Analysis of Big Changes People Make.
ASSIGNMENT: Plan, write, and revise an essay of about 900 words, more or less, that establishes and develops a thesis insight on the nature of big changes that people make.
Based on the people who are featured in the sources listed in the Works Cited below—Ebenezer Scrooge, Billie Jean King, and Katherine Johnson—make a thesis insight about change in people’s lives in response to this topic question:
Under what conditions are people capable of change? Focus on one factor overall as your thesis insight.
Refer specifically to the sources in the Works Cited for your thesis support, showing causes and effects. Note that you may refer to both the play and the written story, as long as you address A Christmas Carol, then the 2 autobiographical excerpts.
Briefly describe a significant change that each person listed below makes.
Explain your thesis insight as it applies to each person.
What do you conclude upon analyzing the changes that these people make?
Rules and Advice:
Featured characters for this analysis include the fictional Scrooge from the live play (or alternative performance arranged with me beforehand), plus the autobiographical accounts by famous people: Johnson and King.
Decide on the best pattern of organization for the essay: point-by-point, research-paper format (Intro, Lit Review, Analysis, Conclusion), source-by-source.
Make the most profound thesis insight you can, pointing out a concept at the heart of the topic and your argument.
Develop support by selecting the best available ideas and examples from the sources, deciding whether to quote, paraphrase, or summarize each one. For A Christmas Carol, you should refer to the live play, or you may refer to the original written story by Charles Dickens. Another way to refer to the story is to cite examples from one of the audiobook renderings of it.
Use past tense for your analyses of the autobiographical sources (King and Johnson) and present tense for your analysis of the literary character (Scrooge) in support of your thesis.
Cite all references to the sources very clearly, by author and page number for the autobiographical sources, and by simple references to the play within your sentences (In A Christmas Carol,…). You may copy and paste the Works Cited below and then add any other versions of A Christmas Carol to which you refer. Please do not use any outside sources.
Prepare your essay by following the kind of systematic process that has been an emphasis of the course this semester: planning, organizing, drafting, and revising. For the revisions, edit with as much objectivity as possible and make changes to improve the efficiency of the thesis development and delivery. Consider your audience to be somewhat familiar with the story and the autobiographical accounts, but they need to be reminded and shown what you are interpreting and explaining.
Works Cited
Dickens, Charles. A Christmas Carol. 1843. Project Gutenberg. 20 Dec. 2013. Accessed 15 Dec. 2022.
Johnson, Katherine. My Remarkable Journey: A Memoir. HarperCollins, 2021. pp. 63-70, 161-3. PDF.
King, Billie Jean. All In: An Autobiography. Knopf, 2021. pp. 25-6, 43-5, 171-4. PDF.
NOTE: If you went to the play on a different date, change the date in the Works Cited. If you watched a film adaptation rather than going to the play, replace the citation of the play with the film information in the Works Cited. Here is information from the Purdue OWL website about citing a film in the Works Cited: https://owl.purdue.edu/owl/research_and_citation/mla_style/mla_formatting_and_style_guide/mla_works_cited_other_common_sources.html
FILMS OR MOVIES
List films by their title. Include the name of the director, the film studio or distributor, and the release year. If relevant, list performer names after the director’s name.
Speed Racer. Directed by Lana Wachowski and Lilly Wachowski, performances by Emile Hirsch, Nicholas Elia, Susan Sarandon, Ariel Winter, and John Goodman, Warner Brothers, 2008.
To emphasize specific performers or directors, begin the citation with the name of the desired performer or director, followed by the appropriate title for that person.
Lucas, George, director. Star Wars Episode IV: A New Hope. Twentieth Century Fox, 1977.