ENGL 3543 Fall 2010 FINAL ESSAY EXAM Mercer

Purpose

Your purpose in writing this essay is to demonstrate your comprehensive knowledge and understanding of as many assigned works as possible from all three (3) units.

Topic

Write an out-of-class essay that develops an original, focused thesis on the topic of women in the assigned works of English literature from the Old English Period through the Eighteenth Century. Integrate specific references to at least fifteen (15) assigned authors (at least five [5] from each of the three [3] units) and at least twenty (20) assigned works.

Suggestions for Focusing Topic

Because this topic is broad and your space is limited, you must limit the topic so that your thesis focuses on a particular point ABOUT women in the assigned works. Although you should do your own original thinking and not limit yourself to the following questions, they might help you generate a thesis and/or main points to support your thesis. Do NOT, however, try to write about several different questions.

1. What character traits, actions, motivations, or problems are most often attributed to women in the assigned works?
2. What types, categories, or stereotypes of women appear in the assigned works?
3. On the whole, are women depicted positively or negatively? realistically or unrealistically? fairly or unfairly? as round or flat characters? as sympathetic or unsympathetic characters? as strong or weak? as complex people or as stereotypes? (Choose ONE of these options.)
4. Given that almost all of the assigned works are written by men, how do the works reflect men’s attitudes toward women? What are these attitudes?
5. What do the assigned works reveal about the roles of women in English society? To what extent do women’s roles remain constant throughout the 1000 years covered in this course? To what extent do women’s roles change over time?
6. What functions do women characters and/or references to women serve in the assigned works?
7. How does the portrayal of women in the assigned works compare with the portrayal of men?
8. What kinds of relationships do women have with men and/or with other women? How do women respond to men and/or to other women?

Clarification of Topic

1. If you refer to female characters that are not human (such as Pertelote in “The Nun’s Priest’s Tale,” Acrasia in The Faerie Queene, and Helen of Troy in Doctor Faustus), be sure to acknowledge their special status.
2. Do NOT focus on biographical information about historical women (such as is found in introductions in our textbook) but on the depiction of women in the assigned literary works.
3. Do NOT repeat the content of the second unit essay exam you wrote about relationships between men and women in Renaissance English literature.

Criteria for Grading Essay

1. Adherence to the assigned topic and instructions, including the requirements for the minimum number of

a. assigned authors in the essay (15)

b. assigned authors per unit in the essay (5)

c. assigned works in the essay (20)

d. body paragraphs (3)

e. assigned works per paragraph (3)

f. pages in essay, not including works cited (3)

To receive a C, the essay must meet all these minimum requirements. To receive an A or B, the essay should exceed minimum requirements in some or all of these areas.

2. Clear, logical, insightful, original thinking about the assigned topic

3. Demonstration of your comprehensive knowledge and understanding of the assigned works by including specific references that are
1. numerous
2. brief but very specific
3. logically relevant to the thesis of the essay and topic sentence of the paragraph

4. Mechanical correctness, especially in
1. spelling and punctuation of authors and titles of works
2. form of documentation
3. avoidance of serious errors, including sentence fragments, comma splices, run-on sentences, subject-verb agreement errors, and errors in principal parts of verbs

Instructions for Writing Essay

1. OUTSIDE HELP
1. Work independently. This is not a group project; do not collaborate with your classmates. Do not submit an essay that is like a classmate’s in content or organization.
2. This is not a research paper; do NOT consult sources outside the textbook. Do NOT refer to the model essay on women in Renaissance English literature that was previously posted on the class Web page.
3. If you do use words or ideas from any sources other than the assigned literary works (such as the editors’ introductions in the textbook), informally document them in your essay by introducing each source. (Any quotations, of course, must be placed in quotation marks.)
4. For best results, get my advance feedback (preferably in person, but if that isn’t possible, by telephone or e-mail) on your thesis and main points and later on a complete draft. The best way to get feedback on a complete draft is to make an appointment to discuss your essay with me during my office hours. The deadline for submitting a complete draft for feedback by e-mail (cut and pasted, NOT by attachment) is Saturday, December 4, at 2 p.m. You may continue to ask questions by e-mail after that time, and you may get my response to your draft in hard copy during my office hours on Monday, December 6. (Please bring two copies of your draft to your appointment.)
5. You may also use the help of the tutors in the NSU-BA Writing Center. However, because I am more familiar with the topic, the instructions, the literary works, and my own expectations, get feedback directly from me whenever possible.

