or your first major writing assignment, you will be writing a 3-5 page essay in

or your first major writing assignment, you will be writing a 3-5 page essay in which you fully analyze either the Plot or Characters of ONE selected reading from Portable Literature.
If you choose to write about KATE CHOPIN’s “The Story of an Hour” or NEIL GAIMAN’s “How to Talk to Girls at Parties,” you will write a CHARACTER ANALYSIS of at least TWO major characters in the selected story.
(See below for details on requirements.) If you choose to write about JOHN UPDIKE’s “A&P” or KATHERINE MANSFIELD’s “Miss Brill,” you will write a PLOT ANALYSIS of ALL FIVE stages of plot in the selected story.
(See below for details on requirements.)
Writing is a process of attempting to capture thoughts and pin them to a page. Not every attempt is fruitful, and (more often than not) even the best attempts can be made better. This assignment requires –once you have done your best to capture your thoughts–that you must let the words speak for themselves.
This assignment is just a draft, not your finished product. It should represent your best work and be a complete product containing an attempt to fulfill all of the requirements for the paper, but the grade for this assignment depends primarily on level of effort, not finished quality. You will have another chance to polish your writing before it gets graded; this is your chance to get some final advice from others.
Organizational Structure:
PLOT ANALYSIS
The essay must include a well-developed INTRODUCTION that defines the stages of the Plot and offers a clear THESIS STATEMENT about the author’s use of the traditional narrative structure.
Your paper MUST discuss all five elements of the plot, although you are more than welcome to group the plot in the following way:
EXPOSITION,
RISING ACTION+CLIMAX, and
FALLING ACTION+RESOLUTION,
Your examination of the story should close with a CONCLUSION that unifies how each element of plot does or does not fit into the narrative arc and an assessment of the story as a whole.
CHARACTER ANALYSIS
The essay must include a well-developed INTRODUCTION that defines the different aspects of Character and offers a clear THESIS STATEMENT about the author’s use of the characterization
Your paper MUST discuss the development, growth, and motivation of at least two major characters, including:
whether the characters are flat or round and to what extent,
whether the characters are static or dynamic as the story moves along, and
what the underlying cause of each character’s personality and actions might be,
Your examination of the story should close with a CONCLUSION that unifies how each element of character does or does not contribute to the meaning of the story as a whole.
Analysis/Synthesis of Ideas:
You should do more than just point out the elements of the plot or identify the characters in a surface-level way. You should discuss and analyze WHY the elements you identify are important and HOW the author conveys the story’s message to the reader through these literary elements. When you make a claim about the story, provide direct and specific support for your claim from the story itself. Be sure to make reference to and cite specific passages that support your observations. For example: In “Hill’s Like White Elephants,” Hemingway emphasizes Jig’s frustration with the American and her own personal desperation when she implores, ‘Will you please please please please please please please stop talking?’ (Hemingway 78).
Originality of Ideas/Documentation & Citation:
ALL observations and claims about these stories MUST be your own–you MUST NOT consult any outside sources such as SparkNotes or Schmoop. The only exception is that you MAY reference comments from your textbook outside the stories, such as the general introduction to Plot/Character or the Cultural Context items attached to each story. (Note that any such inclusions should be CITED as Kirszner and Mandell–the editors or your text.)
In addition, all observations and claims MUST be supported with SPECIFIC, DETAILED reference to the texts themselves, including parenthetical in-text citation and inclusion of the stories and the anthology as a whole in a correctly formatted Works Cited page.
Information, discussion, or ideas that are not your own and are not correctly documented are considered PLAGIARISM, a form of academic dishonesty, and WILL NOT be tolerated. As noted in your syllabus and in the Student Code of Conduct, plagiarism can result in severe penalties ranging from failing the assignment to failing the course and even to being expelled from the College.
Format & Style:
Your paper should follow all basic MLA guidelines for formatting (12 point Times New Roman font, 1″ margins. double-spaced throughout, etc.) Refer to your Little Seagull Handbook if you are unsure. (This link takes you to an abbreviated Little Seagull guide to MLA formatting Download Little Seagull guide to MLA formatting, not your actual textbook.)
Your paper should have a unique, interesting title. Your title should reflect your thesis and content, not just name the type of assignment (Plot Analysis) or the stories being discussed (“How to Talk to Girls at Parties” vs. “The Story of an Hour” and “A Rose for Emily”). Make the reader WANT to read your paper.
Your essay should be in the objective third-person point of view (using pronouns such as he, she, it, they and nouns such as the author, Gaiman, the reader, exposition). While the opinions in the essay should be your own, you should not call attention to yourself with empty phrases such as, “I think . . .” or “In my opinion . . .” nor should you force the reader into the essay with phrases such as, “You can feel . . .” or “When you read the story . . .”
EXAMPLES:
In my opinion, Neil Gaiman uses exposition in a very clever way.”
Delete the opening first-person phrase and the sentence is stronger and more definitive without changing the overall meaning.
As you read “How to Talk to Girls at Parties” you cannot help but notice ^highlights Gaiman’s use of foreshadowing.
Delete the second-person references and add a stronger verb to make the sentence more direct and powerful.