GUIDELINES:
For your extra credit assigment, I would like you to find a scholarly article on one of the texts (poems, short stories, or essays) that we have read this semester (excluding The Tempest, Hamlet, Dracula, The Man Who Would be King, Heart of Darkness as well as any of the novels presented as final class projects ). It should be a work that you really enjoyed reading and discussing in class, but that you would like to know more about yet. By now, you should have practice in locating scholarly articles, but as a reminder, let me suggest that you access JSTOR, the MLA International Bibliography, or ProQuest Direct via the unversity library web site. Type in the title and/or author of the work in which you are interested and add a key term--maybe a theme or image that intrigued you most in the text--to narrow your search. Pick an article from the list of hits that was published after 1980, that is either available in full-text online or available in the periodicals section of the library, and that is between 15-25 pages in length. Next, google the author of the article and find out what s/he does for a living. In other words, I need you to find out what his/her qualifications are. I also need you to google the publication in which your article appeared. Find out what kind of things this publication publishes, who its audience is, and what it takes to get published with this publisher. Then, read the article slowly and carefully and make sure that you understand everything it says and argues.

The final step of this assignment is the writing process: Write a one-page, single-spaced summary analysis of this article. 90% of the summary analysis is pure summarizing of all of the major points the article makes. 10% --or the final paragraph-- should be devoted to an evaluation of who the author is, what his/her qualifications are, how well s/he developed his/her argument. In one or two concluding sentences, explain what you learned from the article and what else you think might have been helpful to mention in the article. I have created a sample summary analysis for your reference. Be sure to include a complete MLA citation of the article on the top of your paper, complete with the author's name, the article's title, as well as publication information, and inclusive page numbers. Follow MLA guidelines to the point when writing this citation. Also, be sure that you do not evaluate or comment on the article in the body of your paper--I do mean that 90% are summary only. Your commentary needs to be limited to the final paragraph of the paper. Do not mix summary and analysis--one follows the other; they should not merge.

I’m available for questions via e-mail and during my office hours. For appointments outside my office hours, talk to me after class or send me an e-mail. Proofread e-mails and drafts, please—remember this is an English class: Use language to impress, not to confuse or make your reader wonder whether you actually care or only threw something together at 2am on due-date-day. Clarity & style are just as important as logic & coherence! top