Essay 2 - Assignment - ENGL 3300
Draft due 3/27
Revision 5/8


Choose your prefered method: Reader Response or Deconstruction. Your task is to demonstrate both your knowledge of and ability to apply theoretical concepts.

A. Write a brief precis that summarizes the aims and procedures associated with the method. Key concepts and terms should be defined, to be applied in the essay to follow. (A selective summary of less than 1 page, it should focus on the aspect of the theory you will use). Cite sources if you quote or paraphrase.

B. Compose a 2-3 page, typed essay reading a chapter from Ellison's Invisible Man in light of your selected critical perspective.  Your interpretation ought to be clear, organized, and persuasive; it must also be shaped by the critical method you choose; it must cite Eagleton and Lynn each at least once.

Reader Response Analyses:

  1. ought to seriously reflect on the inferential process the text invites a reader to engage it,
  2. note the gaps a reader must fill and the moments where the reader is called upon to concretize meaning;
  3. consider the processes of predicting and recollecting;
  4. show how the text "catalyzes a more critical view of [the readers'] own identities" (Eagleton 68).

Deconstructive Analyses:

  1. ought to approach the text as a construct, in which meaning is produced by language (through the relationship of identifiable signs rather than "intention");
  2. identify/define some key structural elements;
  3. attend to the hierarchical relationships implied in binary oppositions;
  4. seek to unveil contradictions, or marginal details that corrupt the equation;

___________

 

Use a readable 12-point font; double-spaced; 1-inch magins. Keep your precis separate. Fasten simply with a staple. Beginning on the second page, place your last name and page number in the upper-right corner. Indent paragraphs 5 spaces/half-inch and block quotations 10-spaces (anything over three-lines in length). Use MLA in-text citation format to attribute quotations and paraphrased material. Your paper should conclude with a Works Cited page that includes any class texts utilized as well as the source information for the object of your interpretation. Do not plagiarize. (Check out the MLA Guide in the library or handouts from our Writing Center for citation format questions.)

Use the following layout:

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 Student Name
ENGL 3300 Spring 2003
[Date]
Draft, Essay 1
[Name of Method]

 

Original and Informative Title

 

     The body of the essay begins here. Make it a captivating introduction and the battle

is already half yours. If you have a short quote, it may be introduced "like this" (Sherwood

1). But quotations longer than three lines are always set in "block quotation" format, which

would look something like this:

<10-spaces>

Students are expected to be above reproach in all scholastic activities.

Students who engage in scholastic dishonesty are subject to disciplinary

penalties, including the possibility of failure in the course and dismissal

from the university. 'Scholastic dishonesty includes but is not limited to

cheating, plagiarism, collusion, the submission for credit of any work or

materials that are attributable in whole or in part to another person, taking

an examination for another person, any act designed to give unfair advantage

to a student or the attempt to commit such acts.' Regents' Rules and

Regulations, Part One, Chapter VI, Section 3, Subsection 3.2, Subdivision

3.22. Since scholastic dishonesty harms the individual, all students, and the

integrity of the university, policies on scholastic dishonesty will be

strictly enforced. (Student Discipline 28)

 

 

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