WRITING PROMPTS
1. (40 pts.) \u201cEmerson developed a philosophy that Thoreau lived.” This statement is especially true of Thoreau’s time at Walden Pond.
Your essay must reveal how Emerson’s theories influenced Thoreau’s actions while he was at Walden Pond. You must use specific details from both Emerson and Thoreau.
Discuss at least three specific examples that prove the truth of the statement. DO NOT DIVIDE YOUR PARAGRAPHS OF THE ESSAY INTO SEPARATE SUMMARIES OF EACH EMERSON ESSAY. Instead, pick one point and develop that point. For example, you could develop a paragraph on the concept of NOT following herd mentality. Emerson mentions this in several of his essays. How does Thoreau take the idea of not following herd mentality and put it into practice at Walden Pond? Provide at least one VERY specific detail from Walden to illustrate. Then, move on to your next point, which could be about nature providing discipline. Then, discuss a 3rd point. Begin with a strong introduction and end with a solid concluding paragraph.
You MUST draw information from all 3 Emerson selections we read–Nature, \u201cThe American Scholar\u201d, and \u201cSelf Reliance.”\u00a0\u00a0
You MUST stick only to Walden. In this essay, you will not support with details from Thoreau’s “Resistance to Civil Government.”
You must include quotes to support your response. <\/p>\n
2. (30 pts.) Explain Thoreau\u2019s definition of \u201ccivil disobedience.\u201d\u00a0
Do NOT provide a dictionary definition of civil disobedience. Stick to Thoreau’s “Resistance to Civil Government” to provide all of your details.
Explain Thoreau’s (a) motivations for writing this essay, (b) theory of the “majority of one,” and (c) how he was punished for practicing civil disobedience.
Give examples of at least two others (individuals or groups) who have followed his ideas concerning civil disobedience. (For this portion of the question, you may consult an outside source. You MUST cite your source.)\u00a0\u00a0
Is there any principle for which you would consider civil disobedience? Why or why not. Be very specific with your response. <\/p>\n
3. (30 pts.) Reveal at least three of Whitman\u2019s Transcendentalist beliefs in his poetry.\u00a0
Consult the list of \u201cBasic Beliefs of Transcendentalism\u201d on your Unit 4 Study Guide.\u00a0
Each paragraph must focus on ONE belief. Do NOT divide your paragraphs of the essay into 3 summaries\/explications of 3 different poems.
For each belief, use details from at least 2 poems as support.\u00a0\u00a0
Use only the poems you were assigned to read during this unit (see your Reading List).
You should use MULTIPLE poems so show that you have read widely. If you limit your paper to only 2 poems, you will lose points on this paper.
Don\u2019t simply quote one line from each poem when you provide support. Instead, discuss each belief and supporting poem with some depth.\u00a0
They need to have specifics from these authors works: <\/p>\n
Emerson
Nature
Chapter 1: \u201cNature\u201d
Chapter 2: \u201cCommodity\u201d
Chapter 3: \u201cBeauty\u201d
Chapter 4: \u201cLanguage\u201d
\u201cThe American Scholar\u201d
\u201cSelf Reliance\u201d read up to \u201cIt is a wicked dollar which by-and-by I shall have the manhood to withhold.\u201d
Thoreau
\u201cResistance to Civil Government\u201d
Walden
Chapter 1. \u201cEconomy
Chapter 2. \u201cWhere I Lived and What I Lived For\u201d (start at \u201cWhy should we live with such hurry and waste of life?\u201d)
Chapter 5. \u201cSolitude\u201d <\/p>\n
Whitman
\u201cA Noiseless Patient Spider\u201d
\u201cWhen I Heard the Learn\u2019d Astronomer\u201d
\u201cThe Wound Dresser\u201d
\u201cWhen Lilacs Last in the Dooryard Bloomed\u201d
\u201cLive Oak, with Moss\u201d
READ Fanny Fern\u2019s defense of \u201cLeaves of Grass\u201d to see the public reaction (and her defense) of the poem.
