Critical Approaches Essay Assignment

Introduction
One of the most important skills a burgeoning college-level writer must accomplish is the art of analysis.
Being able to understand the nature of a written work--what, how, why, and when--is important to
developing critical thinking and critical writing skills. Now that youve completed a genre unit, its time
to put your analysis skills to the test. Every genre essay you write, including the critical approach essay, is
designed to help you, not only analyze, but to practice the writing process, with a special emphasis on
revision. Each essay is one small step closer to creating the final portfolio, where youll be given the
chance to make revisions and make each essay stronger.

Essay Parameters
Use one of the following critical approaches for your essay:
Biographical
Psychoanalytic: Freud, Jung, or Lacan
Reader-response
Marxist
Feminist
African American and Ethnic
New Historicism

Essay Prompt
Using the same work from either the Fiction Analysis Essay or the Poetry Analysis Essay, use one of the
Critical Approaches above to analyze the work. Along with the critical approach, answer the following
question: Looking at the content of the work youve selected, how can what the work covers be linked to
a real-world event or issue, past or present?

Essay Guidelines
Following the essay prompt above, write a three page essay in MLA format, complete with a Works Cited
page (separate from page requirement). This essay should carefully and clearly analyze the work via
BOTH the critical approach of your choice and the real-world event/issue, showing how they are
linked/related. To aid in your analysis, your essay must include at least two quotes to back up your
analysis, but not more than four quotes. To address the real-world event/issue, you are to research the
event/issue and select one scholarly article using NCLive, making sure to include one to two quotes from
this text. No quotes should be longer than three lines long, making sure to properly explain each quotes
use in your analysis. In other words, dont just use a quote, then walk away from it (metaphorically
speaking). Explain to the reader the importance and significance of each quote and how it relates to your
analysis. Only use our text for this essay. Not using a scholarly source will count against your grade.

In terms of the content, your analysis must include the basics of essay construction: introduction, body
paragraphs, and conclusion. However, it should not conform to the stereotypical five-paragraph essay.
Keep in mind that analyses can take several more paragraphs to get your point across. In the introduction,
be sure to include the name of your work and its author, the critical approach youre using for your
analysis, and even a short summary of the content of the work. End the introduction with your thesis
statement, which focuses on the main idea of your essay. The body paragraphs consist of your analysis
and should flow smoothly from one point to another via clear and effective transitional words or phrases,
such as Furthermore, Also, Another example is, or even In conclusion. The conclusion, other
than wrapping up your main ideas, should also include some form of implication, evaluation, or area of
ambiguity/unanswered question from the text. This is addressed in our text on pages 1268-1269. This will
add depth to the conclusion and your analysis as a whole.

Essay Assessment
Because this course has a portfolio requirement at the end, the grades for each essay will consist of two
parts: the basic requirements grade and the final grade. The basic requirements grade consists of whether
or not the essay meets basic formatting and submission requirements, with feedback on how to improve
your essay for later revision. This portion of the grade consists of half the essay grade. The final grade
will consist of the remainder of the essay grade and will take into account the revisions youve made to
improve the essays quality, as well as submission requirements. Please note that plagiarism penalties will
apply to this assignment (for both parts), so make sure this essay is original to you for this class in this
semester. Borrowing old assignments is not permitted.

Due Dates and Submission Requirements

The initial due date for the first part of this essay is due Week Thirteen. Check the course schedule for
the exact date. There will be small group conferences and peer review to aid with the writing of this
essay. In terms of submitting this essay, you will submit the paper copy in my office (80% of the grade)
and via Blackboard dropbox (20% of the grade) on the due date. The first part of this essay grade is worth
50 points and the late policy (-10%) will apply for submissions provided one class period after the due
date. No submissions will be allowed afterwards.