Assignment: select ONE author from our textbook and perform an in-depth author study that combines the author’s biography with the author’s influence on literature and culture. Your purpose in this assignment is to explore several facets of literary study and write an essay that discusses what you learned about the writer from his or her life, works, and literary criticism. Your essay will focus on your synthesis of the writer’s life and work, and it will make a determination of the writer’s value in the literary canon or in culture. You may choose a short story writer, poet, or playwright to explore.
Before you begin writing, you’ll engage in THREE steps of preparation and research.
Step 1: read several biographies of the writer you’ve selected. Get to know the writer’s life and catalogue of works. Read more than one biography, so you can see different perspectives of the writer’s life, but more importantly to see if the timeline of the writer’s life and works is confirmed by all biographies you read.
Step 2: read at least THREE works written by the writer. I suggest that if you select a short story writer, you choose only three short stories rather than novels (since we did not and will not cover the novel this term). Read these works fully and completely; actively read for theme, symbols, characters, images, plot, and other literary devices to gain an understanding of the author’s body of work. Notice if you start to see consistencies in theme, style, and use of literary devices.
Step 3: read several literary criticisms written on the works you’ve selected. Literary criticism is the study, evaluation, and interpretation of literary works. These types of essays shed light on the meaning of a literary work, so be sure to avoid “Overviews and Plot Summaries” of the works you’ve chosen; these are not considered literary criticisms.
Parts of Essay Submission:
Thesis Statement: The thesis statement for this essay will provide an insight to the author’s life and contribution to the literary canon or culture. The literary canon is the collection of literary works that are highly valued by culture and society. All of the authors that we’ve read so far and will read this term are part of the literary canon. Each has his or her own contribution. Your thesis should address the specific author’s contribution to the literary canon or to culture. The thesis is due Monday, 11/8, at 11:59pm.
The First Draft: The first draft is your first attempt at writing the essay and integrating the research that you’ve collected. The first draft is a space for you to explore what you’ve found, to provide valuable insights, to quote and integrate your research, to support your thesis, and to receive feedback. Your first draft will need to include these requirements in order to receive feedback and the points toward your final essay. Part of your thesis submission will be to identify sources that you’ve already retrieved from the library as support. So be sure that you have at least 3 useful sources to cite upon submission of the thesis statement. The first draft is due Monday, 11/15 at 11:59pm.
Requirements for the First Draft:
1) Five FULL pages of content; 5 FULL pages means that the content on page 5 reaches to a ONE-inch margin at the bottom
2) At least 5 sources (please see below the criteria for this essay’s sources)
3) MLA format
4) An introduction, body, and conclusion
5) An underlined thesis statement at the end of the essay’s introduction
6) Properly integrated source material in ALL body paragraphs within the essay. Any material that you directly quote in this essay must have a signal phrase, proper in-text documentation, and a full explanation of relevance
7) All quoted material is limited to 3 lines or less of content. This means that all quoted material is weaved within the content of your paragraphs. The essay should not contain any blocked quotes or material that is longer than 3 lines of content at one time.
8) A work Cited page that includes at least 5 sources, all properly documented and following MLA guidelines
No more than 20% of the paper should be quoted material. 80% of the essay’s content should be your own content.
Sources: The sources for this assignment must come from the college’s library. This means that you will use the library’s electronic database collections or the library’s collection of Ebooks not Google. All of your research and your retrieval of your sources can be done from home. Our class’s librarian has created an entire Canvas module for help in using the library and retrieving your sources.
Your sources should consist of biographies on the author, works by the author, and literary criticisms about the author’s works. Since our textbook only contains one-to-two works for any particular author, you will need to search for MORE works from this author. You can find the author’s primary works (his/her plays, short stories, or poems) through the library.
Within the 5 Works on the Work Cited Page Your Sources Should Consist of:
One biography on the author
4 Literary Criticisms
If you quote from any of the works that the author has written, your source list will contain more than 5 sources; 5 is only the assignment minimum. Therefore, if you quote from any short story, play, or poem from the writer, you must also include the full publication information from that work on the work cited page as well. Since you are required to read at least 3 sources from the writer you choose, you could potentially have 3 more entries on your WC page.
Please see the resources that our class’s librarian, Kellie Pait, has posted after Week Four’s module. Our Canvas course has an entire module devoted to the research portion of this essay. Kellie is available to answer your questions and help you locate material for the research portion of this essay. Be sure to contact her early in the process and during any stage of the writing of this essay.
Revision of First Draft: Revisions of the First Draft are Mandatory. These revisions will be evident in the final copy of the essay, which contains all of the same requirements for the first draft (see above) but will be significantly revised. Please do not submit the same essay or the essay with only a few revisions. If this is the case, the essay will not receive a passing grade. The Final Copy of the Author Study is Due on Thursday 12/2 by 11:59pm.
Last Completed Projects
| topic title | academic level | Writer | delivered |
|---|