Paper #2: Close Reading

OPTION 1: “The Story of An Hour” by Kate Chopin

We began the semester by reading, thinking about, and discussing “The Story of an Hour.” Now, for your second essay of the semester, I would like you to write a paper in which you offer your interpretation of the final scene of the story through a close reading of it. Your interpretation may have developed out of what we discussed in class or it may be something that we never mentioned; interpretations of things are not right or wrong—they are persuasive or not, depending on whether or not you can support your argument with textual evidence.

OPTION 2: “Hills Like White Elephants”, “The Birth-mark,” or “Cathedral”

According to Raymond Carver, the short story writer’s “task” is to show “how things out there really are and how he sees those things—like no one else sees them. And this is done through the use of clear and specific language, language used so as to bring to life the details that will light up the story for the reader” (Principles of a Story).

For this option, you will select one of the stories we’ve read thus far this semester and investigate why you think we would read that particular story in a course that revolves around the theme of “happiness.” What do you learn from these stories about how people experience happiness? How might these stories change the definition of happiness you explored in your Happiness Manifesto? You might even think about Daniel Gilbert’s observation that “most folks do pretty darn good when things go pretty darn bad” (167).

In other words, this paper will require you to make a specific argument (thesis) about how the story you choose involves a character’s desire to be happy. Some questions you might consider: What motivates the conversation Jig and “the American” have? Why is Alymer so desperate to remove Georgiana’s birthmark? What does Carver’s narrator learn from Robert? In order to prove your thesis, I suggest that you focus on specific moments in the story, and quote and analyze them in order to support your ideas.

ROUGH DRAFT DUE: Thursday, October 27 (3-5 pages typed, bring 3 COPIES to class)

INDIVIDUAL CONFERENCES: Tuesday, November 1 (NO REGULAR CLASS PERIOD)–Please come to my “Office”—VC7-290K at your assigned time and

** be sure to bring your most current draft of Paper 2**

FINAL DRAFT DUE: Tuesday, November 8 (3-5 pages typed)

Prewriting Strategies:

To write an essay of this sort–an argumentative essay, you need to do several things before writing:

1.      Make notes about ideas that have impressed you during class discussion or from your reading, or that occurred to you, about the story you’ve chosen to work with.

2.      Reread the story, even more than once.  Each time you read the story, you will notice new and different things.

3.      After rereading the story, making notes, thinking, start gathering information that can help you to support the point–the interpretation–that you have decided upon.  This means that you should be marking passages from the story in your text, and making more notes.

4.      Next, state your point in a clear sentence.  This sentence will need to appear early in your paper when you sit down and write it (if not in your opening paragraph, then shortly thereafter) and will be the thesis of your essay.

Also:

5.      When you write the paper, make sure to use the evidence of the story to support your argument (in other words, quote from the story).

6.      When you quote from the story, you will need to document all quotes, according to correct MLA format (which we’ve reviewed in class).

7.      No outside research is necessary or suggested.

Paper #2 Draft Cover Letter

Each time you hand in a draft or revision of an essay, you’ll attach a cover letter to the front.  For your Paper #2 Draft, please write a letter, addressed to your readers, in which you answer the following questions and address any other concerns that you have.  Think of your draft letter as an opportunity to request exactly the kind of feedback you need.  All cover letters should be typed and about one page long.

• What is your thesis?  What are you hoping to achieve in this paper?
• What are the biggest problems you are having at this point in the writing process?
• What idea or point do you feel you’ve made the most successfully?  Least successfully?
• What’s the number one question about your essay—its thesis, structure, use of evidence, persuasiveness, style, etc.—that you’d like your readers to answer for you?
• If you were going to start revising today, what three things would you focus on?  How would you begin?

Paper #2 FINAL Draft Cover Letter

Each time you hand in a draft or revision of an essay, you’ll attach a cover letter to the front.  For your Paper #2 Final Draft, please write a letter, addressed to your readers, in which you answer the following questions and address any other concerns that you have.  Think of your draft letter as an opportunity to share how you feel you have improved your paper.  All cover letters should be typed and about one page long.

