ENGL 202.

04 Introduction to Literary Study Synthesis Paper Assignment

The Synthesis Papers are designed to help you develop your understanding of the texts in this course and to establish your own voice as a critical reader of these texts. Additionally, you will select one of your Synthesis Papers to expand and revise for your final paper. Over the semester, you will complete four of these assignments. Each time, you will select one or two of the texts covered in the preceding weeks and center in on your selection, composing a focused, intellectually rigorous, innovative exploration of your selected text(s). You are welcome to meet with me during my office hours or set up an appointment with me to discuss these assignments. I would be happy to work with you and help you develop your ideas and your writing. Paper 1 Due Mon., Feb 10 The Time Machine The Aeneid Richard III Stories and Poetry by Poe Paper 3 Due Mon., Mar. 31 Alices Adventures in Wonderland Short Stories by Bowen Mrs. Dalloway Paper 2 Due Mon., Mar. 3 A Tale of Two Cities

Paper 4 Due Fri., Apr. 25 Poetry by W.B. Yeats Absalom, Absalom! Slaughterhouse Five

Specifics: 600-word paper MLA Format (see class website or Purdue Owl website for guidance) Structure This paper is short, but should be full of valuable thought. Do not organize this paper like a standard 5-paragraph essay. Start specificno broad, clichd opening statementsand stay engaged in the text throughout. You should conclude the paper by imagining how your specific reading of the text may shed light on the work as a whole, or point to wider connections or cultural significance. To approach these assignments: Literary analysis, like any kind of analysis, is the process of examining the whole by breaking it down into its component parts in order to see the ways in which these parts relate to and inform each other. By taking a closer look at these parts, the critic (you), can then fashion some kind of interpretation. You will choose to focus in and closely analyze a particular text or context. These papers are argumentative: you will closely analyze the text and make a focused (specific, local) argument that elucidates a way the text can be read, then you will support your argument using textual evidence and your own reasoning. You may also refer in your paper back to texts read in previous weeks, making connections between authors and works.

Blumberg 202.04 Synthesis Papers You do NOT need to consult secondary materials, though you are welcome to if you wish. Visit the Purdue Owl Online Writing Lab for extra guidance, especially on viable thesis statements: https://owl.english.purdue.edu/owl/resource/618/01/ Questions to guide you (for these small papers, you would select ONE question): ! What is a key theme that recurs throughout the text? ! What is a theme that is shared between two disparate texts? And how do these two texts manage it differently/similarly? ! How is the text structured and why do you think the author composed it this way? What does the structure do for your reading experience? ! How believable are the characters? Do you sympathize with them as a reader? ! What motivates certain characters? ! What linguistic/stylistic nuances do you pick up on in the text? ! Does the text address/gesture to broader social issues? ! How does the text reflect a specific culture or cultural value? ! How does your own culture affect your understanding and reception of the text? ! How might we read the text differently than it was read in its own time? ! How does placing the piece in the context of our time period affect its meaning and how it is perceived? ! How are male and female roles played out in the work? ! What is the nature of the relationships among characters in the text? ! How does the text navigate time formally? In other words, how does the structure of the work manipulate time? ! What is the texts attitude toward time? Does it present a cyclical pattern? A deterministic? Fatalistic? Realistic? Etc. ! ! !