Essay Assignment


Select at least two works we have read which share common intellectual themes or social concerns, but which were written at least one hundred years apart. Discuss the historical background that informs those concerns. Analyse how and why the two texts treat the same theme in different ways: that is, how and why they have different attitudes towards the same issues). In order to show what these attitudes are, you must cite specific language in the texts. Note that you may choose a short poem, such as a sonnet, but, if so, you may need to couple it with another poem on the same theme by the same author in order to give yourself more material to work with.

Although research is not an explicit component of this assignment, I will assume that you will do any research necessary on the historical contexts of the literature in order to clarify the history in your own mind and prevent you from relying on overgeneralisations or stereotypes.

Essays should be approximately four to five pages long. I will accept shorter or longer essays provided that the discussion is of quality and clarity appropriate to an essay of this length. Essays will be graded substantially on your ability to write and format clear and effective scholarly prose, and you should take your editing practices VERY seriously. Essays should conform to the expectation of good, university-level writing style and the conventions of literary criticism following MLA or other style guidelines. Be especially careful to quote poetry according to the proper format. For more information on the mechanics of writing and writing about literature, see my Essay Writing Guide. You will find that consulting the Essay Writing Key before you turn in your paper will improve your essay. You should be aware of the following:

  1. The essay should be free of spelling mistakes and typographical errors. I will mark grades down for these types of mistakes in proportion to how distracting I find them. (So, if your spelling mistakes are so distracting that I can’t read your discussion, 100% of your grade will be based on spelling.)
  2. I apply the same principle to grammatical errors, so I recommend you read your essay aloud and run it through a grammar checker.
  3. Poetry should be cited by line number, not page number, unless there are no line numbers given. Quotations of four or more lines should be separated from your discussion and indented. Quotations of poetry less than four lines should have line breaks indicated by a slash. See the examples below. These conventions are used by professional literary scholars. Even if you are not going on to be an English major, you should try to adopt is convention because it shows your ability to learn a professional discourse. If you are an English major, no excuses!

Here are some examples:

Poetry Quotation (Less Than Four Lines)
Emily Dickinson concludes “I’m Nobody! Who Are You?” by likening being somebody to being a frog: “How public, like a frog / To tell your name the livelong June / To an admiring bog!” (5-8). Her language is arguably over the top…

I have underlined the slashes to call them to your attention. Notice also that the final punctuation of a sentence goes after the parenthetic citation if the quote is not indented.

Poetry Quotation (Four Lines Or More)
Emily Dickinson concludes “I’m Nobody! Who Are You?” with a bittersweet stanza:

How dreary to be somebody!
How public, like a frog
To tell your name the livelong June
To an admiring bog! (5-8)

Her language is arguably over the top…

Due Date: Friday, May 16, 2011. Essays should be submitted using Moodle (you can login from the link on the course home page). Just login, click on Final Essay, and follow the instructions.

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