BIS 371

Twentieth-Century American Literature:

Drama

Essay Assignment

The purpose of this essay is to help you use writing to deepen your understanding of a literary work that we have read, to develop empathy for a character, and to provide you the opportunity to develop further some ideas discussed in class.

Midquarter version of your essay:

Start by reading this "prompt" (the question that is intended to stimulate your ideas):

Part of what makes Eugene O'Neill's Long Day's Journey into Night a classic of American realism is the depth and complexity of the characters.  Each of the characters is neither completely monstrous nor completely saintly.  Each is deeply flawed but utterly human.  Which character most deserves the audience's sympathy, and why?

In a formal, argumentative essay of 1000 to 1250 words (according to the word count tool in Microsoft Word), respond to the prompt. To do this, develop a thesis (main argument) that answers the prompt. The rest of the essay will comprise your attempts to convince the reader of the veracity of your thesis. First-person ("I") statements are fine when appropriate.  Consider your audience to be a smart, educated person who has read, but is not an expert on, the play.  I expect you to use specific examples to illustrate the points you want to make.

Details:

• As a formal piece of university writing, your essay should be typed and double-spaced throughout, using a standard font (like Times New Roman) in 12-point size, and with margins of one inch all the way around each page. Use MLA style, as described in the latest edition of The MLA Handbook (available in the Bookstore, in the Writing Center, and in the reference section of the Library). Use a conventional academic heading (as shown in item #20 in "Tips for Better Prose" ). Provide a title as specified in item #22 in "Tips for Better Prose").  You must use Microsoft Word (not Microsoft Works or Wordperfect) or I will be unable to open and read the document, and the paper will be considered late.
• Please do not use a cover page, footnotes, or a bibliography. If you wish to quote, do so only after reading Becky Rosenberg's document, "Using Direct Quotation" at <http://faculty.washington.edu/davidgs/Quotation.html>.  You do not need to include the word count on your document.  I can check that myself.
• I have posted an example of a very good essay (written in a previous literature course but on a different topic) in the "Course Documents" area of Blackboard at <http://bb.uwb.edu> You may read it if you want to see an example of an essay that I have liked. Note especially how the author lays out a specific argument (thesis) in the opening paragraph, and uses each subsequent paragraph to directly and explicitly support that thesis.
• Because all teachers have their own idiosyncratic preferences for writing, you should review what mine are by re-reading "Tips for Better Prose" at <http://faculty.washington.edu/davidgs/Prose.html>. Re-reading this document is a required part of the assignment, but I recommend doing so only after you have a completed draft of your paper so you do not get too distracted at first with the mechanics of the paper. When I return your paper to you, I might mention some ways in which your paper's mechanics might have been distracting.  I will use a list of codes such as "T1," "T2," and so forth, which refer to the numbered items of the "Tips for Better Prose" document. Of course, it would be better for you and for me if you pay close attention to the document so you can avoid some of the mechanical errors that I commonly find in student (and even professional) writing, rather than have them pointed out to you afterward. I recommend printing that document, and, after you finish writing your paper, check the items off one by one to make sure your paper is as mechanically sound as you can make it. Although the mechanics of writing are less important to me than the ideas expressed (which is evidenced in the proportion of your grade allocated to each of these aspects of your essay, as described below), the mechanics inevitably improve the effectiveness of your communication of ideas, which, after all, is your ultimate goal with each piece of writing that you do.
• Needless to say, your work must be entirely original. Using another person's ideas or words without proper attribution, whether intentional or accidental, constitutes plagiarism, and will result in a zero on this assignment. Please re-read "Maintaining Academic Integrity" at <http://faculty.washington.edu/davidgs/Integrity.html>.
• I expect the midquarter version of your essay to be as complete and polished as possible.  Please do not submit a rough draft, because I cannot provide useful feedback on a rough draft so it wastes your time and mine.

The midquarter version of your essay is due Blackboard at 1:05 p.m. sharp on Thursday, April 26.

