The Short Analysis Essay
will provide you with an opportunity to deepen your understanding of a fabulist
short story, particularly the story-telling strategies it uses to achieve
meaning. This assignment will allow you
to examine the construction of a story through the lens of a story-telling
element discussed in class.
Understanding how a story is constructed will raise your awareness as
writers of the many options you have for constructing stories. It will also give you a foundation for
analyzing stories you encounter in the future.
Lastly, analysis is something you will be asked to do throughout your
schooling and in the work world, so this assignment helps prepare you to do so.
So far this semester,
you have prepared in various ways to accomplish this assignment. You have read multiple fabulist short
stories. In addition to reading these
tales, you have also read extensively on the elements of fiction, including
characterization, plot, and point of view.
You have practiced analyzing how various tales employ particular
elements of fiction individually and in groups.
You have shared this analysis with the class, and together we have added
to and refine your points. Now you will
have the opportunity to pull together all of what you have learned by analyzing
a storytelling element within a fabulist short story and articulating its
significance. Doing so will give you
practice reading a fabulist short story closely, identifying instances of an
element of within a short story, and explaining the significance of the element
of fiction to the story’s overall meaning.
For your Short Analysis
Essay to be successful, you will need to complete these preparatory and action
steps.
Preparatory Steps:
1)
Re(read)
this assignment carefully and note where you have questions so that I can
answer them for you.
2)
Select a fabulist
short story of interest from the ones we read for class. ( which I selected who will greet you at Home by Lesley Nneka Arimah
3) discuss characterization in the story chosen note that you must select the most relevant passages.
4)
Review the fabulist
short story with the element of fiction in mind. Identify passages that you think are relevant
to the element of fiction chosen. Try to
choose a range of passages that illustrate different aspects characterization,
6)
Free-write
on passages selected. Explore how you
think the passage exemplifies the element of fiction and what it means to the
overall story.
7)
Group
passages selected together and come up with a working outline that presents the
order of ideas to be covered in the final essay.
Action Steps:
Focus your attention by
writing a 5-6 page essay. Begin by
imagining you are writing this essay to an audience interested in fabulist
fiction, though one that has not read the tale you will be analyzing.
In the first part, try
to interest the reader in the short story and the element of fiction you will
be analyzing. Transition to the thesis
statement. Include a statement that
asserts the element you will by analyzing and why you think it’s significant
for the understanding of the short story.
In the body section,
develop thesis by focusing paragraphs around claims about how the element
appears in the fabulist short story.
Inform audience about chosen element of fiction with passages from
assigned reading. Support claims about
element with textual evidence from select fabulist short story. Explain how the passages illustrate the
chosen element of fiction and what that means for the overall story. (In the drafting stage, pay special attention
to how the textual evidence selected may lead you to refine the overarching
claim of the paragraph.)
Conclude the essay by
reiterating for your audience the central claim of the essay. End by stating how you think your analysis of
the element of fiction deepens our understanding of the short story but also may
fail to consider noteworthy aspects.
Submission Details:
The Short Analysis Essay
should be 5-6 full pages, typed, times new roman, 12 point font, and double
spaced. Your name, Instructor’s name,
course, and date should appear in the left-hand margin. Include a title, centered, without boldface, italicized,
or underlined. Number pages and include
last name in the right-hand margin. See
the Owl Purdue Website for example
MLA formatted essays. Final drafts
should be submitted to Blackboard by due date, even if absent.
Reminders
·
All essays
should adhere to MLA format
·
All essays
should adopt standard grammar and punctuation
·
All essay
should include a Works Cited page
·
All drafts,
including rough drafts, should be turned in on time, regardless of absence, to
receive full credit
·
All rough
drafts should fulfill the required page length to receive full credit
·
All rough
drafts should receive feedback
Final
drafts should incorporate helpful peer suggestions and/or instructor feedback
to receive credit; in other words, final drafts need to be revised to achieve
assignment criteria
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