GENERAL GUIDELINES: The short reflective papers are meant to be exploratory, and no research should be required. I’m looking for your reaction to and interpretation of a short story, a poem, or a theme, motif or problem reoccurring in multiple literary texts. This is a formal writing exercise, however, and I do expect you to follow the rules of Standard Written English. Your paper should be no fewer than 2 and no more than 4 pages in length, double-spaced, with a 1” margin all around (this translates roughly into 900-1,800 words—insert page numbers, please, top right hand corner, preferably). Be sure to provide an introduction and a conclusion to your paper and organize your thoughts into coherent paragraphs of sensible lengths within the body of your paper (a well-developed paragraph consists of a minimum of 7-10 sentences). Please proofread your paper and follow MLA conventions!  (Each short reflective paper accounts for 10% of overall grade for the course.) top

PAPER 1:
This is the question I would like you to address in your essay: In our discussions, we have spent quite a bit of time talking about the use of irony in literature. As you respond to this question, I would like you to focus on three pieces of literature from at least two different genres. You may draw on poetry, short stories, or essays. Be sure to follow the clues the writer left you in laying bare the irony within a story, poem, or essay. How does the irony work to illuminate the meaning of that story/poem/essay? How is the story/poem/essay structured to create ironic effect? What is the mood this irony conveys? Are the characters/readers immediately aware of the irony or are they take by surprise? Go through the story/poem/essay and take careful note of plot development, imagery, and figurative/rhetorical figures. How do these structural and stylistic devices contribute to the irony within the story/poem/essay? What type of irony/ironies did you find? What it the dramatic purpose of the story's/poem's/essay's irony? And t his is where the writing begins. Go back, trace the results of your analysis and write down patterns —this will be your introduction and thesis statement. Then go back through your notes and the text and prove your analysis by making extensive use of textual evidence, in other words, cite the text of the story/poem/essay wherever you can. Show that you’re right! Scan the poetry and explain its inconsistencies! Prove that you know what the author is up to! Tell me what the story is really about! And don’t forget to support your argument! top

In short: Write a short analytical paper that explores the use of irony in three pieces of literature that we have read this semester. Develop an argument, introduce your paper and formulate a thesis statement, provide support in the body of your paper, and conclude your paper in a confident and convincing manner. top

Structurally and mechanically, I need you to stay within the page limit—no less than 900 words and no more than 1800. There is no need to consult outside sources. I do need you to give your paper a title though, and it has to be a title that stands in immediate relation to your thesis statement. This means that if you call your paper “’To be or not to be’: Self-doubt in Hamlet” (notice the single quotation marks inside the regular quotes which denote the title to set off a direct quote from the text) your thesis (and thus your entire paper) has to circle around the problem of identity crises and/or suicide; if you call it “Irony and Death in Poe ,” you had better talk about death and its ironies in the stories/essays/poems by E. A. Poe; and if you call it “Women and Insanity ,” you will have to talk about women and their decline into insanity. By the same token, I need to you to sustain your focus throughout the entire paper. This means that when you write about irony, you need to make sure that each and every paragraph of your paper deals with this theme and that they are all headed by a topic sentence which leads the readers into the next part of your argument and prepares them for whatever textual support you may have discovered. Above all then, focus on coherence and consistence in your analysis. Take us for a ride but make us feel safe! top

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