Conversation Starter Essay Assessment Instruction APA Style Referencing Please make sure this is written in Australian English format. Week 13: Whitman, The Sleepers,This Compost,Beat! Beat! Drums,Vigil Strange I Kept on the Field, One Night,The Wound-Dresser, WhenLilacs Last in the Dooryard Bloomd (you will use this source to complete this essay in the course reader that will be attached) Choose one of the passages listed for the week you have been assigned in the Tutorial Paper guidelines Choose one of the reading passages listed for your week listed below for your 500 word essay and oral presentation. You must create your own question based on the passage. Type this question at the beginning of your 500 word essay. We will evaluate both for coherence and thoughtfulness. Although we will not expect the tutorial paper to be as polished as the short written assignment and take-home exam, please take time to proofread for grammar and spelling. Avoid plot summary in the written portion of your assignment. Your peers have already read the texts (or they should have!), so there is no need to summarize what happens. Papers that focus largely on plot summary and contain no or very little analysis will NOT receive a passing mark. Your paper should be analytical rather than descriptive; the latter simply gives us facts, the former shares the students ideas and arguments with the rest of the class. In your written essay, please do your best to provide supporting evidence in the form of quotations or paraphrases from the reading(s). However, as you only have 500 words, please limit the amount of direct quotation to a maximum of 75 words. Your analysis of the passage should include relevant elements of the Close Reading Guide included include below. How to write a good question? – Your question should be analytical. Is Emerson an individualist?is not a good question because it asks for a yes or no response. However, How does Emerson critique individualism?is a good question because it invites a reflective response. – You might consider linking your question to specific language in the text. For example, What does Emerson mean when he claims to embrace the common rather than the remote?Engaging with textual specifics will prevent you from making broad generalisations. – If you are struggling to construct a question, then ask yourself how the reading relates to one of the key themes or concepts that we have been discussing. This might be a concept or theme that we discussed in another week that you apply to the reading for your week. – If you decide to focus on specific figurative language, then remember that there are many forms of figurative language, including symbol, metaphor, simile, metonymy, synecdoche, etc. Dont assume that all figurative language is symbolic! If you have completed Methods of Reading, you might re-read the chapter on Figures and Tropesfrom Bennett and Royles Introduction to Literature, Criticism, and Theory (this book is also available online through the WSU library Conversation Starter Assignments for Weeks 3-14 Be sure to review the tutorial guidelines in the Learning Guide. The most crucial are the following: ? You must create your own analytic question based on your chosen passage, make sure you type it on top of the essay. You must submit the 500-word essay. ? Also create additional 2-4 sentence summary of the essay paper at the end make sure you put headline of summary sentences. I will attach the reading for week 13 and marking criteria. Week 13 Passages to choose from: (1) This Compostsection 1. (2) The Wound-Dresserpgs. 228-29, sections 3-4. (3) When Lilacs Last in the Dooryard Bloomdpgs. 242-243, sections 15-16. Close Reading Guide for Literature Close reading is perhaps the most fundamental technique of literary analysis. A close reading, or textual analysis, confronts a portion of the text in its specificity, examining the particular words, rhetorical devices, and organization of a passage. This process serves two basic purposes: First, it gives you a tool by which you can confront the complexity of literary language. Close reading helps you unpack the sophisticated presentation of ideas and intricate tropes that are characteristic of the work we read in literature courses. In addition to making the meaning of complex passages clearer, it helps to clarify the precise relationship between the passages form and its content. Second, close reading anchors your discussion of the literary text as a whole, keeping your argument from becoming general and unfaithful to the work you are analysing. By structuring your essays around multiple close readings, your analysis will take on added precision, accuracy, and complexity. Even if you dont discuss every line or sentence in the passage you examine, you should address its main features, using quotations from the passage to demonstrate and explore your interpretation. While outside sources are unnecessary, a good dictionary can help inform you of alternate meanings of familiar words. Once youve selected a passage for close reading, consider the following elements. Their relative importance will vary depending on the nature of the passage you are discussing. In other words, when writing your tutorial paper you may not necessarily discuss all of the following elements. Context: Where is the passage situated in the work? What comes before and after it? Does the passage echo or foreshadow other moments in the text, either in its form or content? Imagery: What sorts of images, metaphors, similes, and other tropes are employed? What is their effect? How effective are they in conveying what the speaker wants them to convey? 9 Language: Consider the significance of such linguistic devices as repetition, formal or informal language, tone, conventional or unconventional sentence structure, assonance, alliteration, and if appropriate, rhyme and meter. How do these devices affect the impression the passage makes on you? Speaker and Audience: Who is talking and why? Who is listening? How does the speakers identity color the meaning of his or her words? How are the speakers words received? Do you detect any ironic distance between the narrator (or author) and the speaker? Larger Contexts: Does the passage allude to other literary works, historical events, or cultural markers? How do these allusions affect the meaning of the passage? Form and Content: Does the form of the passage contribute to the transmission of its content, or does it hinder it? Are the form and content in harmony, or in tension?
