English 102 Essay 1 – “Conscious Reading & Critical Writing”
Essay 1: (3 page requirement for the essay plus a Works Cited page.)
You will be submitting the papers you write for this class to Turnitin, an online plagiarism detection service (click on Assignments). This system is designed to encourage academic integrity, accurate use of sources, and independent work in writing.
Critical Analysis: Critical Analysis looks carefully at the logic of the text, how the claims are identified, and assesses that the evidence supports the claims. This analysis seeks to answer: Does the author make a coherent claim? Can the claim be defended? Is the evidence presented enough and reliable?
ASSIGNMENT:
Write an analytical essay. Choose either the King, Woolf, Ryan or Brockenbrough essays from the chapter.
Integrate specific support from the reading that you choose. This means quotations, paraphrases or summaries. Start using MLA citations and Works Cited.
King deals with the positive/negative effects of reading both good and bad books. He also discusses the sacrifices he believes a potential writer must make.
Your essay needs to include answers to these questions:
Identify the author’s assumptions about the subject, his thesis.
What may have led the author to this position?
Identify the specific evidence that supports the main argument. Does this evidence convince the reader?
Is there any evidence that contradicts the author’s position?
Is each source used to support the thesis relevant to the topic?
If there are any visuals that accompany the essay, how does it relate to the written text and does it reinforce it or not?
WRITING:
Your paper needs a clear, purposeful thesis, a clear sense of audience (who would want to read this and why?) and response to the readings.
The paper format should include:
your paper’s header in the upper left-hand corner (name, assignment, teacher, date);
the right header of last name and page number inserted using the header function;
The title (centered) and the paper (with first lines indented one tab space).
The whole paper should be evenly double-spaced without highlighting (bold, italics, etc.). Use standard margins.
All papers are to be typed using Times New Roman 12pt font
