Assignment Goals:
Demonstrate that you've read into a text closely, carefully, and critically, with an awareness of the author's choices and strategies
Limit a topic and control the focus of a brief textual analysis
Develop a clear, specific thesis that invites readers to understand or react to the text as you do
Integrate textual evidence to support your thesis
Discuss evidence in a way that links it to your thesis and sub-claims
The Project: Choose one of the stories we've discussed this unit and write an essay in which you identify the effects you think the author has consciously worked to produce or argue for an interpretation of the story. Analyze how specific elements of the story combine to create those effects or that interpretation and discuss why they are significant.
The Texts:Groundhog Day directed by Harold Ramis
A picture from the current Center for Creative Photography exhibit.
Other texts posted on d2l
Limiting Your Focus: This is a relatively short paper that requires you to limit your focus. Confine yourself to one or two key features, or to a combination of just a few passages and features. If you were writing about Groundhog Day for example, you might focus on the themes in the films.
Your Thesis: You must deliver your central claim as a clearly worded thesis included in your introduction. Your thesis must be a claim; it cannot be a statement of fact.
Your Audience: Write your analysis for an academic audience who is familiar with the text you are analyzing but who hasn't studied it recently.
Requirements and Grading: The basic requirements of this assignment are defined here. Essays that do not meet the basic requirements will result in a failing grade.
Percentage of Course Grade: 25%
Due Date: TBD
Length: Most students who complete this assignment successfully do so in about 3-4 typed pages, double spaced.
Manuscript Format: Follow MLA guidelines. See Rules for Writers Section 56 (and the sample first page of a manuscript on p. 467). Your paper should look exactly like this sample page. Upload your essay to the d2l dropbox.