Relevant Learning Goals:

1-Create cogent, precise, and an original thesis based on your close attention not only to the content of the text but also to how the text is crafted.

2-Practice different close reading-based analytical methods.

Assignment Details:

A textual analytical paper is a formal argument paper derived from close reading. Close reading refers to sustained engagement with a small portion of the text. Importantly this paper is not a research paper. It is not a comparative paper, and it is not a summary. In this paper you should pay close attention to the form, language, style and other choices the author/artists made in composing the text. You should use one of the strategies for close reading discussed in class: Archaeological Dig [focusing on either a small passage (portion)] or Follow the Trail [attending to a very small (almost overlook-able) detail that recurs throughout the text]. You should analyze how the elements of that passage or the pattern of that small detail working in the text.   You should then posit an interpretation about this small part, meaning you should posit a claim about how that works affects (challenges, deepens, illuminates, etc.) how we should read the whole text.

This paper should be 4-5 pages.   It should focus on a specific aspect of a clearly identified text. It should have a clear, cogent, and arguable thesis.  That thesis should emerge from one of the close-reading methods we discussed in class. The paper should support the claim by taking us through the relevant readings of the text. It should include well introduced and explained quotes.   It should be double spaced, 1-inch margins and 12 point Times New Roman font.

Tips:

The key to this paper (as with all the assignments) is scope.   If you are using the archeological dig method, you should only be digging at a small part of the text. Probably not more than 2 pages, and it could easily be as small as a paragraph or the first 20 seconds of a music video.   If you are using the follow the trail method, you need to be very precise about what it is you are following. You are not following all instances of childhood or regret in Frankenstein. That’s way too big. But maybe, you could focus on the narrator’s repeated notice of the young’s “sportive” play.

While in your prewriting, it’s good to start with the text and then work your way to a thesis, in the final paper you turn in, you should start with your interpretive claim. This claim is your thesis. You should give us sense of how you will illustrate this claim for the reader, and then over several body paragraphs with clear topic sentences that introduce each point, you should move through the text, showing the evidence, and explaining how you want your reader to interpret that evidence so that they may understand your central claim.

For more information on the close reading strategies, please refer to the following handout: Close-Reading-Strategy-Clean

Assessment Rubrics

Argument/Perspective

Does your paper have a clearly stated central claim aka thesis? Is the scope of your paper appropriately focused? Does the material you relay in your paper relate to your stated central claim? Is the logic undergirding your argument/perspective clear, consistent, and sound?

Deal Breaker: If you do not have a clearly stated central aim (thesis where relevant), it will affect your grade AT LEAST by a letter.

Engaging Text

Do you provide relevant examples? Do you describe your examples and your particular points about each example in a manner that relays the fullness of your thinking and convincingly proves your point or illustrates your paper’s overall thesis? Do you provide relevant context and citations for your quotations and your examples? Is your reading of the primary and/or secondary text sound? (ie. Do you clearly relay the central aims of the author you’re engaging? And does the logic undergirding the way you engage that reading reflect and respect what the author is actually doing?)

Deal Breaker: If you do not have proper citations, it will affect your grade AT LEAST by a letter.

Also in argument based paper, please know: Just having an example and introducing it (while important) is not enough. If you do not also follow up your example with a detailed explanation of how you want me to interpret this example, you cannot get an A in this section.

Structure

Are your introduction and conclusion focused and doing more than warming up and cooling down. Do you have clear transitions that introduce your points and help the reader relay the individual point back to the overall thesis? Do you present your points clearly and in a strong, productive order?

Language

Do you use clear, complete, and active sentences? Do you adhere to rules of capitalization and correct punctuation? Is your spelling accurate and consistent?

Deal Breaker: Any language issue that puts you at risk of plagiarizing (i.e. incorrect use of quotation marks, not properly formatting titles of texts, misspelling author names, not including citations, etc.) will result affect your grade AT LEAST by one letter.

Deal Breaker: If I give you or the class a language comment more than twice, but you do not show a good faith effort to correct this issue in subsequent drafts and assignments, it will affect your grade by AT LEAST one letter.