English 3653 Spring 2012 FIRST UNIT EXAM Mercer

OUT-OF-CLASS ESSAY (50 points possible)

PURPOSE

Your purpose in writing this essay is to demonstrate your comprehensive knowledge and understanding of the assigned works of prose and poetry of the Romantic Period in English literature.

ASSIGNED TOPIC

Identify at least three (3) significant values commonly reflected in the poetry and prose of the English Romantic Period, and illustrate each value with specific supporting examples from at least three (3) different assigned works. The essay as a whole must include specific references to at least fourteen (14) different assigned works by at least eight (8) different assigned authors, at least two (2) of whom must be writers of assigned prose works.

EXPLANATION OF TOPIC

1. A value is a principle or quality that a writer presents as being of great importance and worth. The subject or theme of a work is NOT necessarily presented as a value. For example, some Romantic poets write about evil supernatural forces, but they do not value them.

2. Usually a single word is NOT enough to clearly identify and define a value. For example, the words “love,” “nature,” and “religion” by themselves are too vague to identify values. What about love, nature, or religion is shown to be a value? What kind of love or religion is valued? What attitude toward nature or God is valued?

3. A literary work may reveal a value either positively (by approving something that the writer deems good) or negatively (by disapproving something that the writer deems bad). In the latter case, the value is the OPPOSITE of whatever is disapproved. For example, a work that exposes the exploitation of children does not value the exploitation but rather the well-being and protection of children. Similarly, if a work ridicules hypocrisy, then sincerity (or integrity or honesty), not hypocrisy, would be the value demonstrated.

CRITERIA FOR GRADING ESSAY

See the document “Explanation of Essay Grades” under “Documents for All Classes” near the top of my home page. I will grade the essay on the extent to which you do the following:

1. Adhere to the assigned topic and the specific instructions for this essay, meeting and exceeding minimum requirements. For example, to earn a C, your essay must

a. develop at least three (3) body paragraphs

b. refer to at least three (3) assigned works per paragraph

c. refer to at least eight (8) assigned authors (including two [2] authors of assigned prose works) in the essay as a whole

d. refer to at least fourteen (14) assigned works in the essay as a whole

e. be at least 2.5 pages long

For an A or B, the essay should significantly exceed some or all of these minimum requirements.

2. Clearly identify significant values commonly reflected in the assigned works of prose and poetry of the English Romantic Period.

3. Use clear, logical, original thinking about the assigned topic.

4. Demonstrate your broad, comprehensive knowledge and understanding of the assigned works by providing examples that are specific, numerous, and logically relevant to the values you identify.

5. Observe mechanical correctness, especially in avoiding serious errors (sentence fragments, comma splices, run-on sentences, and subject-verb agreement errors), spelling and punctuating the authors and titles, and in the form for introducing and documenting quotations.

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 any sources outside our textbook. If you do use words or ideas from sources outside the textbook, however, you must identify them by introducing them in your essay.
3. You may use the help of the tutors in the NSU-BA Writing Center. Since I will be the one grading your essay, however, get help directly from me whenever possible.
4. For best results, get my 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. (Please bring two copies of your draft to your appointment.) The deadline for submitting a complete draft by e-mail (cut and pasted, NOT by attachment) for my feedback is 3 p.m. on Sunday, February 12. You may continue to ask questions by e-mail after that time, and you may continue to get my response to drafts in hard copy during my office hours on Monday, February 13.

2. MANUSCRIPT FORM:

1. Font: Use Times New Roman 12.
2. Spacing: Double-space your entire paper. Do NOT leave additional spaces after the title or between paragraphs. If you are using Word 2007, change the default settings to remove the extra spaces after the title and 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. Alignment of text (justification): Select “align text left” (left justification). Do NOT justify the right margin.
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. If you need more room to squeeze your paper onto three (3) pages, the maximum allowed length, you may, however, reduce your margins to one-half (0.5) inch.
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 four (4)-line heading from the upper left of the first page. Instead, insert as a header your nine (9)-digit NSU Banner identification number (beginning with “N”) followed by one space and the page number in the upper right of each page, beginning with page 1.