Preface to \u201cLeaves of Grass\u201d
\u201cSong of Myself\u201d
(Stanzas: 1, 2, 3, 7, 8, 10, 14, 17, 20, 21, 31, 48, 50 52) <\/p>\n
Here’s some important info on citing and how she will grade: <\/p>\n
WRITING THE CRITICAL ESSAY
OUTLINE
Most writing assignments are easier to organize and write if you begin with a plan. For each of your critical essays, you should prepare an outline that begins with a thesis statement. This thesis should then be developed through at least the minimum of basic outline structure. You do not have to submit the outline.
TITLE
You should invent your own title for your essay. You may identify a piece of literature you are analyzing in your title; however, that title alone may not serve as the title of your essay. (Becoming a Man: Sarty\u2019s Journey in Faulkner\u2019s \u201cBarn Burning\u201d) Do not underline, boldface or punctuate your title.
INTRODUCTION
The first step in writing a critical essay is developing a well-defined thesis. As in other essays you have written, the thesis is generally placed at the end of the introductory paragraph. The thesis must state a restricted point you wish to make about the piece of literature. Read your writing prompts very carefully. These prompts will help you develop your thesis.
Begin your essay with an attention getter. You do not need to begin the essay with biographical facts about the author. You might begin by asking the reader a rhetorical question. Or perhaps you can use a quotation from another author to illustrate a key idea in the piece of literature you are analyzing. Remember, just do something to capture your audience\u2019s attention. You must also move smoothly from the attention getter to the thesis; use several sentences to link the two together.
Finally, in this paragraph you should identify the title and the author of the work you are analyzing, even if you mentioned both in the title of the paper. You may do this in your thesis statement or work this information into your attention getter. If you are analyzing multiple works, don\u2019t try to list each one. You will have to mention these works in the body of your paper.
BODY
This section of the paper should be several full paragraphs long (three minimum). You will NEVER summarize the plot of the literature you are analyzing; assume your audience has read the piece of literature and has a basic knowledge of the work. Your essay should contain sound reasoning. Ideas should logically flow in organized movement from one paragraph to the next. Also, follow the checklist below:
Write in the present tense.
Use the third person.
Use transitional words and phrases.
Support your reasoning with short quotations from the literature. Explain the significance of the quoted passages.
DO NOT quote from outside sources for our papers. You are strictly forbidden from using outside sources on any essay except for one small part of the essay about “Civil Disobedience.”
Use parenthetical citations when using quotes or specific references to works. If you are analyzing more than one piece of literature, be sure you are clear about which work from which you are quoting.
Place titles of poems (“The Raven”), short stories (“Young Goodman Brown”), and essays (“Civil Disobedience”) in quotation marks. Italicize or underline titles of long poems (Song of Myself), long works with multiple paragraphs (Walden), and plays (Romeo and Juliet).
Use VERY brief quotes woven into your analysis. Keep them VERY brief. If you are analyzing ONE essay from our text, you don’t need to add a parenthetical reference and cite the title of work.\u00a0
For longer works, you may cite chapters (Chapter 3).
For dramas, cite act, scene, and line (4.2.15-19)
For poetry, you MUST cite lines (4-6) for both paraphrase and quotations. If you are quoting and decide to plan YOUR words into the quote to help it read fluidly, use brackets. (See the example below.)
If you quote from one line of poetry to the next, use a forward slash (\/) to indicate the break from one line to the next. (See example below.)
If you are writing a critical analysis, you normally should cite the primary works you are analyzing on a Works Cited page. For THIS ASSIGNMENT, you will cite works ONLY for the essay on “Civil Disobedience.”
CONCLUSION
In this paragraph you should restate the thesis and add emphasis to the ideas illustrated in your essay. You may add general comments about how this work has contributed to the general body of literature. You may also echo the attention getter you used in your introduction, for this method provides a sound conclusion to any essay. <\/p>\n
Works Cited List
Since you are absolutely forbidden to use outside sources but only the primary documents in our textbook, you do not need to include a works cited list with each essay. You must include such a list if you utilize outside sources for the essay on “Civil Disobedience.”
