Due Dates: Rough draft due Thursday, 11/06. Final draft due with final exam, Tuesday, 12/09.

Formal Prompt: Choose one text or author that really interests you, and, focusing on a limited number of problems, connections, themes, or issues you find relevant, write a 5-7 page essay that is clear in its thesis, structure, and language. Your essay must follow MLA (Modern Language Association) style -- this means, among others things, that you must observe the following formatting rules:

observe proper margins
double space your text, and don't include extra spaces beyond that
number your essay's pages at top right
properly cite sources -- including our anthology
offer a separate "works cited" page, even if our anthology is the text cited.

Tips: The point of a college-level essay isn't to offer an exhaustive commentary about everything connected with the text or author chosen. Neither is it to make vague comments that have little or nothing to do with the specific language of the text or with issues directly connected to the text. Rather, the point is to examine your text/s in some detail on the specific issues or problems or themes you want to write about. What really keeps readers interested? Well, the kind of paper in which the writer is clearly leading them to genuine insights based on a patient, well-structured analysis of particular passages (and flexible points of comparison, for comparative essays) in the chosen text/s. Your essay should make me want to go back and reread the text you're writing about -- not necessarily out of mere admiration for it, but simply because you've made it an interesting proposition for me to do so, for whatever reasons you have explored.

What am I going to do with the rough drafts? I am going to read them carefully and offer substantive comments. I prepare continually and intensively for courses, which is how I can best help everyone. In general, I suspect that detailed grammar-markings do little more than encourage students to turn in hasty drafts so I can "fix" them. I'll help with substance and structure; editing for grammar and "polish" is something you must do on your own, or it won't help much. What eventually makes a good writer is a patient reader with a fine eye for stylistic detail and the willingness to keep writing until real progress occurs. Still, I have prepared extensive study guides on style and grammar -- please see the guides on the syllabus page.

Why don't I provide you with several pre-fabricated prompts? I have found that going minimalist with prompts results in better essays -- more variety in topics, more insights, etc. I don't want a batch of cookie-cutter papers on the same three topics, even if they're flawless. I would rather see you read your way towards what interests you most, and then write about that. With this aim in mind, I provide prompts that explain the basic patterns and goals appropriate to the subject matter of the course. Email me or speak to me directly about an idea for a paper that would interest you, and I'll respond with suggestions as promptly as reflection permits.

Please look over some of the materials on writing available via hyperlinks on the syllabus page. "Deductive Essays" is particularly recommended because in it I comment on the basics about structure and purpose in college papers. Another set of handouts deals with how to introduce and cite a literary text properly -- something every writer needs to know.