Analytical Essay: Women in the City
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Rough Draft Due: Mon. 3/13 for in class peer review.
Final Draft Due: Wed. 3/15.
Length: 750 words.
How did the women of Nella Larsen’s New York and Jean Rhys’s Paris navigate the city in the late twenties and thirties? What spaces do they inhabit? How do the spaces in each novel differ? How do the conversations in both novels differ? What is the role of these conversations in relation to the structure of both novels?
Your 750-word essay will assert an argument analyzing the relationship of women to the city in Nella Larsen’s Passing (1929), Jean Rhys’s Good Morning Midnight (1938), or in both novels. 750 words is not long (approximately three pages), so you will need to select a narrow focus that you can examine in depth. You must analyze quotations from the novel(s) and address at least two additional sources we have read, which includes the critical articles on Google Drive and in the Norton Critical Edition of Passing as well as the excerpts from Rhys’s autobiography, Smile Please. You are also welcome to address additional materials in the Norton Critical Edition or on Google Drive, just make sure to cite all sources that you consult. You can also draw comparisons or contrasts to other writers whom we have read including Virginia Woolf and E. M. Forster.
You can build from your blog postings, addressing places or ideas in greater depth, but make sure that your essay reads fluidly.
You must also incorporate and analyze one image in your essay. Your image should be integral to your argument. It may be a historical photograph, part of your map, or an image you encountered while making your map. Make sure to cite the source of your image in your list of works cited. You can also search The New York Times by year from the NYIT Library.
As your draft, compose, and revise your essay, review the techniques for analyzing and citing texts in Understanding Rhetoric. You must demonstrate appropriate use of quotations and cite all sources that you consult, including webpages. Use parenthetical citations to acknowledge when you are quoting or citing others’ ideas. It is plagiarism to use others’ words or ideas without citing them. This is an academic essay, so it should demonstrate appropriate conventions, including tone, language, and word choice. You should avoid using the first person, I.
Remember, you do not need to summarize the novels in your essay. Assume your readers have read the novel and only tell them what they need to know to understand your points.
Your essay must be typed, double spaced, in twelve-point, and Times New Roman font.
Submit your rough draft and final drafts in a Word document on Blackboard at least thirty minutes before class on the dates indicated above.
Developing Your Argument
Essay Structure
Final Draft Due: Wed. 3/15.
Length: 750 words.
How did the women of Nella Larsen’s New York and Jean Rhys’s Paris navigate the city in the late twenties and thirties? What spaces do they inhabit? How do the spaces in each novel differ? How do the conversations in both novels differ? What is the role of these conversations in relation to the structure of both novels?
Your 750-word essay will assert an argument analyzing the relationship of women to the city in Nella Larsen’s Passing (1929), Jean Rhys’s Good Morning Midnight (1938), or in both novels. 750 words is not long (approximately three pages), so you will need to select a narrow focus that you can examine in depth. You must analyze quotations from the novel(s) and address at least two additional sources we have read, which includes the critical articles on Google Drive and in the Norton Critical Edition of Passing as well as the excerpts from Rhys’s autobiography, Smile Please. You are also welcome to address additional materials in the Norton Critical Edition or on Google Drive, just make sure to cite all sources that you consult. You can also draw comparisons or contrasts to other writers whom we have read including Virginia Woolf and E. M. Forster.
You can build from your blog postings, addressing places or ideas in greater depth, but make sure that your essay reads fluidly.
You must also incorporate and analyze one image in your essay. Your image should be integral to your argument. It may be a historical photograph, part of your map, or an image you encountered while making your map. Make sure to cite the source of your image in your list of works cited. You can also search The New York Times by year from the NYIT Library.
As your draft, compose, and revise your essay, review the techniques for analyzing and citing texts in Understanding Rhetoric. You must demonstrate appropriate use of quotations and cite all sources that you consult, including webpages. Use parenthetical citations to acknowledge when you are quoting or citing others’ ideas. It is plagiarism to use others’ words or ideas without citing them. This is an academic essay, so it should demonstrate appropriate conventions, including tone, language, and word choice. You should avoid using the first person, I.
Remember, you do not need to summarize the novels in your essay. Assume your readers have read the novel and only tell them what they need to know to understand your points.
Your essay must be typed, double spaced, in twelve-point, and Times New Roman font.
Submit your rough draft and final drafts in a Word document on Blackboard at least thirty minutes before class on the dates indicated above.
Developing Your Argument
- Select quotations and an image to analyze. You only need to quote when the language of the quotation matters to your argument. Otherwise, you can put a quotation in your own words.
- As you return to the text, begin to formulate an argument by asking what links the evidence that you have selected. Ask yourself how they differ from each other and from other moments. These questions will allow you to answer why each instance is significant to the novel as a whole.
- Also consider the form and style of the examples you select. Analyze the word choice and tone. Where in the novel do the instances that you note take place? Why is this significant?
- Be creative and take intellectual risks. Show readers of your essay what you want them to see. Remember that each reader interprets a text differently.
Essay Structure
- As you are planning your essay, consider analyzing two to three quotations or examples per paragraph. If quotations are more than four lines in length they need to be indented as a block quotation. Be selective and only quote the words, phrases, or lines that are necessary to your argument. In addition, fully analyze the quotations you have selected. Sometimes you might deal with only one quotation or example in a paragraph if it demands that much explication.
- Your introductory paragraph should introduce your claim and why it is significant. Remember that your introduction can change up until the last minute and often it is a good technique to make your conclusion your introduction.
- Each topic sentence should assert the argument in the body paragraph it begins. Your analysis in each paragraph should support the topic sentence. The topic sentence of each paragraph should support your claim in the introduction.
- The conclusion of your essay does not need to repeat what you have already said. In light of what you have argued, make a connection to a larger context and suggest ideas for further research.