• What is your thesis?  What are you hoping to achieve in this paper?
• What are some problems you faced when writing and how did you try to or succeed in resolving them?
• What idea or point do you feel you’ve made the most successfully?  Least successfully?
• Do you consider this draft to really be your “Final Draft?”  Why? Did you do anything while revising that could be described as a “re-seeing” of the paper?
• What grade do you think you deserve on this paper and why?

 ***

Paper #1

Selections from Aristotle’s Ethics (Books 1 and 10)

Selections from Plato’s Republic (Books 1 and 7)

Gilbert, Stumbling on Happiness, Chapter 2

Ehrenreich, Bright-Sided, Introduction

Freud, Civilization and Its Discontents, Chapters 1, 2, 5, 6

A manifesto is “a public declaration of principles and intentions, often political in nature.” In other words, a manifesto is a statement (oftentimes meant to be read out loud) that outlines one’s opinions about an issue the author feels strongly about. For your first paper of the semester, you will write a “Happiness Manifesto.”

In his “Foreword,” Daniel Gilbert writes, “this is not an instruction manual that will tell you anything useful about how to be happy.” So, your job is to do the opposite—aim to tell your reader what you think happiness is and try to prove several “useful” points about “how to be happy.” What does it mean to be happy? Why do we strive for happiness? Should we strive for happiness?

Remember, this paper must have a clear thesis that expresses your views on happiness, and in order to prove and support your thesis you will need to use quotes from materials we’re read in class. Outside research is not needed.

Some sample manifestos:

• Communist Manifesto (full text)
• Dada Manifesto (excerpts)
• Surrealist Manifesto (full text)

A few tips:

• Be clear and concise in your writing.  Keep in mind that this is a piece of writing intended to be read, so you want your readers to both understand what you are saying, and to sympathize with your position.

• Read your manifesto out loud ahead of time—do you hear any grammatical mistakes, any places where you seem to stumble over your own words?

• Remember to be as assertive as possible. You want your readers to agree with you by the end of the paper!

ROUGH DRAFT DUE: Tuesday, September 27 (3-5 pages typed, bring 3 COPIES to class)

RADICAL REVISION DUE: Thursday, October 6 (3-5 pages typed, bring 2 COPIES to class)

FINAL DRAFT DUE: Tuesday, October 11 (3-5 pages typed)

***

Paper #1 Draft Cover Letter

Each time you hand in a draft or revision of an essay, you’ll attach a cover letter to the front.  For your Paper #1 Draft, please write a letter, addressed to your readers, in which you answer the following questions and address any other concerns that you have.  Think of your draft letter as an opportunity to request exactly the kind of feedback you need.  All cover letters should be typed and about one page long.

• What is your thesis?  What are you hoping to achieve in this paper?
• What are the biggest problems you are having at this point in the writing process?
• What idea or point do you feel you’ve made the most successfully?  Least successfully?
• What’s the number one question about your essay—its thesis, structure, use of evidence, persuasiveness, style, etc.—that you’d like your readers to answer for you?
• If you were going to start revising today, what three things would you focus on?  How would you begin?

Paper #1 FINAL Draft Cover Letter

Each time you hand in a draft or revision of an essay, you’ll attach a cover letter to the front.  For your Paper #1 Final Draft, please write a letter, addressed to your readers, in which you answer the following questions and address any other concerns that you have.  Think of your draft letter as an opportunity to share how you feel you have improved your paper.  All cover letters should be typed and about one page long.

• What is your thesis?  What are you hoping to achieve in this paper?
• What are some problems you faced when writing and how did you try to or succeed in resolving them?
• What idea or point do you feel you’ve made the most successfully?  Least successfully?
• Do you consider this draft to really be your “Final Draft?”  Why? Did you do anything while revising that could be described as a “re-seeing” of the paper?
• What grade do you think you deserve on this paper and why?