Write a response paper that a) briefly analyzes the central meaning(s) of an assigned text from class, and b) thoughtfully explores how characters, events, or themes in your chosen text may relate to your life personally, as well as to current events or global issues in the world today. Use any of the literary readings from weeks 1-3 (or even from a future week, if youre reading ahead- the Course Schedule containing all reading assignments is located in the Course Syllabus). Your submission should be a minimum of 750-1000 words and thoroughly address all assignment instructions below.
Requirements:
Thesis/Analysis/Organization
Write an introduction that announces the name of the story and author you’ve chosen and provides a specific thesis statement that describes the aspect of the story you’ll be discussing, and how it is relevant to the present.
In your body paragraphs, elaborate on your thesis, connecting one or more specific aspects of the story with personal experience, a current event, and/or a global issue. (A useful brainstorming exercise here may be to think in terms of dichotomies, like war and peace, love and hate, wisdom and ignorance, etc.- where do you see these conflicts in a text, and how might they connect to a current event?) Remember, the focus of this paper is to draw meaningful connections between characters, plot, or theme to some type of current or recent event in our time.
Along the way, support your points using occasional textual evidence in MLA Style. Outside research (beyond the literature itself) is not required at this point, but if used, the student is responsible for using any necessary MLA-style documentation appropriately and sparingly.
