First essay

Write a short, argumentative essay of three to four pages on one of the topics below. Essays shorter than three full pages or longer than five pages will be returned unread and ungraded.

Your essay must use the Times New Roman font, 12-point in size. There must be one inch (2.5 cm) margins on all four sides of the essay. The essay must have double-spaced lineation. The essay must include a separate page for a Works Cited list (which is not included in the page count). The essay should not have a title page.

Your essay must follow the Modern Language Association (MLA) bibliographic, citation, and presentation guidelines. You can consult the Purdue Online Writing Lab for information about using MLA format. See especially the example essay and the sample Works Cited page they have on their site. Please also follow the checklist items listed below.

For each option, you are expected to develop a thesis that responds to the topic. The whole essay will attempt to support the thesis, using careful argumentation and supporting examples where needed. Your essay is meant to reflect your own interpretation of the texts. As with any English Studies essay, value will be awarded based on the depth of the analysis, the complexity of the discussion, the solidity of the writing, and the thoroughness of the support to the thesis.

For this assignment, you are welcome to use reputable reference sources, but you should avoid all other sources of interpretation and information. Remember that plagiarism will not be tolerated. (This includes using any source for an idea without proper documentation: even if you try “to make the words your own” by rearranging and rewriting them, you still must identify the source of the ideas.) If you cannot avoid other sources of interpretation and information for this assignment, you must still identify them and cite them properly.

The essay is due in class on October 5. Consult the lateness policy for late papers.

1. Examine the use of light and dark imagery in “Il Penseroso,” “The Dead,” or After Hours.
2. Examine images of immobilization in “The Dead” or After Hours.
3. Examine the use of katabasis and anabasis in Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf?
4. Compare the use of (and images of) night-time silence/quiet and sound in “Il Penseroso,” “The Dead,” or Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf?

Essay Checklist

1. No title page
2. One-inch (2.5 cm) margins on all sides.
3. 12-point Times New Roman font.
4. Four lines of identifying information in the top left corner of the first page: your name, prof name, course, and date you submit.
5. Title of essay: centred and not underlined, bolded, or in a larger font.
6. The first lines of all paragraphs (except perhaps the first) are indented.
7. All lines are double spaced. Block quotations and first-page identifying information can be single spaced.
8. No extra blank space between paragraphs.
9. Use left-margin justification (“align text left”): not full justification.
10. Do not use subheadings for this essay.
11. Make sure all your quotations are accurate.
12. Prose quotations of more than four lines of your essay are presented as block quotations.
13. Poetry quotations of more than three lines of the poem are presented as block quotations.
14. Poetry quotations of three lines or less: please use “|” (not “/”) to separate lines of the poem: “Behold her, single in the field, | Yon solitary Highland Lass!” (1-2).
15. Do not use the following words in your own writing: amongst, amidst, whilst.
16. A Works Cited page is included, on a separate page.
17. Please always include a URL in your Works Cited list when citing an online resource.
18. Do not use single quotation marks anywhere in your essay, except for quotations within quotations.
19. Do not use underline anywhere in your essay: use italics instead. The only reason to use underline is when you are quoting something that itself uses underline.