English 1301 Critical Analysis Mid-Term Essay
All Work Must Be Your Own. Consulting Or Using Any Outside Sources Will Result In A Zero For Your Essay.
Your assignment will be to write a 750-1,000 word critical analysis that closely analyzes ONE of the following essays:
Eighner, “Dumpster Diving,” 377-387 Hitchens, “Believe Me, It’s Torture, 686-692 Pollitt, “Why Boys Don’t Play with
Dolls,” 555-557
1.
2.
Read all three essays and then select the one you would like to analyze.
Ask yourself the following questions to help you get started.
• What is the essay’s historical context? What is the author’s socio-economic background?
• Is the author’s purpose to inform, to persuade, to educate, to reflect or some combination?
• Who is the intended audience? How can you tell from the essay itself?
• What are the essay’s major themes?
• What is the author’s thesis?
• What point of view and tense has the writer chosen and how does each impact the essay?
• What techniques does the author use to make his/her essay effective? Consider elements such as imagery, symbols, organization,
connotative language, diction, tone, point of view, and figurative language (metaphor, simile, personification). Look for passages
from the text to support your assertions.
• What is the difference between the author’s thesis and your own? THEY ARE NOT THE SAME. The essay you are analyzing
has a central concept. The essay you are writing also has its own unique central idea. Your thesis contains your argument in
which you claim that specific literary techniques contribute to the primary themes, and also play a large and significant role in
supporting the author’s thesis.
3.
After you have selected your essay, your analysis must include the following:
• Identify, describe, and explain at least three major themes (3+) that support and contribute to the author’s thesis.
• Paraphrase (implicit thesis) or quote (explicit thesis) what you believe to be the author’s main idea or thesis. This is NOT a
cliché such as “beauty is in the eye of the beholder.”
• Identify and describe the essay’s purpose, audience, perspective or point of view (such as 1st person present tense, or 3rd
person limited, past tense), time and place of publication, and organization. If especially relevant, explain how perspective,
organization, or historical context contributes to our understanding of the essay.
• Identify and give examples of at least two (2+) of the author’s most prevalent or effective rhetorical modes. See the Study
Guide. You MAY NOT use Description or Narration as one of the rhetorical modes. Why does the author use these modes?
How do they help communicate the author’s logic, emotion, or way of viewing his/her world? Select the modes that you believe
occur most frequently in the texts and reveal the most about the authors’ themes and overall idea. Keep asking, “Am I
summarizing or analyzing?”
• Identify and give examples of at least (3+) techniques the author uses to emphasize his or her thesis and themes. These
might include sentence length and structure, repetition, lists, symbols, figurative (metaphor, simile, personification) or
connotative language, slang, idioms or jargon. What you discuss will depend on your statement of thesis and themes. Keep
asking HOW these work to support or reflect the author’s primary ideas. Keep asking, “Am I summarizing or analyzing?”
• Identify and give examples of the author’s tone. Does the tone remain constant throughout the essay? Does it shift? If so,
where and why? Does the author use italics or quotation marks to communicate tone? If so, why? Keep asking, “Am I
summarizing or analyzing?”
• Go through the following process each time you interpret and quote: Say it, Explain it, Give an example, Add commentary.
Any quotation is in your essay to support your thesis. After you quote, explicate. (SEGA)
• Create a Work Cited page in MLA format
4.
In your introduction, include the author and title of the essay, your thesis, and the author’s thesis. Enclose the essay’s title in
quotation marks. On first mention, give the author’s complete name. Thereafter use the author’s last name. Make both your
introduction and conclusion interesting. Start with a title that will entice your reader. Since this is a formal essay, write in 3rd person.
Do not use “I” or “you.” Do not use contractions. Refer to the text in present tense. Be succinct and concrete.
5.
Create an outline. Decide whether you will organize your essay by theme or by rhetorical mode. Review your outline and draft next
to one another. Does your draft maintain the organization you established in your outline? Does the organization make sense? Of course,
refer to the Study Guide whenever necessary.
6.
Edit and revise. Be present for the peer analysis.
7. For 5 points extra credit submit your essay to the Writing Center tutors or to AskOnline prior to your final analysis. Be aware that it
can take up to 48 hours (2 days) to get your marked essay back from AskOnline. Download the marked essay. Highlight and number at
least three (3) significant corrections or comments which the reader made and which you intend to correct on your final draft. Incorporate
these suggested revisions into your essay. Highlight these corrections and provide the corresponding numbers on the final draft. In other
words, suggestion “1” from the AskOnline reader or HCC tutor should match up with correction “1” on your final draft. In general, the
more corrections you can work into your essay, the stronger and clearer the final work will be. Naturally, you may use both services.
