Times New Roman 12pt, double-spaced, 1” margins
The prompts refer to “civil rights” in the pre-Civil War sense, as defined by Bouvier’s Law Dictionary, Masur’s Until Justice Be Done, and Penningroth’s Before the Movement. Be sure to clarify which civil rights you are discussing in your paper! Each essay should develop its argument by selecting and interpreting passages from the primary texts and drawing on the relevant assigned secondary resources. Whichever prompt you choose, your essay should address how your primary sources go beyond merely protesting injustice and oppression to advocate for civil rights.
Papers should provide original interpretation of the texts in question. Unless you are providing an entirely fresh analysis, you should avoid passages already discussed in detail in class or our readings. (You can, of course, include passages we’ve discussed in class as context for your close reading.) Remember to avoid succumbing to description, explication, or summary of the text’s treatment of the topic in question! Instead, you will want to present an original, arguable thesis, which you support, illustrate, develop, and refine through close reading of the relevant passages.
Keep in mind that, although your paper will be discussing works from an earlier historical period, you are writing a paper for an English class. Be sure that your thesis, as well as your reading of the texts in question, is grounded in literary analysis rather than historical, sociological, or psychological argumentation. To this end, please ensure that you are thoroughly acquainted with the conventions of cultural criticism as outlined in “How to Be a Culture Critic.” See also “Papers” in the course assignments section of the syllabus. Finally, be sure that you have addressed any issues raised in comments on your discussion posts! Papers that reflect a lack of familiarity with the fundamentals of written expression (punctuation, grammar, sentence and paragraph structure, spelling, etc.) will have the final mark lowered by at least one full grade.