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Essay 2:  Writing Guidelines

See the Essay 2 model

For your Essay 2, write a literary interpretation,
analysis or reader response paper related to one or more
of the readings for this unit.

Goal for this Essay:  You will learn to incorporate the views of
one named critic along with your own claim.  See the posts about
LOCATING your claim.  Locating means that you are part of
a conversation on a topic and that you know what others are
saying.

For information on writing about literature and the expected
conventions for papers written in this class, read Writing
Tips.

Find a limited focus for your paper.
If you choose, develop one of the ideas presented in your
post to the class mail list. Feel free to use the discussion
questions as a starting point, too.

Do not try to cover everything about the story in this paper:
instead, focus on one aspect of the story which intrigued
you.

Support your points.
Use plenty of examples and quotations from the story or
poem to support every assertion or insight you raise.

Required length.
Initially, don't worry too much about the length of this paper.
We'll let you know in our feedback to your draft whether your
paper should be developed more.

A good length to aim at for your final draft is around
500-750 words, minimum.


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