Reference no: EM132379480
Topic sentences:
After you've closely read the following stories, go back and look over the beginning of each story (paragraphs for each are specified):
• "Maria Concepcion," Katherine Anne Porter (paragraphs 1-5)
• "Cathedral," Raymond Carver (paragraphs 1-5)
• "Guests of the Nation," Frank O'Connor (Section I)
Choose one story from the list and answer the following questions to generate ideas for your essay:
• What is suggested about the setting and situation of the story from the first few paragraphs?
o How would you describe the social and religious character of the community?
• What does the setting suggest about the main characters, including the protagonist?
o How would you describe the temperament or history of the main character?
o How would you describe the attitudes of the characters OR the narrator's attitude toward them?
o What kind of psychological or physical stresses do the characters endure?
• What do you see in the opening that helps to predict the story's outcome?
o Does it foreshadow events or conflicts?
o Does it set up false expectations that it ultimately defies?
o Does it raise questions that the story serves to answer?
o Does it simply provide background that the reader must know in order to understand the characters' actions as the story goes on?
After answering these questions, think about how your responses are connected. Use those connections to formulate a thesis about the story. Essays that merely summarize or paraphrase the story's plot or character descriptions will not receive credit. Please remember to analyze the story, which shouldn't be difficult after answered the questions above.
STRUCTURE: Don't forget to use the three-point strategy for supporting your points that was described in this unit's Writing Guide: (1) make a point of your own; (2) support that point using quoted or paraphrased evidence from the literary work; and (3) explain how the evidence supports your point, if necessary. Make sure that you provide at least one quotation in every supporting paragraph, but don't use too many quotations! Essays that use too many quotations will not be graded and will be returned to the student for revision. Quotations should support your original analysis, not replace it.
You will not need a Works Cited page in this essay since everyone will be using material from the same editions of the stories. You will need to integrate quotations properly, though, and provide page numbers for your quotations in parenthetical citations. (In this essay, you will not need to provide citations for paraphrased material.) For help with parenthetical citations, see the Handbook (Sections 46a through 46b).
Please note: A work of literature is a "primary source," as described in the Handbook (check the Index in your edition for the relevant pages). If you were to refer in your essay to another critic's interpretation of the story, you would be referring to a "secondary source." In this paper and every other in Composition I, you should limit yourself to "primary sources." In other words, this essay is meant to be a description of your own interpretation of the story you've chosen, not a research paper that incorporates other people's readings, no matter how expert they may be. (In Composition II, you will be writing research papers using secondary sources.) If you feel that you absolutely must use one or more secondary sources in your essay, you must document those sources fully and list them on a Works Cited page. Failing to give credit to the writer or writers who provided you with the words--or even the ideas--that you borrowed, is plagiarism.