Surviving a Childhood of Abuse
Using the book of your choice, you will write an essay of at least 4 paragraphs. Your literary analysis essay should explore the following topic:
What Makes a Hero? Self, Society, and Rising to the Occasion
In your paper, you will identify a central theme or issue in the book, form a question about it, and develop an interpretation that answers your question. Your thesis statement should state your interpretation of the text, focusing on a single idea or issue from the book. The essay should provide and explain the evidence from the text to support that interpretation, using quotations from the text. This assignment requires that you read the book actively and critically. In writing about the book, you cannot simply summarize its plot.
Guidelines:
1. Interact with the book as you read: Annotate on the margins or take notes and use a double-entry journal to record your thoughts about quotations in the book. This will be useful as you draft your paper.
2. Identify a central theme or issue to focus on.
3. Pose a question that your essay will answer. Your question should explore the ideas put forward in the topic above, but you might ask questions about how the literary devices (plot, characters, setting, irony, metaphors, etc.) advance some central theme you noticed as well.
4. Your essay must be at least 500 words long (approximately 2 pages, but word count matters more than the number of pages). Note that this is the lower limit. There is no upper limit to the word count for this essay.
5. Use Microsoft Word. Blackboard does not display (therefore I cannot read) documents submitted in anything other than .doc or .docx formats. You will be able to check your final submission. If your paper is not visible to you, it is not visible to me either. If I cannot read the paper, I will assign a grade of 0. You will have a chance to resubmit, but if the submission is late points will be deducted from the final score.
6. Use MLA style to format your paper.
7. EXTRA CREDIT: Schedule an appointment in The Writing Center (Room 2210) with a tutor to get feedback on your draft. Be sure to visit at least three days before the paper is due.
Due Dates and Grading :
 Central theme/ Emerging questions: Week of 10/28/2019 – 2 points
 Thesis statement and essay outline: Week of 11/11/2019 – 2 points
 Draft: Friday, November 22nd at 12:00 p.m. (noon) – 4 points
 Final Essay: Friday, December 6th at 12:00 p.m. (noon) – 20 points (turn the page to see the rubric)
Resources:
 Chapter 7, “Reading and Writing about Literature” of the Bedford Handbook
 Kirkland: Intro to Literary Analysis https://youtu.be/syNE9Sfv96E

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