American Lit Close Reading Essay

ENGL 224 Midterm Assignment • Close Reading and Concepts in American Literature, 1867-1934
• Due Sunday by midnight via eLearn (submission under Week 4 topic)
• 15% of grade
• 3-4 double-spaced pages in 12 pt. Times New Roman or equivalent; 1-inch margins*
Description: This session we have practiced close reading, the foundational method of literary study, as a way to slow down our interpretive pace, to show our thought process, and to build evidence-based arguments about our course readings. While we’ve practiced close reading in our Discussion Forums and Reading Responses, for the midterm you will have the opportunity to build a coherent, focused argument in the shape of a formal essay. This assignment will require you to define a thesis and to support that thesis with evidence from the passage/text of your choice. Additionally, you will link your thesis and support to a concept (or lens of analysis) that we have discussed so far this semester. Process: You may work with any text we’ve discussed this semester, beginning small with a passage of your choice.
Follow the steps of a close reading, as outlined in Week 2 of our semester. In doing so, link your analysis to a broader concept we’ve introduced in Weeks 1, 2, 3, and 4.
1. Choose one passage from one of the following texts:
• Walt Whitman, “Oh Captain! My Captain!” or “Crossing Brooklyn Ferry”
• Emily Dickinson, “I Taste a Liquor Never Brewed” or “The Soul Selects Her Own Society”
• Charlotte Perkins Gilman, “The Yellow Wallpaper”
• Kate Chopin, “Désirée’s Baby”
• Stephen Crane, “The Open Boat”
• Pauline Hopkins, “Talma Gordon”
• Booker T. Washington, from Up from Slavery
• W. E. B. Du Bois, “Of Our Spiritual Strivings” from The Souls of Black Folk
• William Carlos Williams, “This Is Just to Say”
• Marianne Moore, “Poetry”
2. Retype your passage choice (just a selection from your reading, unless you are using a shorter poem) before beginning your paper; this does not count toward page length.
Identify one concept that you will use as your analytic lens. Concepts might include:
3. Postbellum Democracy
4. Accommodation
5. Double Consciousness
6. Immigration
7. High Modernism
8. American Modernism
9. Realism/Naturalism
10. “Amalgamation/Miscegenation”
11. “The Woman Question”
12. Local Color
13. The Color Line
* Remember, I grade these on a computer! I can very easily re-format your submission (even a pdf) to meet these requirements to ensure you’re reaching the page length. † For shorter poems (William Carlos Williams and Emily Dickinson), you may select the entire poem as your “passage.
3. Develop a thesis that you pose early in your paper (ideally, within the first paragraph). Your thesis should use the first-person pronoun “I” to show your reader your unique intervention. Example: “In this paper, I argue that, based on the evidence from this passage’s staged confrontation between the men and the birds in Stephen Crane’s “The Open Boat,” Crane uses the concept of realism to show man’s struggle against nature.
[you will obviously come up with something better. This is just a sample; do not use it in your own paper! We’ve talked enough about the birds!)
4. For the rest of your paper, follow the steps of a close reading, showing your reader how each point supports your thesis. Those steps are:
Understanding
Noticing the lexicon
Explaining your findings
Connecting your passage to the larger context of the text
5. Conclude by thinking of the larger implications and significance of your argument. Do not just restate your thesis. Questions to think about when drafting a conclusion:
• What does this detailed argument about the passage reveal about the world in which the author wrote?
• What does this concept tell us about literature of the time period in which the author is writing?
Helpful Hints!
• Your paper should have a title.
• The attached rubric is your friend! Make sure you are aware of what “A” level work looks like before you begin your paper.
• You may have to take your paper through several drafts! Unlike Reading Responses, this is a polished, formal paper. It is not something you can complete the night before/day of the due date.
• You should not use any outside sources, beyond course materials. Remember that TurnItIn is turned on for all assignments and gives me a very detailed and accurate picture of unique (or not-so-unique) work. Remind yourself of UC’s plagiarism policy (linked on syllabus) if you have to.
• When quoting from the text (and you should definitely do this!), use citation form: “any visible expression of nature would surely be pelted with his jeers” (Crane 1059).
• I am happy to read drafts, intro paragraphs, thesis statements, I can only accept drafts 48 hours in advance of the due date.
• On our Week 4 eLearn topic, there is an anonymous sample successful Reading Response close reading exercise. Examining this example may help show the process as you prepare your own work. Remember, though, the Midterm is a polished, formal paper. Please use Grammarly and/or run a spelling and grammar check before submitting.
