This is a close read essay.]how particular choices made by the writer contribute to its larger meaning. We have also seen that an understanding of contextwhat exists outside of the textcan help us to develop a deeper meaning. Write an essay that advances an interpretation of your selected text and examines how cultural and historical contexts shape the text. Your interpretation should be expressed in an argument that proceeds through explication by revealing or uncovering ideas that are only suggested, perhaps indirectly, by the text. In the body paragraphs of your essay, your discussion of the text should demonstrate a firm grasp of the techniques of analysis (describing one thing in detail and explaining its variously significant elements) and synthesis (identifying several similar elements across the text that reveal larger thematic patterns). Your interpretation will also be informed by the cultural-historical moment. You do not need (and should not try) to read an entire historical period into the text; rather, select a practice, event, or other element significant to your argument about the text. Your essay must have a clear claim that interprets the text, and either tells readers how cultural and historical contexts are significant to an understanding of the text, or how elements in the text help us better to understand the culture and historical moment in which it was created. You will use specific evidence both from the work and from your research to support your thesis. Important note: You must analyze the relationship between the text and the cultural/historical information, not just summarize each of them. Essay should be written exclusively in edited academic English. All paragraphs should have strong topic sentences and clearly written internal transitions. Your sentences should be edited for precision, conciseness, variation, and clarity.
RESEARCH: This essay requires one secondary source (summary sites, such as Spark Notes, will not count as research). If you are using a website (or other source that is not peer reviewed), you may want to evaluate it using the Evaluating Websites Checklist (see Course Documents). Be sure that all borrowed information is cited in text and on your works cited page.
TEXT: Jackson, The Lottery
FORMAT: must be formatted according to MLA 12pt. font, double spaced, with in text citations and a works cited page (must contain the primary and secondary texts). Be sure to include a title (centered) and page numbers (in the right margin).
