Using each of the following readings engage critically with Literary Theory in a

Using each of the following readings engage critically with Literary Theory in an in-depth analytical way, the focus is on PROCESS, not the “right answer” or whether you’ve learned the “content”; the point is to develop a literary thesis.
– Elizabeth Hill Boone: “Writing and Recording Knowledge”
– Walter Mingolo: afterword to Writing Without Words Andrew Newman:
-Chapter 2 of Colonial Mediascapes “Early Americanist Grammatology: Definitions of Writing and Literacy”
Found in MattCohenJeffreyGlov file
-Jordan Abel: from Place of Scraps
Write an essay no less than 3000 words and no more than 3500 words. Imagine you are writing a conference-style talk that introduces, situates, analyzes, and makes a clear critical argument about the literary text using critical essays for supporting or contrasting evidence.
Essays should NOT be personal responses or reading diaries (e.g. did you like the reading, was it difficult, do you think it’s good, is one character just like your uncle, etc); instead, they should be logical arguments built from an analysis of textual details.
Focus on the specific language of a given passage (or set of passages) you can quote.
Indeed, write about just one small aspect of one small part of the text. Start as small as you can: a mark of punctuation, a single word, a mood tense. It’s always easier to build up.
Focus on how the text works, rather than what it is about.
Keep in mind that COMPREHENSION is not the same as ANALYSIS (this is why re-reading is key to advanced literary study). Your paper is not a demonstration that you’ve read the assigned texts, or can give a synopsis. Your thesis should not be something that anyone could have come up with on a first reading.
Use textual evidence to shift your claims about a text from possible to probable.
Include in-text citations for all quoted or paraphrased material. Include a Works Cited page at the end of your paper using MLA citation format.
Grading Rubric:
The essay has a thesis: 25%
The essay uses specific language from the reading: 25%
The essay focuses on how the text works rather than what it’s about: 25%
The essay uses textual evidence to support the thesis: 25%