Prose
Struggle for Life in Crane\u2019s \u201cThe Open Boat\u201d
On January 2, 1897, Stephen Crane was one of four men who went overboard into the gray waters of the Atlantic when the steamer he was aboard, The Commodore, sank off the coast of Florida. Crane recalls his struggle for life in a tiny lifeboat in his short story \u201cThe Open Boat.\u201d Crane uses several different forms of conflict, both internal and external, to propel the story.
The most obvious conflict that the characters face is their fight against nature. The setting reveals the dangerous situation into which the four men have been thrust. The ocean is \u201cjagged with waves\u201d that are \u201cbarbarously abrupt and tall\u201d. These four grown men are in a tiny \u201cten-foot dingey\u201d that writhes on the waves \u201cnot unlike a seat upon a bucking broncho\u201d. With each wave rises a great danger that the boat will swamp with water and they will all drown.\u00a0
Poetry
Frost further describes two roads that \u201cequally lay [before him] \/ in leaves no step had trodden black\u201d (11-12). The speaker can not choose his path by following the footsteps of someone who has passed before him, for no such evidence exists. Instead, both roads are \u201cworn . . . really about the same,\u201d (10) and no clues can help him choose the path most \u201ctraveled by,\u201d (19). <\/p>\n
Special points concerning punctuation and citations:\u00a0
1. Use a slash ( \/ ) at the end of each line of a poem and continue with your quote. Space before and after the slash. See the first line above.
2. Use ellipsis ( . . . ), three spaced dots, to leave out part of the original.
3. To insert your words into a quote in order to make the words read fluidly, use bracket marks. [ ] See example above.
4. Cite lines of the poem instead of page numbers from a text. <\/p>\n
The following information on Modern Language Association (MLA) format will be useful.\u00a0
Since our online textbook does not have numbers for pages, you should follow the examples below. <\/p>\n
From Purchase College Library State University of New York
The MLA Handbook suggests using chapter or paragraph numbers when no page numbers are available, but only if the chapter or paragraphs are explicitly included in the original text. If there are no page, chapter, paragraph, or section numbers in the original text, then no numbers should be included in the citation. Never count pages or paragraphs yourself or invent your own numbers.\u00a0
The following explanation is taken from the MLA Handbook, Eighth Edition (2016):
“An e-book (a work formatted for reading on an electronic device) may include a numbering system that tells users their location in the work. Because such numbering may vary from one device to another, do not cite it unless you know that it appears consistently to other users. If the work is divided into stable numbered sections like chapters, the numbers of those sections may be cited, with a label identifying the type of part that is numbered.” (MLA Handbook 123)
Example 1: According to Hazel Rowley, Franklin and Eleanor Roosevelt began their honeymoon with a week’s stay at Hyde Park (ch. 2).
Example 2: Austen begins the final chapter of Mansfield Park with a dismissing “Let other pens dwell,” thereby announcing her decision to avoid dwelling on the professions of love made by Fanny and Edmund (vol. 3, ch. 17).
“If your source uses explicit paragraph numbers rather than page numbers…give the relevant number or numbers, preceded by the label par. or pars.” (MLA Handbook 56)
Example: There is little evidence for the claim that “Eagleton has belittled the gains of postmodernism” (Chan, par. 41).
“When a source has no page numbers or any other kind of part number, no number should be given in a parenthetical citation. Do not count unnumbered paragraphs or other parts.” (MLA Handbook 56)
Example: “As we read we…construct the terrain of a book” (Hollmichel). <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
WRITING PROMPTS 1. (40 pts.) \u201cEmerson developed a philosophy that Thoreau lived.” This statement is especially true of Thoreau’s time at Walden Pond. Your essay must reveal how Emerson’s theories influenced Thoreau’s actions while he was at Walden Pond. You must use specific details from both Emerson and Thoreau. Discuss at least three specific examples […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[10],"class_list":["post-14463","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-research-paper-writing","tag-writing"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/papersspot.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14463","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/papersspot.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/papersspot.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/papersspot.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/papersspot.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=14463"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/papersspot.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14463\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/papersspot.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=14463"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/papersspot.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=14463"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/papersspot.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=14463"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}