to contact instructor with or without identifying yourself. (My e-mail address is provided in class. No telephone calls, please.)
The purpose of this essay is to help you use writing to think about the major themes of Louise Erdrich's novel, Love Medicine, to develop empathy for a major character, and to provide you the opportunity to develop further some ideas discussed in class.
Start by reading this "prompt" (the question that is intended to stimulate your ideas):
Choose one of the main characters in Love Medicine. Assume that character's identity and write a letter to another main character with whom you have a significant conflict. Explain your point of view about the thing about which you and he or she have different perspectives. Your goal is not necessarily to convince the other character that you are right, but to help him or her understand your perspective, even if he or she ultimately disagrees with it. Your letter therefore should be as persuasive as possible, using specific evidence (from the events and ideas presented in the novel) as necessary. Because your letter is to be persuasive, it essentially is an argumentative essay, with the other character as its intended audience. You may address him or her directly by name or in second-person address ("you"), as long as the character's identity is clear to your paper's "real" readers.
In a formal, argumentative essay (in the guise of a letter) of 1250 to 1500 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 letter (essay) will comprise your attempts to convince the other character of the veracity of your thesis. If, for some reason, you need to say something as yourself rather than as your pretend identity, place it in square brackets [like this] to indicate that it is you--not the character that you are inhabiting--who is speaking. You might need to do this if you want to cite a page number in the novel or otherwise refer to the novel as a novel rather than pretending, as in the rest of the letter, that the events really happened. In other words, your character does not know that he or she is in a novel, so she cannot refer to page numbers or explain an aspect of Erdrich's technique, so if you need to refer to the novel in some way, use square brackets.
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. When I return your paper to you, I will provide a tally of common errors, using 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.
As a formal piece of university writing, your essay should be typed and double-spaced throughout, using a standard font (like Times) in 12-point size, and with margins of one inch all the way around each page. Use MLA style, as described in the fifth edition of The MLA Handbook (available in the Bookstore and in the reference section of the Library). In the top, left-hand corner of the first page, place a heading that includes (using one line per item) your name, the course number (BLS 379), the date, and my name (Prof. David Goldstein-Shirley). (See item #20 in "Tips for Better Prose.") Provide a meaningful but brief title for your paper (not "Essay 1" but rather a short hint of your paper's main argument) that is centered just one double space beneath the heading on the first page and in plain type (no underlining, bold, italics, or quotation marks). (See item #22 in "Tips for Better Prose.") Please use just one side of each sheet of paper, and avoid paper with punched holes. Please write or type, at the end of your paper, the final word count (according to the word count in the "Tools" pull-down menu in Microsoft Word).
The body of your paper, beginning with an indented paragraph, should start exactly one double space beneath the title. In other words, there should be one blank line between the bottom of your heading and the title, and then one blank line between the title and the first line of your essay's body. Just before you print your final draft to submit to me, do a final word count (in the Tools pull-down menu of Microsoft Word) and write the total number of words at the end of your paper. Please do not use a cover page, footnotes, or a bibliography. If you wish to quote, do so only after reading Becky Reed's document, "Using Direct Quotation" at <http://faculty.washington.edu/davidgs/Quotation.html>. If you need to quote your own character, or another character you can say something like this (putting the page number in square brackets):
I remember telling Lulu, "I'm sorry about Henry," who was her husband [130].
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.bothell.washington.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.
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>.
Your essay is due in class at 8:45 a.m. sharp on Thursday, January 30. Please do not submit it at 8:55, 10:50, or any other time. I expect it at 8:45, and I do not want to hear reasons for lateness. I strongly urge you to complete your essay a couple of days early so you have time to deal with any unforeseen problems, and to be sure to arrive in class on time on the due date.
I will accept late papers which must be Microsoft Word documents submitted in the Blackboard "Digital Dropbox" (click on the "Tools" button), but late papers will incur penalties depending on when they are submitted: I will deduct two points for papers received by 8:45 a.m. on January 31, eight points for papers received by 8:45 a.m. on February 3, and ten points for papers received by 8:45 a.m. on February 4. I will accept no late papers after 8:45 a.m. on February 4. These deadlines and penalties stem from our need to move on to other work, and to ensure an equal amount of work time for everyone in class. Late papers will be ineligible for revision because I will need to take time away from other grading to grade late papers, so that time will be unavailable for grading revisions. IMPORTANT: To submit your late paper in the "Digital Dropbox," follow these instructions carefully and exactly, because misnamed documents and files are difficult for me to find in Blackboard: First, name your document (the Word file itself) using your last name and the number 1, followed by the ".doc" extension, like this:
Lastname1.doc (but using your own last name, like this: Husky1.doc)
and then, when submitting it to the "Digital Dropbox" (using the "Send" command), label your document using your last name and the number 1, like this:
Lastname1 (but using your own last name, like this: Husky1)
Optional Essay 1 Revision: If you like, you may revise your essay after getting your graded 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 include the word count at the end of the revision as you did for the original paper. Then, when you submit your Learning Portfolio, include both the graded original (with my comments) and the revision. I will grade the revision using the same criteria below, and will replace the Essay 1 grade with the average of the original and the revision grades. (This new Essay 1 grade will be independent of, and unrelated to, your Learning Portfolio grade.)
Criteria for grading Essay #1: Please carefully read "Criteria for Assessing Writing" at <http://faculty.washington.edu/davidgs/WritingAssess.html> for an explanation of these items:
Content 50 percent Organization 10 percent Reasoning 20 percent Rhetoric 10 percent Conventions 10 percent TOTAL 55 pts.
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:
This page last updated January 8, 2003.
