Sources to use:
– Main Novel Source: The Yellow Wallpaper by Charlotte Perkins Gilman
–Academic Source: Emotional abuse in intimate relationships
-Academic Source #2: file attached below
–Academic source #3: file attached below.
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General Instructions: Select one of the texts listed from the previous module. Write an essay that analyzes the importance of the context of the piece. Your essay should consist primarily of historical background (but avoid the largely biographical) that will help us situate the story as part of a larger socio-political or cultural milieu. Your essay should have a clear, unified topic and an identifiable, arguable thesis statement backed by solid textual evidence. DO NOT MERELY SUMMARIZE THE PLOT.
MLA documentation and citation information for Paper #2:
- Since you have successfully completed English 101, you are expected to know how to document and cite information as well as how to work with sources accurately. Minor errors will negatively affect your paper grade and larger errors (such as plagiarizing, omitting parenthetical references, presenting someone else’s idea as your own, etc.) will result in a zero.
- With respect to secondary sources, do not quote unnecessarily; instead, paraphrase and summarize when you can. Use quotations only when you cannot adequately summarize or paraphrase the information or when you want to indicate what someone actually said.
- Do not use more than two long quotations in your paper – your paper is not meant to be a cut-and-paste of others’ ideas but rather your own argument.
- Show that you have done sufficient research by incorporating detailed information about the context, not just generalizations.
- You should have at least four entries on the Works Cited: one for the novel since you will be using textual evidence from the novel to present your case and three (at least) contextual sources that you uncover as you research.
WARNINGS:
- This is not a comparison paper; comparing what you find in the research with what happens in the your selected piece will not lead to the kinds of arguments you want for this assignment
- Do not retell the plot of your selected piece. I have already read them and don’t need to be reminded what happens.
- If sources come from a database, you must recognize you got the information from the database on your Works Cited.
- Find the best sources you can, not the first few you come to. Remember that not everything that is on the internet is a reliable source; be sure you consider the reliability/authority of a source before quoting or citing it.
Points to remember:
- A claim about a literary work is a position on it that not everyone would immediately accept as obvious truth. You have to argue for it.
- As you attempt to support your main claim, you will make a number of smaller claims. Ensure that each smaller claim directly relates and supports your main claim (thesis).
- Aim to persuade by considering your audience. Remember your instructor (Mrs. V) has already read all of the pieces. However, you have to remember that not everyone sees the piece the way you do. You have to explain and support your understanding of the work so that skeptics (Mrs. V) will be willing to agree with your interpretation.
- Choose your evidence carefully and thoughtfully and incorporate it in a variety of ways.
- Body paragraphs should each focus on and develop one idea. They should include textual evidence: a paraphrase, a summary (no more than 2 sentences), or a brief quote from the piece, but the bulk of the paragraph should be devoted to explanation in your own words of how that idea supports your thesis. Remember that paragraphs can do multiple things: assert reasons, give evidence, analyze, develop an example, address opposing opinion, etc.
- Write at least 5 full pages (not including the Works Cited page), using MLA format. 4 ½ pages is not enough and is NOT in the passing range!