Term essay assignment

Write an argumentative essay, of seven to eight pages, that constitutes a critical analysis of one or more of our course texts and/or an examination of the genre of the dramatic monologue. Essays shorter than seven full pages or longer than twelve pages will be returned unread or with a failing grade.

Your essay must not focus on the same dramatic monologue you studied in your short analysis assignment; you are welcome to discuss and analyse it, but only for the purpose of secondary arguments.

Your essay must be one of the following types:

• an analysis of one or more dramatic monologues from our course;
• a critical discussion of the dramatic monologue genre; or
• a combination of the previous two options.

The approach your essay takes is open. It can be a close study of one poem. It can compare two or more within a particular framework. It can focus more on structure and prosody; it can focus more on character and dramatic action. You are welcome to discuss categories of dramatic monologues, but focussing too much on categorization might not yield a strong, analytical essay.

Your essay must incorporate a response to at least one academic essay (or book) on the academic study of the dramatic monologue genre or on one of the dramatic monologues your essay treats. You are welcome to use the assigned essays for our course, but these will not count towards this requirement: you need also to use another essay. The essay/book you choose must be academic and peer-reviewed.

Especially for the third option, you are welcome to treat an academic essay about the dramatic monologue genre separate from your own analysis of a dramatic monologue. In most cases, however, you should be able to link a response to an academic essay with your own analysis of a dramatic monologue.

For any option, you are welcome to discuss any of the dramatic monologues on our course (except for focussing on the same one you analysed for the short assignment). You should be generally safe to discuss other dramatic monologues as well; however, your essay should not focus too much on a dramatic monologue that is not part of our course.

As with most English Studies essays, 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. Document all sources (of ideas and of quotations), including all web sources (whether an author is identifiable or not). As always, plagiarism will not be tolerated.

Essays should conform to MLA guidelines. Essays should have double-spaced lineation. Printed essays should use a 12-point, serif font (such as Times New Roman) and should not have a justified right margin. Please use one-inch margins on all sides. Please do not submit the essay in a binder or folder. Please do not include a title page.

Please use the vertical line (|) character to indicate the division between two lines of poetry, rather than the solidus (/) character that MLA recommends.