To submit the midquarter version of your essay:

• First, name the Word file of your essay exactly like this:  Lastname371Essay (replacing Lastname with your own last name, starting with a capital letter (for example: Kerrigan371Essay).
• Then, go to the Assignments area of Blackboard (http://bb.uwb.edu/) and click on the link labeled "View/Complete Assignment: Essay - Midquarter."
• In the "Comments" box, type your first and last name.
• Where it says, "Attach local file," click on the "Browse" button.
• Find the correct file on your hard drive and click "Open" to choose that file.
• Click the "Submit" button (not the "Save" button, which is used only to save work you are not ready to submit yet).
• You should get a confirmation page that says, "The assignment has been updated."  Click on the "OK" button.
• Click again on the "View/Complete Assignment: Essay - Midquarter" link.
• Click on the "OK" button.
• You should get a confirmation page that says, "The assignment is complete.  Click OK to review the result."  On that page, click the "OK" button.
• You should get a confirmation page that includes the file you attached.  Please print this confirmation.

Getting feedback on the midquarter version of your essay:

• My goal is to return essays (you should find it in the same Assignments area in Blackboard), with my comments, within ten days of their submission.  I will not comment on essays submitted after the midquarter portfolio deadline, so you will not have the benefit of my feedback when you produce your final version unless you submit the midquarter version on time.
• I will not grade the midquarter version of the essay, but I will indicate whether your paper is an early, middle, or late draft.  Those terms are explained in "Assessment of Student Writing" at http://faculty.washington.edu/davidgs/WritingAssess.html.  I also will provide suggestions for revising your paper.  If your paper is at least a middle draft, I will include suggestions for improving the prose.  (For early-draft papers, there is no point in saying much about the prose since you will need to do fairly extensive rewriting anyway.)

Final version of your essay :

If you like, you may revise your essay after getting your evaluated essay back if it was submitted by the original deadline. You will still adhere to the length and formatting requirements outlined above for your original paper. Remember to check the word count of the revision as you did for the original paper.

• My goal is to return essays (you should find it in the same Assignments area in Blackboard), with my comments, within ten days of their submission.  Essays submitted after the final deadline (Tuesday, May 29) but before 1:05 p.m. on Wednesday, May 30, will be accepted but with a penalty of 20 percentage points.  Essays submitted after 1:05 p.m. on Wednesday, May 30, for any reason, will receive no credit.   Do not miss the final deadline!
• I will indicate whether your paper is an early, middle, or late draft.  Those terms are explained in "Assessing Student Writing" at http://faculty.washington.edu/davidgs/WritingAssess.html.  I also will attach a completed version of the evaluation rubric shown on the "Assessment of Student Writing" web page, and will provide a final grade for the paper.
• This essay is worth 30 percent of the final course grade.

Let me emphasize that I expect your best effort in this and every exercise. Your most serious work now will enable me to provide the most helpful comments, which in turn will improve your grade on later assignments. In other words, this assignment helps determine your grade in this course both directly (with the score it earns) and indirectly (with its capacity to teach you how to improve your writing), so it is worth the investment of your time and effort to do the best you can.

Some additional advice:

• Get in the habit of saving your work often (maybe every ten minutes) so you do not lose everything when your computer freezes. It also is a good idea to keep multiple copies in different places, such as on a different computer, on diskettes or Zip disks, or in your electronic "shell" on the UW student computer server. I usually e-mail important files to myself at the end of the work day, so if my computer blows up, I still can retrieve my work.
• Visit the Writing Center (see < http://www.bothell.washington.edu/writingcenter/>). They are professionals trained to help you become a better writer, so visit them! Remember that their goal is to help you become a better writer, not to make this particular paper better, so you are responsible for applying what they teach you to this paper and others that you will write.
• I do not have time to read rough drafts, but I am very glad to discuss your paper as you work on it. You would be wise to visit me during office hours (see syllabus) to make sure you are on the right track, to see whether your thesis makes sense to me, and to get advice about any particular difficulties you might be encountering.
• Re-read this assignment sheet just before submitting the final copy of your paper to make sure it meets all of the requirements.
• Remember to keep your graded paper for the graduation portfolio that you will complete in your senior seminar if you are an Interdisciplinary Studies major (see < http://www.bothell.washington.edu/IAS/degrees/BLS/requirements.html#graduate>).

This page last updated March 30, 2007.

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