Stay close to the text. In other words, support all of your assertions with evidence from the text. The evidence in the text is a verbal form
of the visual elements of your ad. Since you will be quoting frequently from the source, refer to the Study Guide and to the Quoting &
Paraphrasing handout. After you quote, remember to explain why you consider this passage important to your argument or worth citing.
This is the same as adding commentary or explicating. Have you gone through the SEGA process each time you quote or paraphrase?
Remember to introduce each quotation with a signal/tag phrase. SEGA: Say it, Explain it, Give an example, Add commentary. Adding
commentary is the same as explicating.
When you quote, bear in mind that the quotation should fit seamlessly into the structure of your sentence. The sentence that contains the
quotation must be grammatically correct. Use MLA citation format. Be concise and always ground your ideas in evidence from the text.
Keep asking, “Am I summarizing or analyzing?”
OUT-OF-CLASS PORTION REQUIREMENT
§ Length
375 (word minimum)
§ Content
Introduction and first 2 body paragraphs
§ In-text citations
3+ quotations or paraphrases, each introduced with a signal phrase. Use MLA format.
§ Turnitin.com Submit your rough draft to Turnitin.com and provide a hardcopy of the originality report.
§ Submission
Type all class exercises, outlines and essay. Use MLA format for citing.
In a folder or manila envelope place the introduction and first two body paragraphs of your stapled paper
including Work Cited page, worksheets, outline, AskOnline or Writing Center submission, peer review,
Turnitin report indicating matches.
• Works Cited page
MLA format
§ Due date
See Class Calendar
IN CLASS MID-TERM PORTION REQUIREMENT
§ Length
375 (word minimum)
§ Content
Additional body paragraphs and conclusion
§ In-text citations
3+ quotations or paraphrases, each introduced with a signal phrase. Use MLA format.
§ Submission
Write in blue books and submit at the end of the designated class period
§ Due date
See Class Calendar
TOTAL REQUIREMENTS
§ Length
750 (absolute minimum) -1000 words. You MAY exceed 1000 words.
§ In-text citations
6+ quotations or paraphrases, each introduced with a signal phrase. Use MLA format.
§ Turnitin.com Submit your rough draft to Turnitin.com and provide a hardcopy of the originality report.
§ Submission
Type all class exercises, outlines and out-of-class portion. Use MLA format for citing.
In a folder or manila envelope place the introduction and first two body paragraphs of your stapled paper
including Work Cited page, worksheets, outline, AskOnline or Writing Center submission, peer review,
Turnitin report indicating matches. Write the in-class portion in a blue book on day of exam.
§ Works Cited page
MLA format
PEER ANALYSIS:
On the day of the peer analysis bring 2 copies of your rough draft. Use the peer analysis handout as a checklist as you are writing your
essay.
• When applying it to your peer’s paper, be honest, thorough and critical without being caustic or offensive. Read carefully and provide
thoughtful responses that will assist the author. Your peer analysis counts toward your essay’s final grade. This is yet another step in
the process of critical reading and writing.
• Please take the peer analysis seriously. The more you’ve worked on the essay, the more clearly you’ll be able to communicate your
thoughts and the more your reviewer will be to provide helpful comments. You’ll have until at least the next class period to make
additions and corrections before you turn in your final draft.
Penalties and Extra Credit:
• Failure to be present and submit a rough draft in class on peer revision day (10 points off of final grade for essay)
• Failure to submit Turnitin analysis with final draft (10 points off of final grade for essay)
• + 5 points for working with Northwest College tutors or AskOnline and incorporating 3 significant changes. See instructions above.
Any late penalties (5 points per CALENDAR day) on the original paper will carry over to the revision. I do not accept late revisions.
Failure to submit a required revision will result in a 0 for the assignment.
Submit your out-of-class portion of the assignment on the due date at the beginning of class. Assignments submitted at the end of class
are considered late. Papers/assignments will be penalized 5 points for each calendar day they are late, including holidays and weekends.
This includes rough drafts. I accept late assignments no later than one class period after its original due date. Come to class with
your papers assembled in a large folder of manila envelope.
Complete the in-class portion of the assignment on the mid-term date. The out-of-class and in-class portions will determine your midterm exam grade.