Please staple a clean, unmarked copy of these instructions behind your completed essay.

English 3653 Spring 2007 FIRST UNIT EXAM Mercer

OUT-OF-CLASS ESSAY (50 points possible). Write your essay out of class and submit it in class on Feb. 15 at 7:20 p.m.

ESSAY TOPIC

More than in other literary periods, many works of the Romantic Period in English literature are autobiographical, reflecting the personal experiences of the writers. Write an essay that develops an original thesis about the assigned Romantic writers’ use of personal experiences in their assigned works. Integrate specific references to at least fifteen (15) different assigned works by at least eight (8) different assigned authors, including Lamb and Hazlitt.

EXPLANATION OF TOPIC

1. For the purposes of this essay, personal experiences are events in the authors’ lives that are reflected in their literary works. Personal experiences would include
1. situations that we know occurred in the authors’ lives.
2. situations one can reasonably assume the authors would have witnessed, given the time and place in which they lived. (In your essay, make clear that these are only probable experiences. Be careful not to assume too much.)
3. people the authors knew.
4. places the authors lived and visited.

The introductions and footnotes in the textbook identify the aspects of the assigned works that are based on or refer to the authors’ personal experiences. If you are unsure whether something would qualify as a personal experience, please ask me in advance.

2. For the purposes of this essay personal experiences would NOT include the authors’ ideas and opinions—unless you can show that these ideas and opinions arose from actual experiences the authors had. Also, do NOT include in your essay any of the authors’ personal experiences that are mentioned in the textbook’s introductory material but are NOT reflected in the assigned literary works.

3. One or more of the following questions may help you find a focused thesis and main points for the body of your essay:
1. What kinds or categories of personal experiences appear most often in the assigned works?
2. What stage or stages in the authors’ lives (childhood, young adulthood, middle age, old age, etc.) are most reflected in the personal experiences they write about?
3. What functions do the authors’ personal experiences serve in the assigned works? How and why are their personal experiences important to the works?
4. What emotions do the authors most often convey concerning their personal experiences?

CRITERIA FOR GRADING ESSAY

1. Adherence to assigned topic and specific instructions, meeting and exceeding minimum requirements. For example, to earn a C, your essay must develop at least three (3) body paragraphs, refer to at least three (3) works per paragraph, refer to at least eight (8) assigned authors (including Lamb and Hazlitt) in the essay as a whole, refer to at least fifteen (15) assigned works in the essay as a whole, and be at least two (2) full pages long. For an A or B, you should significantly exceed some or all of these minimum requirements.

2. Clear identification of works that reflect the authors’ personal experiences as opposed to merely their ideas and opinions

3. Demonstration of your knowledge and understanding of the assigned works by providing examples that are specific, numerous, and logically relevant to the thesis of your essay

4. Mechanical correctness, especially in spelling and punctuation of authors and titles and in documentation of quotations

INSTRUCTIONS FOR WRITING ESSAY

1. HELP:
1. Work independently. Rely on your own reading of the assigned works. Do not use sources other than the works themselves. (If you do, however, use the words or ideas of written sources, you must informally document them.) Do not submit an essay that is like a classmate’s in content or organization.
2. For best results, get my advance feedback (in person, by telephone, or by e-mail) on a thesis and outline and then on a complete draft. The deadline for submitting a complete draft by e-mail (cut and pasted, NOT by attachment) is 3 p.m. on Sunday, February 11. I can continue to respond to drafts during my office hours through Wednesday, February 14.

2. MANUSCRIPT FORM:
1. Font: Use Times New Roman 12.
2. Spacing: Double-space your entire paper. Do NOT leave additional spaces before or after the title or between paragraphs.
3. Justification: Use left (not right or full) justification.
4. Margins: Use one-inch margins on all four sides of the page. (The default margin in Microsoft Word is 1.25 inches.) You may, however, reduce your margins to one-half (0.5) inch if necessary to squeeze your paper onto three (3) pages, the maximum allowed.
5. 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-line heading from the upper left of the first page. Instead, insert as a “header” your SSN followed by one space and the page number in the upper right of each page, beginning with page 1.

3. TITLE: Give your essay a title that specifically reflects the content of the essay and especially of its thesis. In your title include the phrase “in English Romantic Literature” or something similar. Examples of appropriate titles include
1. Personal Experience as Inspiration for Literary Works of the Romantic Period
2. Real People and Places in English Romantic Literature
3. Functions of Autobiographical Elements in English Romantic Literature

4. THESIS:
1. Clearly and concisely state an original, focused thesis for your essay in a separate opening paragraph of one or two sentences.
2. Be sure that the thesis accurately reflects what the body shows.
3. If you wish, briefly and in the same order as in the body of the essay, you may include a list of the main points to be covered in the body of the essay.
4. 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. states a main point that clearly supports the thesis.
3. does not illogically overlap with the topic sentence or content of another body paragraph.

6. DEVELOPMENT: In each body paragraph, clearly develop and support 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 fifteen (15) different assigned works by eight (8) different assigned authors (preferably more of each). It is 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. identify actual experiences (as opposed to ideas or opinions) of the authors reflected in the assigned works.
2. be logically relevant to the topic sentence of the paragraph and the thesis of the essay.
3. be brief, usually no longer than one (1) or two (2) sentences each.
4. despite their brevity, still be very specific, demonstrating your detailed knowledge of the assigned works.
5. usually be in your own words.
6. occasionally be in very brief quotations, followed by parenthetical documentation of the page number and, for poetic quotations, line number. (See “DOCUMENTATION” below.)
7. 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.
8. correctly spell and punctuate the names of the authors, titles, and characters. (For correct punctuation of titles, see the assignment sheet for this unit.)
9. 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 in the lives of the authors. When you quote, leave the verb tense as it is.

7. DOCUMENTATION: The following guidelines for quotations and parenthetical documentation are based on the MLA Handbook for Writers of Research Papers, 6^th ed. (2003). The quotations below are italicized only to make them stand out. Do NOT italicize the quotations in your paper.
1. Introduce all quotations. See the examples below.

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 unless more are necessary to avoid confusion.

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

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

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

7. Do NOT quote more than four (4) typed lines of prose or more than three (3) consecutive lines of poetry in your paper. 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 long 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).

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

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. Quotations must be exactly accurate. Any changes in words, capitalization, or punctuation must be placed inside square brackets. Omissions within quotations must be indicated by ellipsis marks (three spaced periods).

8. CONCLUSION: Conclude the essay with a one- or two-sentence paragraph that restates the thesis in different words. No other conclusion is required.

9. LENGTH: The essay should be at least two (2) full pages and no more than three (3) full pages. You will probably need three (3) pages to fully develop a superior essay.

10. WORKS CITED: On a separate page following your essay, type and double-space a NUMBERED list of the authors and titles of the works to which you refer in your essay. This list should demonstrate your inclusion of
1. at least 8 assigned authors, including Lamb and Hazlitt
2. at least 15 assigned works, including Lamb’s “Christ’s Hospital Five-and-Thirty Years Ago” and Hazlitt’s “My First Acquaintance with Poets”

If your essay includes any unassigned authors or unassigned works, please place those names and titles in parentheses, and do not number them.

11. Before you print the final version of your paper, revise, edit, and proofread it carefully. Be sure to use spell-check. After you have printed the paper, proofread it in hard copy. If you can=t reprint, make corrections in black ink.