Hi gang!

Just a couple of quick things today.

1.  I got through all of the essay outlines that were turned in.  If you’ve gotten feedback, you’re free to get going on rough drafts–use the sample essay below as a guide.
2. If you did the outline, you got it returned with 10/10 as a grade.  That doesn’t mean what you turned in was perfect or that you should expect an A on the essay–these homework grades are 10 if you didn’t , no grade if you didn’t for now.  Look at the FEEDBACK I left you.  That’s the important thing.
3. Make sure you check back in with that Master Presentation (the one where I was putting our lecture notes.  I added a bunch to that last week and there are lots of hints/clues for the essay embedded within–I think the quote analysis stuff I added for Ch. 8 and 9 is especially important.

I keep checking email and classroom every 2-3 hours all day long so if there are any stragglers, I’ll get to them and if you have questions, you should get answers before too long.

 

Here’s a sample essay you can use as a guide.

 

Had we been in class we’d have spent a full day this week really deeply revisiting and workshopping Of Mice and Men paper and looking at the strengths and weaknesses from the batch you turned in and how to make the Gatsby batch better.  Here’s a sample “near perfect” essay I cobbled together from multiple student papers a couple of years ago.

ONE THING TO NOTICE–the paper doesn’t quote huge, long chunks of text.  Rather, it uses short examples to support the original thoughts of the authors.  (I once had a college professor tell me, if you’re quoting much more than 10 words in a chunk, you’re doing this wrong).  The big thing I’m looking for is your thoughts–and how well you can use the text to support them.  Just remember, whether it is this paper or any other you write for an English class (or other classes) you can’t separate the writing of the paper from your reading of the book–if you’ve read with depth, taken good notes and thought as you’ve gone through it, you should be in a strong position to say something unique and intelligent here.  Don’t overthink it.