3. TITLE:
1. Give your essay a title that specifically reflects the content of the essay, repeating key words from the thesis. In your title include the phrase “in Romantic English Literature” or something similar. Examples of appropriate titles include

i. Faith, Hope, and Love with a Twist: Societal Values in English Romanticism

ii. “The Difference to Me”: Subjective Values in Romantic English Literature

iii. What Matters Most in English Romantic Literature

2. Center the title at the top of the first page of the essay.
3. Do NOT underline or italicize the title of your own essay or place it in quotation marks.
4. 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. Clearly and concisely state the thesis of your essay in a separate opening paragraph of one or two sentences.
2. Repeat the key words of the assigned topic: Use the words “values” and “English Romantic literature” or synonyms.
3. Briefly, in one sentence, and in the same order as in the body of the essay, list the values to be covered in the body.
4. Be sure that the thesis accurately reflects what the body shows.
5. No other introduction is required or desired. Use your time and space to develop the body of the essay.

5. ORGANIZATION: Organize the body of the essay into at least three (3) paragraphs, each beginning with a topic sentence that
1. covers the entire paragraph (and therefore does NOT refer to only one literary work).
2. identifies a significant value in the assigned works of the English Romantic Period.
3. uses the word “value” or a synonym.
4. defines the value clearly and specifically (and therefore does NOT rely on a single word to identify the value). (See #2 under “EXPLANATION OF TOPIC” near the beginning of this document.)
5. does NOT illogically overlap with a value identified in another topic sentence. (For example, do not devote separate paragraphs to the values of rationality, logic, and intelligence; they are too closely related to be clearly distinguished.)

6. DEVELOPMENT: In each body paragraph, clearly illustrate and support the specific value identified in the topic sentence with specific references to as many assigned authors and assigned works as possible (minimum of three [3] assigned literary works per paragraph, preferably more). The essay as a whole must specifically refer to at least fourteen (14) different assigned works by eight (8) different assigned authors (preferably more of each). It’s fine to refer to the same author and/or work in more than one body paragraph, but don’t count an author or work twice. Your supporting references to the works should
1. be logically relevant to the specific value identified in the topic sentence of the paragraph. Explain how the works show your examples to be values.
2. be brief, usually no longer than one (1) or two (2) sentences each. (See the examples in the model essay posted on the class Web page.)
3. despite their brevity, still be very specific, demonstrating your detailed knowledge of the assigned works. (See the examples in the model essay.)
4. often be in your own words. It is NOT necessary or desirable for every supporting example to include a quotation.
5. sometimes be in very brief quotations from the assigned works, followed by parenthetical documentation of the page number and, for poetic quotations, line number(s). (See “DOCUMENTATION” below.)
6. avoid long poetic quotations of more than three (3) lines or prose quotations of more than four (4) lines, which would have to be indented.
7. correctly spell and punctuate the names of the authors, titles, and characters. (For correct punctuation of titles, see the assignment sheet for this unit.)
8. use present-tense verbs to refer in your own words to plots and characters of the literary works; use past-tense verbs to refer to historical events outside the works. When you quote, leave the verb tense as it is in the works.

7. DOCUMENTATION: The following guidelines for quotations and parenthetical documentation are based on the MLA Handbook for Writers of Research Papers, 7^th ed. (2009). The quotations below are italicized only to make them stand out. Do NOT italicize the quotations in your paper.
1. Smoothly introduce all quotations, as demonstrated in the examples below, with the author, title, and context.

2. Immediately after each brief quotation of prose, document in parenthesis the page number(s) where it appears in our textbook.

Like this: In “My First Acquaintance with Poets,” Hazlitt describes Coleridge’s nose as “small, feeble, nothing—like what he has done” (543).

3. Immediately after each brief quotation of poetry, document in parenthesis the page number(s) where it appears in our textbook, followed by a semicolon, one (1) space, and the line number(s) within the poem.

Like this: In “My Heart Leaps Up,” Wordsworth says he wants to have “natural piety” as long as he lives (306; line 9).

4. Do NOT, however, use page or line numbers to introduce quotations.

NOT: On page 306, Wordsworth says in line 9 of “My Heart Leaps Up” that he wants to have “natural piety” as long as he lives.