2. MANUSCRIPT FORM
1. Font: Use Times New Roman 12.
2. Spacing: Double-space your paper. Do NOT leave additional spaces between paragraphs. If you are using Word 2007, change the default settings to remove the extra space after each paragraph. (Select “Page Layout” and then “Spacing,” change the “After” setting from 10 pt. to 0 pt., and make this your new default setting.)
3. Justification: Use left (not right or full) justification.
4. Margins: Use one (1)-inch margins on all four sides of the page. The default margins in Word 2003 (and earlier versions) are 1.25 inches; please change your margins to one (1) inch. You may, however, reduce your margins to one-half (0.5) inch if necessary to squeeze your paper onto four (4) pages, the maximum allowed length.
5. Paragraph indentation: Indent each paragraph one-half inch (five [5] spaces) from the left margin.
6. Identification: Because I do not want to know whose essay I am grading, do NOT put your name anywhere on the paper. Omit the usual heading from the upper left of the first page. Instead, insert as a header your nine (9)-digit SSN followed by one space and the page number in the upper right of each page, beginning with page 1. To protect the security of your SSN, you may change any of the numbers except the last four (4).

3. TITLE
1. Give your essay a title that clearly and specifically reflects the content of the essay, including

i. key words from the thesis

ii. a phrase such as “in English Literature through the Eighteenth Century”

2. Do NOT underline or italicize the title of your own essay or place it in quotation marks or boldface.
3. Capitalize the first letter of the first word, the last word, and all other words in your title EXCEPT for articles (a, an, the), prepositions (throughout, between, to, for, in), coordinate conjunctions (and, but, or), and to when used with infinitives.

4. THESIS
1. State a clear, focused, original thesis that relates to the assigned topic.
2. Be sure the thesis states the one central idea that the body of the paper actually supports.
3. State the thesis in one (1) or two (2) sentences in a separate opening paragraph. No other introduction is desired or necessary. Use your limited space to develop the body of the essay rather than to write an introduction.
4. If your thesis includes a list of the main points to be covered in the body of the essay, they should all appear

i. in the same sentence

ii. in the same order as in the body

5. A list of main points to be covered in the body of the paper does not by itself constitute a thesis. For example, do not merely list different types of women that are portrayed in the assigned works but also state an observation or insight ABOUT these types. (See #3 under “Suggestions for Focusing Topic” above.)

5. ORGANIZATION OF BODY
1. Organize the body of the essay into at least three (3) paragraphs, preferably more. Since the maximum length of this essay is four (4) pages, you should consider having four (4) or five (5) body paragraphs.
2. Devote each body paragraph to a different point that supports the thesis and includes references to at least three (3) assigned literary works. In most cases, however, you will need to include far more than three (3) works per paragraph.
3. Begin each body paragraph with a topic sentence that covers the entire paragraph (and therefore does NOT refer to only one work).
4. Do NOT set up body paragraphs that illogically overlap each other. It’s fine, however, to refer to the same work in more than one body paragraph.
5. Do NOT organize your essay unit by unit or period by period, with all the works from the same time period in the same section of your essay. This organization could lead you to make the false assumption that depictions of women are basically the SAME within each period and quite DIFFERENT in different periods.

6. DEVELOPMENT OF BODY PARAGRAPHS
1. In each body paragraph, use logically appropriate examples from the assigned works to support the topic sentence of the paragraph and the thesis of the essay.
2. Develop each body paragraph with brief but very specific references to as many assigned works as possible (at least three [3] works per paragraph, preferably more).
3. Refer to the works in your own words and in very brief quotations introduced and integrated into the paragraph. Although brief quotations can often provide excellent support, each example does NOT need to include a quotation.
4. Do NOT use poetic quotations of more than three (3) lines or prose quotations of more than four (4) typed lines, which would have to be indented within the text of your paper.
5. In the essay as a whole, make specific references to

i. at least fifteen (15) assigned authors, including at least five (5) assigned authors from each of the three (3) units, preferably more. (Authors of anonymous works still count as authors.)

ii. at least twenty (20) assigned works, including at least five (5) from each of the three (3) units. (See “LIST OF LITERARY WORKS CITED” below concerning how to count assigned works.)

6. Be sure to spell, capitalize, and punctuate correctly the names of authors, characters, and titles of works. Punctuate titles as they appear on the assignment sheets for the three units:

i. Place the titles of short works inside quotation marks.

ii. Italicize titles of works long enough to be published separately.

7. When you refer to the plots and characters of the works in your own words, use present tense verbs. If you refer to historical events, use past tense verbs. When you quote, leave the verb tense as it is in the original.

7. DOCUMENTATION: Observe MLA form for quotations and parenthetical documentation.

1. Smoothly introduce all quotations; don’t just start quoting at the beginning of a sentence.

Like this: In “The Wife’s Lament,” the speaker grieves the loss of her relationship with her husband when she says, “Our friendship is as if it had never been” (114).

NOT like this: “Our friendship is as if it had never been” (114).

2. Always quote accurately. Do not omit words in the middle of a quotation (unless you use ellipsis marks) or add or change words within a quotation (unless you put them inside square brackets, NOT parentheses). Do not alter punctuation (except as explained in “f” below).

3. Immediately after each brief quotation of prose, document in parenthesis the page number. Do NOT use page numbers, however, to introduce quotations. (In this class, it is not necessary to document the page numbers of references to assigned works that you put in your own words.)

