article might offer some background or an interpretation of a part of the text that you’re not directly discussing, but want to incorporate (without having to prove it in, say, an entire paragraph of your own essay). There are myriad other ways to incorporate other scholarly articles, just ask if you have questions!
Please note that dictionary entries, biographical entries, etc. do not count toward this requirement.
You can only use 1 (one) of the scholarly articles we have read in this class in your essay.
Formal Requirements
Formally speaking, you are not limited to the standard five-paragraph essay; each paragraph, instead, should move your argument forward towards the conclusion. If you can rearrange your paragraphs without affecting the sense of your argument, your argument is probably not complex enough. Your essay must have:
A title that reflects the argument you are making.
A formal introductory paragraph that names the work you will be discussing, and includes an argumentative thesis statement. You should also include a brief roadmap or outline that explains where your paper will go, so your reader knows what to expect as your argument unfolds.
Each body paragraph should begin with a topic sentence that explains the mini-argument of that paragraph; quotations and textual evidence from the text; and a concluding sentence that both sums up the paragraph and transitions it to the next.
A formal conclusion that restates your thesis statement and offers some closing thoughts on the significance of your argument.
A works cited page that lists your primary text and all secondary texts referenced in your essay, in proper citation format. Do not rely on autogenerated citations! They are often wrong. Verify your citation formats using your style guide of choice. Updated guides can be accessed for free via the Online Writing Lab at Purdue: https://owl.purdue.edu/owl/index.htmlLinks to an external site..
Basic Requirements
Length: 1250
12-point font
1” margins
Consistent citation format (MLA or Chicago preferred)
Works cited page (not included in the word count)

Write an analytical essay (600-900 words) in which you analyse and interpret the opening chapter of Stephen King’s horror novel “IT” (1986). Parts of your analysis must focus on the narrator and setting of the chapter.

You will rewrite part of a short story that we have read over the semester. This revision can alter a scene completely and/or can be a new addition to the existing narrative. This will be a two-part project that will involve the revision (part one) and an explication of the revision and the choices you made as the author (part two). The revised or additional scene(s) in the chosen novel should be substantial and read like a completely new part of the work (~3-4 pages), and the explication should clarify how/why you approached the revision in the way you did (~1-2 pages). Your choices to revise the original work should go beyond personal preference — your explanation should give readers a chance to understand how the revision connects with a broader history of Asian American literary and cultural representation and authorship.
There is no need for a header or sources or any formatting. Just make sure you reach 5 whole pages double spaced. Choose one of the following three options and rewrite that option:
“Black-Eyed Women” by Viet Thanh Nguyen
https://electricliterature.com/black-eyed-women-by-viet-thanh-nguyen/
“Its Wavering Image” (pg 85 – 94)
https://www.gutenberg.org/files/62940/62940-h/62940-h.htm
”In the Land of the Free” (pg 161 – 177)
https://www.gutenberg.org/files/62940/62940-h/62940-h.htm