Final Essay Assignment

Name:                                                                        12^th Grade Honors English

Literary Criticism Essay

Task

Now that you have studied various methods of Literary Criticism, it is your turn to put one of these methods to use by applying them to your Literature Circle book. It is time for you to pull all these skills together to write a literary analysis essay. 

Procedure

Your first step is to re-read your group’s discussion blog and notes from your Literature Circle books from a Social Class, Gender, Reader-Centered or Psychoanalytical perspective.  You should identify key passages of your book that relate to your chosen type of criticism.

Next, review your notes and your blog threads. Select your 3 strongest answers/ideas; these will become your 3 main ideas/topic sentences for your essay. Looking at these three ideas, ask yourself how they are related or how you could state all three of these ideas in one sentence—this sentence will become your THESIS statement. If you have trouble with this step, use the following template and fill in the blanks:

(Reader-Centered/Psychoanalytical/Gender/Social Class) criticism offers a unique understanding of author’s book, Book Title because __________________________.

For example, perhaps you read Of Mice and Men from a Social Class Theory perspective. In your notes/blogs, you saw that:                                                              1) power is maintained through economics 
2) power is established through social class 
3) power is established through race.

You could write:

Thesis:

Social Class Criticism offers a unique understanding of John Steinbeck’s Of Mice and Men because it helps show how power is related to economics, social class and race.

·      Your next step is to create an outline (any format you choose) with a thesis for your essay. Remember that this essay will be planned, outlined and written during class time—use the time effectively.

·      Your thesis needs to be approved and initialed by me before you move on!

·      You need at least three quotes (one per body paragraph) that represent all parts of the book!

·      The essay will be marked on the standard essay rubric on the back of this paper.

Dates:

Thesis Statement & Outline: Due at the end of class on Thursday, March 1

First Draft: Due at the end of class on Wednesday, March 7

Peer Editing Comment: Due at the end of class on Thursday, March 8

Final Draft: Due at the end of class on Friday, March 9