ENGL 224 Midterm Assignment • Close Reading and Concepts in American Literature, 1867-1934
• Due Sunday by midnight via eLearn (submission under Week 4 topic)
• 15% of grade
• 3-4 double-spaced pages in 12 pt. Times New Roman or equivalent; 1-inch margins*
Description: This session we have practiced close reading, the foundational method of literary study, as a way to slow down our interpretive pace, to show our thought process, and to build evidence-based arguments about our course readings. While we’ve practiced close reading in our Discussion Forums and Reading Responses, for the midterm you will have the opportunity to build a coherent, focused argument in the shape of a formal essay. This assignment will require you to define a thesis and to support that thesis with evidence from the passage/text of your choice. Additionally, you will link your thesis and support to a concept (or lens of analysis) that we have discussed so far this semester. Process: You may work with any text we’ve discussed this semester, beginning small with a passage of your choice.
Follow the steps of a close reading, as outlined in Week 2 of our semester. In doing so, link your analysis to a broader concept we’ve introduced in Weeks 1, 2, 3, and 4.
1. Choose one passage from one of the following texts:
• Walt Whitman, “Oh Captain! My Captain!” or “Crossing Brooklyn Ferry”
• Emily Dickinson, “I Taste a Liquor Never Brewed” or “The Soul Selects Her Own Society”
• Charlotte Perkins Gilman, “The Yellow Wallpaper”
• Kate Chopin, “Désirée’s Baby”
• Stephen Crane, “The Open Boat”
• Pauline Hopkins, “Talma Gordon”
• Booker T. Washington, from Up from Slavery
• W. E. B. Du Bois, “Of Our Spiritual Strivings” from The Souls of Black Folk
• William Carlos Williams, “This Is Just to Say”
• Marianne Moore, “Poetry”
2. Retype your passage choice (just a selection from your reading, unless you are using a shorter poem) before beginning your paper; this does not count toward page length.
Identify one concept that you will use as your analytic lens. Concepts might include:
3. Postbellum Democracy
4. Accommodation
5. Double Consciousness
6. Immigration
7. High Modernism
8. American Modernism
9. Realism/Naturalism
10. “Amalgamation/Miscegenation”
11. “The Woman Question”
12. Local Color
13. The Color Line
* Remember, I grade these on a computer! I can very easily re-format your submission (even a pdf) to meet these requirements to ensure you’re reaching the page length. † For shorter poems (William Carlos Williams and Emily Dickinson), you may select the entire poem as your “passage.
3. Develop a thesis that you pose early in your paper (ideally, within the first paragraph). Your thesis should use the first-person pronoun “I” to show your reader your unique intervention. Example: “In this paper, I argue that, based on the evidence from this passage’s staged confrontation between the men and the birds in Stephen Crane’s “The Open Boat,” Crane uses the concept of realism to show man’s struggle against nature.
[you will obviously come up with something better. This is just a sample; do not use it in your own paper! We’ve talked enough about the birds!)
4. For the rest of your paper, follow the steps of a close reading, showing your reader how each point supports your thesis. Those steps are:
Understanding
Noticing the lexicon
Explaining your findings
Connecting your passage to the larger context of the text
5. Conclude by thinking of the larger implications and significance of your argument. Do not just restate your thesis. Questions to think about when drafting a conclusion:
• What does this detailed argument about the passage reveal about the world in which the author wrote?
• What does this concept tell us about literature of the time period in which the author is writing?
Helpful Hints!
• Your paper should have a title.
• The attached rubric is your friend! Make sure you are aware of what “A” level work looks like before you begin your paper.
• You may have to take your paper through several drafts! Unlike Reading Responses, this is a polished, formal paper. It is not something you can complete the night before/day of the due date.
• You should not use any outside sources, beyond course materials. Remember that TurnItIn is turned on for all assignments and gives me a very detailed and accurate picture of unique (or not-so-unique) work. Remind yourself of UC’s plagiarism policy (linked on syllabus) if you have to.
• When quoting from the text (and you should definitely do this!), use citation form: “any visible expression of nature would surely be pelted with his jeers” (Crane 1059).
• I am happy to read drafts, intro paragraphs, thesis statements, I can only accept drafts 48 hours in advance of the due date.
• On our Week 4 eLearn topic, there is an anonymous sample successful Reading Response close reading exercise. Examining this example may help show the process as you prepare your own work. Remember, though, the Midterm is a polished, formal paper. Please use Grammarly and/or run a spelling and grammar check before submitting.
