Convince or

Persuade?You really need

a vacation, You

work too hard!

Hmm, am I

persuaded or

convinced?

Strictly speaking, one convinces a person that something is true but persuades a person to do something.

“Pointing out that I was overworked, my friends persuaded [not convinced] me to take a vacation.

Now that I'm relaxing on the beach with my book, I am convinced [not persuaded] that they were right.”

Read more: Easily Confused or Misused Words | Infoplease.com http://www.infoplease.com/ipa/A0200807.html#ixzz2T7jurahi

[[Poetry is]...the

record of the best and

happiest moments of

the best and happiest

minds...

- Shelley

Introduction to Essay #1

• Due Friday, Week 8

• How to write a

response to literature.

There are many essay topics to choose from.

On the webpage, click on “Essay Prompts” and then “Essay

#1”

You will see another list of choices specific to our texts.

Click on any of them to explore topics

You may write an essay on any of these topics.

You may write an essay on a topic of your choice.

You may use fodder from one of your posts.

The essay is due Friday, week 8 at noon.

Send it as a word document to

palmoreessaysubmission@gmail.com

In this first half of our quarter, we have read and discussed multiple texts, theories, and opinions on both literature and literary analysis, and for this reason, I offer you many choices for your first essay. In a thesis driven essay of 500 to 750 words, respond to one of the prompts I have offered or one of your own. You need only the primary text for this essay, but you may incorporate other stories, manifestos, or critical theory as additional support. Remember, you can also draw on your own experiences and knowledge to discuss, explain, and analyze your topic.

All of the action in this play takes place in a single setting: the home of the murdered man and his wife, who the reader learns is his killer. The men and women who enter the home after the crime see totally different scenes in this same setting, though. What each set of characters sees is limited by his or her gender. The women notice certain items—preserved fruit, a sewing box, an empty bird cage—that the men completely overlook because they consider the domestic space of the woman of the house to be worthless in terms of offering clues about the crime. Write an essay in which you define and explain the two gendered spaces and their significance in the development of the plot and the play’s outcome.

In a 1915 interview, Cather commented, "No one without a good ear can write good fiction." In “The Novel Demeuble” Cather writes, “Whatever is felt upon the page without being specifically named there—that, it seems to me, is created. It is the inexplicable presence of the thing not named, of the over-tone divined by the ear but not heard by it, the verbal mood, the emotional aura of the fact or the thing or the deed, that gives high quality to the novel or the drama, as well as to poetry itself.” What particular passages in My Antonia show Cather's "good ear" for the sound of language? Which show her ability to create “the thing not named”? Discuss how and why these passages capture the moods and themes of the novel. How do they contribute to the idea of the modernist novel?

In class, we covered eight ways to

determine character. Do parallel character

sketches of Tom Buchanan and George

Wilson; compare them to show their

similarities.

Adapted from a handout from The Writing Center, University of North

Carolina at Chapel Hill

A good, valid, and interesting interpretation will do the

following:

avoid the obvious (in other words, it won’t argue a

conclusion that most readers could reach on their

own from a general knowledge of the story)

support its main points with strong textual evidence

from the story and/or secondary sources.

use careful reasoning to explain how that evidence

relates to the main points of the interpretation.

A good paper begins with the writer having a solid understanding of the work. Being able to have the whole text in your head when you begin thinking through ideas will actually allow you to write the paper more quickly in the long run.

Spend some time just thinking about the story. Flip back through the book and consider what interests you about this book—what seemed strange, new, or important?

Be Familiar with the Text

Even though you have a list of topics from which

to choose, you must develop your own

interpretation.

Consider how you might approach each topic.

What will your answer to each question show about the

text?

So what? Why will anyone care?

Try this phrase for each prompt to see if you have an

idea: “This book/poem/play/short story shows

______________________. This is important because

______________________.”

Narrow down your list of

possible topics by identifying

how much evidence or how

many details you could use to

investigate each potential

issue.

Keep in mind that papers rely

on ample evidence and that

having a lot of details to

choose from can make your

paper easier to write.

Jot down all the events or

elements of the story that

have some bearing on the

two or three topics that

seem most promising.

Don’t launch into a topic

without considering all the

options first because you

may end up with a topic

that seemed promising

initially but that only leads

to a dead end.

Select a Topic with Plenty of Evidence

Skim back over the story or poem and

make a more comprehensive list of the

details that relate to your point.

As you make your notes keep track of

page numbers so you can quickly find the

passages again when you need them.

Make an extended list of evidence

Once you’ve made your expanded list of

evidence, decide which supporting details are the

strongest. First, select the facts which bear the closest relation to

your thesis statement.

Second, choose the pieces of evidence you’ll be able to

say the most about. Readers tend to be more dazzled

with your interpretations of evidence than with a lot of

quotes from the book.

Select the details that will allow you to show off your own

reasoning skills and allow you to help the reader see the

story in a way he or she may not have seen it before.

Select your evidence

• Now, go back to your working thesis and refine it

so that it reflects your new understanding of your

topic. This step and the previous step (selecting

evidence) are actually best done at the same

time, since selecting your evidence and defining

the focus of your paper depend upon each other.

Refine your thesis

Once you have a clear thesis, go back to your list of

selected evidence and group all the similar details

together. The ideas that tie these clusters of evidence

together can then become the claims that you’ll make in

your paper.

Keep in mind that your claims should not only relate to all

the evidence but also clearly support your thesis.

Once you’re satisfied with the way you’ve grouped your

evidence and with the way that your claims relate to your

thesis, you can begin to consider the most logical way to

organize each of those claims.

Organize your evidence

Avoid the temptation to load your paper with evidence from

your story. Each time you use a specific reference to your

story, be sure to explain the significance of that evidence

in your own words.

To get your readers’ interest, draw their attention to elements

of the story that they wouldn’t necessarily notice or

understand on their own.

If you are quoting passages without interpreting them, you’re

not demonstrating your reasoning skills or helping the reader.

In most cases, interpreting your evidence merely involves

putting into your paper what is already in your head.

Interpret your evidence

Don't forget to consider the scope of your project: This paper is short! What can you reasonably cover in a paper of that length?

Eliminate wordiness and repetition to ensure that you have room to make all of your points.

See me if you are lost or confused!

Write about literature in present tense

Avoid using “thing,” “something,” “everything,” and

“anything.”

Avoid writing in second person.

Avoid using contractions.

Cut Wordy Sentences

Avoid run-on sentences and fragments.

Check for misused words

Put commas and periods inside of quotation

marks

Does the paper follow MLA guidelines? • For help, click on “MLA Guidelines” and view the “Basic MLA

format” video. Is the page length within assigned limits? Is the font type and size within the assigned

guidelines? Does the Header follow the assignment guidelines? Is the professor's name spelled correctly? Kim Palmore Is your name spelled correctly? Does the paper have a title? Is it a good title? Is the title

in the appropriate location? Have you italicized book and movie titles and put

stories, articles, and poems in quotation marks.

Class 27 is an advanced skills research

workshop. This is mandatory for the

Honors cohort. Attendance by other

students will yield participation points.

Please let me know if you plan to attend.

There is only room for 25 students. We

will meet in the library lobby five minutes

before class generally begins.

Read “American Literature since 1945” pp. 3-19

Honors Group: Read Annotated Bibliography

assignment

Post #24: Begin essay 1 (This is not an optional

post): Write your thesis/argument. Provide textual

evidence that supports your assertion. Include both

quotations and analysis of the text.

Remember, We will meet in the library lobby

tomorrow.