English 1900e (2008): Essay 3
Contents
Instructions
Please write an essay corresponding to the requirements below on one or more of the works by Austen, Fielding, or Chaucer. You may use works studied earlier this term (for example, a comparison of Wordsworth and Austen), but Austen, Fielding, and/or Chaucer must be of at least equal importance to the earlier work in your essay.
You should develop your own topic using the techniques we have practiced in class. Some possible starting points for your thinking include:
- How does Helen Fielding modernise Pride and Prejudice. What aspects of the world of Austen’s characters is she able to use? Which does she modernise?
- What kind of social, political or religious background does Chaucer expect of his readers. Compare Chaucer to Tinturn Abbey, Pride and Prejudice, or Sawai.
- Compare the presentation of women—as sexual objects, as political and financial agents, as people in their own right—in some combination of Austen, Fielding, and/or Chaucer. For this paper you might want to compare one or more of these works against works studied earlier in the term, though you must discuss at least one of Austen, Chaucer, or Fielding.
Purpose
The goal of this assignment is to give you final practice in developing and writing University-level research ideas in literature and to let you apply the techniques of idea generation we have been using in class.
In addition, this essay should be used to address problems you may have had in the first.
By this time in the course you should be able to do all of the following:
Technical/Style
- Follow my styleguide
- Cite sources correctly according to MLA format.
- Write at a University-level style: no run-on sentences or comma splices; correct use of common punctuation marks (colon, semi-colon, comma)
- Carefully proof-read your text
Intellectual
- Construct an argument that does more than summarise the plot of the works in question
- Find appropriate support from the text(s)
- Research, using appropriate scholarly sources, factual questions necessary to support your work.
I will be assigning significant penalties to failures to observe the details of MLA style or my styleguide.
Rubric
For this essay, I will be following my standard rubric.
Dues dates, length, etc.
- Due: December 5, 2008. Submit via Turnitin
- Format: Please follow my standard style guide.
- Length: Your essay should be approximately 1800 words (± 10%). This is equivalent to approximately double-spaced 6-8 pages.