5. When you quote two (2) or three (3) lines of poetry consecutively, place a slash mark (preceded and followed by one (1) 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: In “To a Sky-Lark,” Shelley says that, unlike birds, human beings “look before and after, / And pine for what is not” (817; lines 86-87).

NOT: In “To a Sky-Lark,” Shelley says that, unlike birds, human beings “look before and after, And pine for what is not” (817; lines 86-87).

NOT: In “To a Sky-Lark,” Shelley says that, unlike birds, human beings “look before and after,/And pine for what is not” (817; lines 86-87).

6. When you cite multiple pages or lines, repeat only the last two digits if the pages are within the same “century” or one-hundred pages.

Like this: In “Michael,” Luke never returns to his parents’ land because “in the dissolute city [he] gave himself / To evil courses” (301; lines 444-45).

NOT: In “Michael,” Luke never returns to his parents’ land because “in the dissolute city [he] gave himself / To evil courses” (301; lines 444-445).

NOT: In “Michael,” Luke never returns to his parents’ land because “in the dissolute city [he] gave himself / To evil courses” (301; lines 444-5).

7. Do NOT quote more than three (3) consecutive lines of poetry or more than four (4) typed lines of prose because quotations of this length would have to be indented within the text of your paper. In a short essay like this, you do NOT have room for indented quotations.

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

Like this: In “The Tables Turned,” Wordsworth continues a debate he has already introduced in “Expostulation and Reply.”

NOT: In “The Tables Turned”, Wordsworth continues a debate he has already introduced in “Expostulation and Reply”.

9. 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: Blake shows his preoccupation with sin in the poem that begins, “O Rose, thou art sick” (91; line 1).

NOT: Blake shows his preoccupation with sin in the poem that begins, “O Rose, thou art sick.” (91; line 1)

Like this: Blake’s narrator asks the tiger, “Did he who made the Lamb make thee?” (93; line 20).

NOT: Blake’s narrator asks the tiger, “Did he who made the Lamb make thee” (54; line 20)?

10. Leave one (1) space between closing quotation marks and opening parenthesis.

Like this: In her journal, Dorothy Wordsworth writes that the daffodils “tossed & reeled & danced” (391).

NOT: In her journal, Dorothy Wordsworth writes that the daffodils “tossed & reeled & danced”(391).

11. Make sure all quotations are exactly accurate. Place inside square brackets any changes you make in the words, capitalization, or punctuation of quotations. Use ellipsis marks (three spaced periods) to indicate that you have omitted words in the middle of a quotation or at the end of a quotation that appears to be a grammatically complete sentence.

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 required. Use your time and space to develop the body of the essay.

9. LENGTH: The essay should be at least two and one-half (2.5) pages and no more than three (3) pages. You will probably need three full (3) pages to develop a superior essay.

10. LIST OF LITERARY WORKS CITED:
1. On a separate page following the essay, number and list the assigned authors and assigned works (correctly spelled and punctuated as on the assignment sheet for the unit) to which you refer in the essay. No particular ordered is required. Set up your list like this:

Author 1: ____________

Title of 1^st work by author 1: ____________

Title of 2^nd work by author 1: ____________

Author 2: ____________

Title of 1^st work by author 2: ____________

Title of 2^nd work by author 2: ____________

2. At the end of your list of works cited, report the following:

i. Total number of assigned authors of prose works: ___ (2 required)

ii. Total number of assigned authors (prose and poetry): ___ (8 required)

iii. Total number of assigned works: ___ (14 required)

3. If the essay includes any unassigned Romantic works from the textbook, place those names and titles in parenthesis in your list of works cited, and do not count them with the assigned authors or works.
4. Superior essays will probably refer to significantly more than the minimum number of assigned authors and works.

11. EDITING AND PROOFREADING:
1. Before you print the final version of your paper, revise, edit, and proofread it carefully.
2. Be sure to use spell-check.
3. After you have printed the paper, proofread it in hard copy. If you see errors and can’t reprint, make corrections in black ink.

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

i. Staple the pages of your essay.

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.

b. Submit your essay in class at 4:30 p.m. on February 14. Even if your essay is not finished or printed, be sure you are present in class at 4:30 p.m.