Theme-within-a-Theme Exploration:

 

 

Write about 800-1000 words

Choose a Theme from a Story/Memoir You’ve Read for this Class and Explore it in Relation to a Theme from Your Life

 

For this essay, you will isolate a theme you’ve chosen in a particular work (within our larger Coming of Age theme) and explore it as a recurring or important theme in your own life, comparing elements of the story/memoir with those in your life, as they relate to the theme.

 

 

 

Important Note: This essay will have a more personal slant and tone, since you will use details and examples from your own life; however, you will also draw from the text itself and you will use one additional source (primary, secondary, and/or scholarly) besides the published piece on which you’ve chosen to focus.

 

• Primary sources can be newspapers, magazines, interviews you conduct, diary entries, parts of film, music, or other stand-alone (non-analytical) bodies of work.
• Secondary sources analyze but aren’t peer reviewed (and they aren’t scholarly).
• Scholarly sources are peer reviewed. It’s a good idea early on to establish a dialogue with a librarian through the Hagerty Library, whether online or in person; they can help you pinpoint that additional source once they know what your thesis is, and your overall assignment.

 

 

Excellent projects will have:

 

ü  An engaging introduction and compelling thesis statement that reveals to your reader the connections you’re making between the text and yourself. Begin with a hook, and use your real voice!

 

ü  Sufficient textual support throughout, in addition to a primary and/or secondary source. Consistent citing (both in-text and in works cited – MLA format) of sources, including the story or memoir you’re analyzing.

 

ü  Correct use of MLA documentation, and adherence to conventions of academic writing and to the project guidelines.

 

ü  Also Note: This is an analytical, not a persuasive, essay. Nevertheless, rhetorical elements will be hard at work in your own building of the project, particularly in how you will earn your credibility as a writer by incorporating your sources, and in your approach to the assignment.

 

 

 

Audience and purpose: Your audience is your classmates and instructor; 

 

 

Research and evidence: Besides the text you choose for your focus, and your own experiences, you will use at least one additional primary, secondary, and/or scholarly source. Reminder: Be sure to use MLA formatting for in-text and works cited so that there is proper correspondence between the two.