Like this: In “The Dream of the Rood,” the cross refers to Christ as “the young Hero” (28).

NOT like this: On page 28, the cross in “The Dream of the Rood” refers to Christ as “the young Hero.”

4. Immediately after each brief quotation of poetry, document in parenthesis the page number followed by a semicolon, one space, the word “line” or “lines,” and the line number(s). Do NOT use page and/or line numbers, however, to introduce quotations. (In this class, it is not necessary to document the page and line numbers of references to assigned works that you put in your own words.)

Like this: The narrator of Beowulf says the Danes sometimes worshipped at “pagan shrines” (37; line 175).

NOT like this: In Beowulf, line 175, it says the Danes sometimes worshipped at “pagan shrines.”

e. Place periods and commas INSIDE, not outside, closing quotation marks.

Like this: In “The Nun’s Priest’s Tale,” Chaucer reveals even more about marriage than in “The Miller’s Tale.”

NOT like this: In “The Nun’s Priest’s Tale”, Chaucer reveals even more about marriage than in “The Miller’s Tale”.

f. When parenthetical documentation immediately follows quotation marks, drop the punctuation mark at the end of the quotation (with the exception of a question mark or exclamation point), and after the parenthetical documentation place the punctuation your own sentence requires.

Like this: The Wanderer laments, “All delight has gone” (112).

NOT like this: The Wanderer laments, “All delight has gone.” (112)

Like this: The Wanderer asks, “Where is the giver of treasure?” (113).

NOT like this: The Wanderer asks, “Where is the giver of treasure” (113)?

g. Leave one space between closing quotation marks and opening parenthesis.

Like this: Nicholas yells, “Water!” (251).

NOT like this: Nicholas yells, “Water!”(251).

h. When you quote two (2) or three (3) consecutive lines of poetry, place a slash mark (preceded and followed by one space) to show where one line ends and the next line begins. Do NOT use a slash mark, however, between quoted lines of prose.

Like this: Hrothgar says, “So now, Beowulf, / I adopt you in my heart as a dear son” (53; lines 945-46).

NOT like this: Hrothgar says, “So now, Beowulf, I adopt you in my heart as a dear son” (53; lines 945-46).

NOT like this: Hrothgar says, “So now, Beowulf,/I adopt you in my heart as a dear son” (53; lines 945-46).

8. CONCLUSION
1. Conclude the essay with a one- or two-sentence paragraph that restates the thesis (in different words).
2. No other conclusion is necessary. Use your limited space to develop the body of the essay.

9. LENGTH
1. The essay should be no shorter than three (3) full pages and no longer than four (4) pages.
2. Essays shorter than three (3) full pages will NOT receive a satisfactory grade.

10. LIST OF LITERARY WORKS CITED
1. On a separate page following the essay, unit by unit, number and list the assigned authors and assigned works (correctly spelled and punctuated) to which you refer in the essay. If an author’s name is unknown, list only the title. Set up your list like this:

Unit 1: Middle Ages

Author 1: ___________ Title(s): _____________

Author 2: ___________ Title(s): _____________

Author 3: ___________ Title(s): _____________

Author 4: ___________ Title(s): _____________

Author 5: ___________ Title(s): _____________

Unit 2: Renaissance

Author 1: ___________ Title(s): _____________

Author 2: ___________ Title(s): _____________

Author 3: ___________ Title(s): _____________

Author 4: ___________ Title(s): _____________

Author 5 ___________ Title(s): _____________

Unit 3: Restoration and Eighteenth Century

Author 1: ___________ Title(s): _____________

Author 2: ___________ Title(s): _____________

Author 3: ___________ Title(s): _____________

Author 4: ___________ Title(s): _____________

Author 5: ___________ Title(s): _____________

Total number of assigned authors: ___ Total number of assigned works: ___

[Minimum requirement is 15 assigned authors and 20 assigned works.]

2. Follow the instructions for the two unit essay exams concerning when to count works separately. For example, count the different parts of The Canterbury Tales and individual sonnets from a sonnet sequence as separate works.
3. You may count as assigned works King Lear (if you have actually read the play) and any works you read for the “outside reading” assignment.
4. If the essay includes any unassigned authors and/or works from the textbook, place those names and titles in parentheses in your list of works cited and count them separately.

11. EDITING AND PROOFREADING
1. Carefully edit the draft of your essay sentence by sentence.
2. Before you print the final version of your essay, carefully proofread and use spell-check.
3. After you have printed the paper, carefully proofread it again. If you can’t reprint, make corrections in black or blue ink.

12. SUBMISSION OF ESSAY
1. To assemble your essay for submission:

i. Staple the pages of your essay and list of works cited.

ii. Separately from the essay, staple the pages of a clean, unmarked copy of this document.

iii. Paper-clip your essay in front of this document.

2. Submit your essay in class at 4:30 p.m. on December 7. Even if your essay is not finished or printed, be sure you are present in class at 4:30.
3. The final deadline to submit a late essay is Thursday, December 9, at 9 p.m.