IRHS Senior Writing Project Fall 2020
This essay, worth 10% of your semester grade, should demonstrate your best work and follow these requirements:
The main body of the essay should be 3-5 pages (double-spaced) in length.
The essay must use in-text citations and an appropriate MLA format.
It must be submitted both electronically to turnitin.com and on paper to your English instructor. NO papers will be accepted after the deadline.
It must include a 1-2 page reflection about your process of drafting, editing, and revising the project. These pages do NOT count as part of the minimum page length for the essay.
Literary Analysis Essay
Choose A) two short stories of literary merit OR B) two novels of literary merit OR C) Some other combination of works of literary merit and then write a 3-5 page, thesis-driven essay in which you analyze, through comparison and contrast, the literary and thematic elements presented.
Prompts: Use these prompts to assist you in developing your own thesis.
Prompt #1:
In his novel, Death Be Not Proud, writer John Gunther expresses the following sentiment: “Scientists will save us all.” Using the characters, plot, theme(s) and other elements of your works of literary merit, compose an excellent essay that explains the truth or falsehood of the quote (“Scientists will save us all.”). Remember that the essay is not YOUR opinion about the quote, but your literary works’ comments/connections with it.
Prompt #2:
Literary critic Roland Barthes once wrote, “Literature is the question minus the answer.” In an excellent multi-paragraph essay, explain how your chosen literary works express important questions or ideas, but not definitive answers. Make sure that you address why the questions are more important or as important in the stories than the answers.
Prompt #3:
Writer Italo Calvino noted that “a classic is a book that has never finished saying what it has to say.” How does this idea of timeliness and timelessness relate to your novels or stories? Consider characters, themes, symbols, motifs, and the like as you develop your excellent multi-paragraph essay. Make sure you include specifics from the stories that prove that your generalizations are valid.
Prompt #4:
Write an essay that explains how the authors of your novels or stories use the personal weakness(es) of their main characters to comment on humankind in general. Make sure that you explain the character weakness(es) and what those weaknesses(es) not only reveal about him or her but about people in general.
Prompt #5:
Using stories and/or novels that contain important secrets, write a well-organized essay that explains why the secret/s of the stories must be kept (at least for a time) and how the characters’ choices to keep or reveal the secret affect the plot and the overall theme/meaning of the work as a whole.
Prompt #6:
Many works of literary merit contain characters that are morally ambiguous – that is to say that cannot be classified as mainly good or purely evil. Write an essay which explains how at least one character in each of your stories can be considered morally ambiguous. Additionally, write why this character’s moral ambiguity is important to meaning (theme) of the work as a whole.
Prompt #7:
Write a well-organized essay describing the activities or objects in your chosen stories that seem to be symbolic (archetypes are kinds of symbols). How does the symbolism make the meaning or theme of the novel clearer? Make sure that you compare and contrast the use of the symbols in your books.
Fall Due Dates:
a. Turnitin.com DUE by Sunday, November 22nd by 11:59 pm.
b. Cohort 1 – Hardcopy to Teacher on Monday, November 23rd.
c. Cohort 2 – Hardcopy to Teacher on Tuesday, November 24th.
Late Papers WILL NOT be accepted.