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ENC 1102

Instructor Sharon Cronk-Raby

ENC 1102 (Composition II)

Short Essay #1: Analysis of Elements of Fiction

Review the Elements of Fiction in the textbook Literature and Ourselves:

-- Point of View: pages 9-10

-- Setting: page 10

-- Style: pages 10-11

-- Character: page 11

-- Plot: pages 11-12

-- Theme: page 12

-- Checklist of Literary Elements: pages 12-13

Your first paper will be a 500-750 wordcritical essay on a selected short story, to be written in a 3rd-Person Point-of-View. You are to choose your story from the list below.

This paper is not a plot summary. Some suggested topics can be found on the accompanying page.

Apply the standards of good writing that you have learned in ENC 1101 (Composition I), including a clearly stated thesis statement in the introduction and a clear, logical structure using topic sentences, developed ideas, and supporting quotes and details, ending your essay with a clear conclusion in which your thesis statementis reworded. End with a Works Cited page.

To help with MLA style, study Part 5 in Kirszner & Mandell’s The Brief Wadsworth Handbook. Also, review notes/handouts on documentation for matters of form. You must use direct quotations in this short essay. Per MLA guidelines, up to 25% of your paper can be direct quotations, while up to another 25% can be paraphrases. Remember, quotes and paraphrases are your evidence in a literary paper. For Short Essay #1 based on The Elements of Fiction for a short literary work, you should quote only from the reading selection inLiterature and Ourselves(the primary text); do not quote/cite outside research (secondary sources) for this paper.

Include a Works Cited page, properly citing the selected short story as “A Short Story, Play, or Poem in an Anthology” (Kirszner & Mandell’s The Brief Wadsworth Handbook, Part 5, page 216, item 16). This same information can be found in the MLA PowerPoint posted on Atlas. You can find additional MLA information in Literature and Ourselves, Appendix C, “Documenting a Research Paper: MLA Format,” on pages 1149-1164. Additionally, there is an MLA student paper on pages 34-39 in Literature and Ourselves.

CHOICE OF STORIES (from Literature and Ourselves):

“Hills Like White Elephants” by Ernest Hemingway (pages 297-301)

“A Fable” by Mark Twain (pages 864-866)

“The Secret Life of Walter Mitty” by James Grover Thurber (pages 866-871)

“There Will Come Soft Rains” by Ray Bradbury (pages 871-876)

“Happy Endings” by Margaret Atwood (pages 885-888)

I suggest you read the blurb before the story, too, that gives background information about the author and possibly of the story. I also recommend reading the questions and suggestions after each selection, titled “Questions for Engagement, Responses, and Analysis” and “Crafting Arguments,” which often spur ideas.

POSSIBLE TOPICS:

  1. Characters and Theme: Select a character with an inner conflict or a set of characters in conflict with each other. Consider the motivations, influence on the plot, individuality or stereotyped traits, influence on other characters, and relationship to theme. Create a thesis statement asserting the chosen character’s/characters’ roles in developing a particular theme; include the Author and “Title” in the thesis statement (as the last sentence of the Introductory Paragraph). Then, support your thesis statement with an analysis of the ways this theme evolves from the character’s/characters’ actions and thoughts.
  1. Narrative Voice: Analyze the role of the narrator in mediating the story and helping the reader understand the conflicts and themes. Identify the narrative point-of-view. Then, mainly focus on the ways this particular narrative voice controls the other elements of the story, such as plot and suspense, portrayal of and biases toward other characters, and themes. Your thesis statement should be an assertion about the influence and impact of the particular narrative voice. Your thesis statement should be the last sentence of the Introductory Paragraph and should include the Author and the “Title.”
  1. Symbolism: Select a particular symbol or series of symbols in the reading, and discuss use and importance of the symbolism. Sometimes a symbol is a clear allegory of something else, and sometimes a symbol is an interpretive, changing expression of meaning, depending on character point-of-view, among other elements, as a symbol can represent different meanings to different characters for different reasons and different phases of life. However, be careful to avoid far-fetched interpretations, and remember that not every image or event is symbolic. Ground the meaning in the text. Most of all, avoid vagueness; be specific in your analysis. Your thesis statement, as the last sentence of the Introductory Paragraph, should clearly reference the symbolism to be analyzed, and it should include the Author and the “Title.”
  1. Your Choice: Select a particular feature of the short story, based on our study of the Elements of Fictions. Remember, this is not a plot summary, but rather, it is an analysis of a short work of fiction. Your thesis statement should assert the importance of the element you are featuring, and, being placed as the last sentence of your Introductory Paragraph, it should also include the Author and the “Title.”


Grading Rubric:

Writing Assignments fOR ENC 1102

For all written work completed in Composition II (ENC 1102), the following grading standards will be used; therefore, use this information as a checklist to make sure you are not forgetting anything.