Final Essay Exam for English 2323—Daigle
Important Information:
There is no grace period for the final essay.
Please turn your final in to me in the assignment submission area in an attached file.
Be sure to read all of the instructions (the entire file).
ALL reading selections must come from the 10th edition of the textbook, Volume F. I’m including a link to the table of contents in case you don’t have the textbook.
http://media.wwnorton.com/cms/contents/NAEL10%20Vol%20F%20TOC.pdf
General Instructions:
• For your final essay, you will be looking at general topics/themes—ideas that connect the stories and poems in Volume F: The Twentieth and Twenty-First Centuries. All reading selections must come from the textbook. Here is a link to the table of contents that you may use if you don’t have the textbook: http://media.wwnorton.com/cms/contents/NAEL10%20Vol%20F%20TOC.pdf
• In your essay (750-1000 words or more), you will trace one of these general ideas (listed below) through at least three pieces of literature by different writers from this time period. (You may wish to use more, of course.)
• In other words, you will be discussing the work of three writers; you may include more than one work by each of the three writers.
• The paper should be in essay form with an introduction, body paragraphs, and a conclusion rather than a collection of reading responses. Please do not use sub-headings.
• You must use quotations from the reading selections as support for your general ideas.
• Do not choose long reading selections for this paper. (If you are uncertain about whether a reading selection is too long, please consult me.)
• Do not use the the same poems, stories, or essays that you used for reading responses or for your research paper.
• If you need suggestions or have questions regarding the assignment, please let me know either in the Final Essay Discussion or in a message to me in Canvas.
The final should show me that you have read selections from various parts of Volume F (The Twentieth and Twenty-First Centuries).
Choose ONE of the following topics;
AGAIN, FOR ALL TOPICS YOU MUST WRITE ABOUT AT LEAST ONE READING SELECTION EACH BY THREE DIFFERENT AUTHORS. ALL MUST COME FROM THE TWENTIETH AND TWENTY-FIRST CENTURIES (Volume F).
Topic 1: Discuss three reading selections that show the increasing diversity in English literature during this time period, especially as it relates to the demise of the British empire. The topic “Nation, Race, and Language” (F: 848) may help you choose reading selections; however, there are other readings in the textbook (Volume F) that relate to this topic also. Let me know if you need help finding them.
Topic 2: Choose three reading selections that reveal issues that relate to the roles of women during this time period. You may notice that there are only a few women writers in this volume of the textbook, but they are very important: Virginia Woolf, Katherine Mansfield, Jean Rhys, Stevie Smith, Edith Sitwell, Doris Lessing, Nadine Gordimer, Louise Bennett, M. Nourbese Philip, Grace Nichols. You may want to read Mina Loy’s “Feminist Manifesto” as preparation for the topic: https://oncomouse.github.io/loy/feminist.html
Topic 3: Discuss three reading selections that reveal the effects of historical events or movements on individuals. This option gives you many choices, but you must identify the event or movement. All reading selections must come from Volume F: The Twentieth and Twenty-First Centuries. Be sure to include supporting quotations.
Topic 4: Discuss three reading selections that reveal the influence of the modernist movement (early 20th century through 1930s) on poets and fiction writers. Writers from the modernist movement include Yeats, Woolf, Joyce, Lawrence, Eliot, etc. You will find several websites that will be useful to the discussion, along with the section in Volume F of the textbook called “Modernist Manifestos” (F: 183-209). You may wish to read the manifesto by F. S. Flint and Ezra Pound called “Imagisme.”
In your essay, you will need to define modernism in literature briefly in your introduction and then choose reading selections from three writers that illustrate this definition.
Topic 5: Discuss three reading selections that relate to you personally. If you choose this option, you must show how these selections relate directly to you. This will be a personal essay, but it must include discussions of the poems, essays, or short stories that you choose. You must also include quotations for support, as always. Again, all reading selections must come from Volume F: The Twentieth and Twenty-First Centuries. (Note: Do not choose the same selections that you wrote about for your reading responses—one way to find new favorites is to read a few more poems, essays, or stories by the authors you enjoyed most. You may also wish to experience some new authors. Let me know if you would like recommendations from me.)
The final is a test of your ability to use critical thinking skills as you discuss the stories and poems, so you should use secondary sources sparingly. Also, if you are quoting, even from the textbook, please use quotation marks or block (indent 10 spaces from the left margin) quotations of more than three lines. As always, you should follow MLA format. If you don’t use secondary sources (sources other than the textbook), you do not need a works cited page.
If you use the textbook as your only source, just include page numbers. Do not repeat the authors’ names over and over in parentheses. The authors’ names should be in sentences in the text of the paper, not in parentheses. Only page numbers should be in parentheses. Do not use “p.” before the page number.