ENGL 224 Midterm Assignment • Close Reading and Concepts in American Literature, 1867-1934
• Due Sunday by midnight via eLearn (submission under Week 4 topic)
• 15% of grade
• 3-4 double-spaced pages in 12 pt. Times New Roman or equivalent; 1-inch margins*
Description: This session we have practiced close reading, the foundational method of literary study, as a way to slow down our interpretive pace, to show our thought process, and to build evidence-based arguments about our course readings. While we’ve practiced close reading in our Discussion Forums and Reading Responses, for the midterm you will have the opportunity to build a coherent, focused argument in the shape of a formal essay. This assignment will require you to define a thesis and to support that thesis with evidence from the passage/text of your choice. Additionally, you will link your thesis and support to a concept (or lens of analysis) that we have discussed so far this semester. Process: You may work with any text we’ve discussed this semester, beginning small with a passage of your choice.
Follow the steps of a close reading, as outlined in Week 2 of our semester. In doing so, link your analysis to a broader concept we’ve introduced in Weeks 1, 2, 3, and 4.
1. Choose one passage from one of the following texts:
• Walt Whitman, “Oh Captain! My Captain!” or “Crossing Brooklyn Ferry”
• Emily Dickinson, “I Taste a Liquor Never Brewed” or “The Soul Selects Her Own Society”
• Charlotte Perkins Gilman, “The Yellow Wallpaper”
• Kate Chopin, “Désirée’s Baby”
• Stephen Crane, “The Open Boat”
• Pauline Hopkins, “Talma Gordon”
• Booker T. Washington, from Up from Slavery
• W. E. B. Du Bois, “Of Our Spiritual Strivings” from The Souls of Black Folk
• William Carlos Williams, “This Is Just to Say”
• Marianne Moore, “Poetry”
2. Retype your passage choice (just a selection from your reading, unless you are using a shorter poem) before beginning your paper; this does not count toward page length.
Identify one concept that you will use as your analytic lens. Concepts might include:
3. Postbellum Democracy
4. Accommodation
5. Double Consciousness
6. Immigration
7. High Modernism
8. American Modernism
9. Realism/Naturalism
10. “Amalgamation/Miscegenation”
11. “The Woman Question”
12. Local Color
13. The Color Line
* Remember, I grade these on a computer! I can very easily re-format your submission (even a pdf) to meet these requirements to ensure you’re reaching the page length. † For shorter poems (William Carlos Williams and Emily Dickinson), you may select the entire poem as your “passage.
3. Develop a thesis that you pose early in your paper (ideally, within the first paragraph). Your thesis should use the first-person pronoun “I” to show your reader your unique intervention. Example: “In this paper, I argue that, based on the evidence from this passage’s staged confrontation between the men and the birds in Stephen Crane’s “The Open Boat,” Crane uses the concept of realism to show man’s struggle against nature.
[you will obviously come up with something better. This is just a sample; do not use it in your own paper! We’ve talked enough about the birds!)
4. For the rest of your paper, follow the steps of a close reading, showing your reader how each point supports your thesis. Those steps are:
Understanding
Noticing the lexicon
Explaining your findings
Connecting your passage to the larger context of the text
5. Conclude by thinking of the larger implications and significance of your argument. Do not just restate your thesis. Questions to think about when drafting a conclusion:
• What does this detailed argument about the passage reveal about the world in which the author wrote?
• What does this concept tell us about literature of the time period in which the author is writing?
Helpful Hints!
• Your paper should have a title.
• The attached rubric is your friend! Make sure you are aware of what “A” level work looks like before you begin your paper.
• You may have to take your paper through several drafts! Unlike Reading Responses, this is a polished, formal paper. It is not something you can complete the night before/day of the due date.
• You should not use any outside sources, beyond course materials. Remember that TurnItIn is turned on for all assignments and gives me a very detailed and accurate picture of unique (or not-so-unique) work. Remind yourself of UC’s plagiarism policy (linked on syllabus) if you have to.
• When quoting from the text (and you should definitely do this!), use citation form: “any visible expression of nature would surely be pelted with his jeers” (Crane 1059).
• I am happy to read drafts, intro paragraphs, thesis statements, I can only accept drafts 48 hours in advance of the due date.
• On our Week 4 eLearn topic, there is an anonymous sample successful Reading Response close reading exercise. Examining this example may help show the process as you prepare your own work. Remember, though, the Midterm is a polished, formal paper. Please use Grammarly and/or run a spelling and grammar check before submitting.

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