Beowulf Essay Guidelines:
All papers for this course should be 3-5 pages long, double-spaced with standard font and margins (use the default font and margins in your MS Word program). No title or headings are required for your paper. Just include your name and student ID number. The minimum length for the paper to pass is
three full pages. Beowulf papers must be submitted as MS Word documents on Canvas by 5 pm on Wednesday, Feb. 22. No late or Emailed papers will be accepted without documentation of hospitalization or incarceration.
Prompt for Beowulf Essay:
Compare the sections of Beowulf discussed in class with the analogous sections of the computer-animated film paired with the three Beowulf lectures available on Canvas. Be sure to mention the following:
1) How the explicit nature of film, which provides graphic visual detail of all events in the story, contrasts with literature, which leaves many details up to the imagination of the reader.
2) How the differences between how Beowulf’s encounter with Grendel’s mother is portrayed in both the poem and the film may be rooted in the different moral expectations of the eras in which these two works were produced.
3) How the differences between how Beowulf’s battle with the dragon is portrayed in both the poem and the film may be rooted in the different cultural expectations (with regards to aging) of the eras in which these two works were produced.
This essay will be graded pass/fail. You have only one chance to submit your paper. Neither the Professor nor the IAs will preview your paper before you submit it. You will NOT be able to revise the paper if you fail. If you fail, you lose a full-letter grade for the semester. To pass you must observe the following rules:
Papers must be submitted via the “Assignments” tab on Canvas as MS Word documents by 5 pm on Wednesday, Feb. 22. No late or Emailed essays will be accepted without documentation of hospitalization or incarceration.
You must address ALL of the issues in the above prompt, incorporating these answers into well-structured paragraphs.
The title Beowulf (whether describing the poem or the film) must be italicized (not underlined or putin quotation marks) every time you use it within the body of your essay. If you do not always italicize the title, your paper will fail. Make clear with each reference whether you are describing the poem or the film. The character’s name Beowulf must not be italicized. If you italicize the
character’s name, your paper will fail.
Quotation Guidelines:
In the body of your essay, you must quote directly from the poem Beowulf as it appears in our book on
pages 85-127. After each quotation, include a parenthetical citation that includes the line numbers you
cite.
