To get students to think about genre and conventions, we came up with this sample essay prompt.\u00a0 This essay is geared toward the 1202 public life theme, but you can adapt it for any of our course themes.<\/p>\n
In this unit, we have read several short stories that deal with a variety of the everyday mundane.\u00a0 All of these stories, in some way, reflect our own lives and grapple with the question of how we deal with personal struggles.\u00a0 But it is also important to recognize that stories are both like and unlike everyday \u201creal\u201d life; they are, after all, written by people from a particular perspective.<\/p>\n
For this essay, describe how one of the short stories read for class interprets the idea of public life through a character of your choice.\u00a0 In order to do this, you must pinpoint ONE social or global (i.e., \u201cbigger\u201d) issue that the text addresses and consider how the character of your choice embodies or encounters this problem.\u00a0 Here are some questions to consider (you don\u2019t have to answer all of them):<\/p>\n
You must employ at least three of the elements of fiction discussed in class (plot, characterization, setting, tone, figurative language, irony\/paradox, language\/style, point of view) to explain how the author creates and resolves this bigger issue.\u00a0 You must identify how the elements of fiction contribute to your thesis. In other words, how do these devices shape the story?<\/p>\n
Above all else, originality is key \u2013 avoid coming to the conclusion that \u201cracism is bad\u201d or \u201clife is tough.\u201d\u00a0 Remember, topics are not thesis statements.\u00a0 Your thesis should not be \u2018\u201cCathedral\u2019 talks about suburban life.\u201d\u00a0 Think more critically about what the text is doing with a particular topic.<\/p>\n
You may want to end off the paper by considering the larger purpose of fiction.\u00a0 Explain how your story is crafted to say or reveal something important and to evaluate how effective that message is.\u00a0 There are several outlets that people may turn to for enrichment (newspapers, blogs, texts); why might someone turn to stories?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
To get students to think about genre and conventions, we came up with this sample essay prompt.\u00a0 This essay is geared toward the 1202 public life theme, but you can adapt it for any of our course themes. In this unit, we have read several short stories that deal with a variety of the everyday … Continue reading “Lisa, Jackie, Greg, Rachel\u2019s Reading-a-Theme-Through-Character Assignment”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":637,"featured_media":0,"parent":0,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-1446","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/blogs.shu.edu\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/1446","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/blogs.shu.edu\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/blogs.shu.edu\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blogs.shu.edu\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/637"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blogs.shu.edu\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1446"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"http:\/\/blogs.shu.edu\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/1446\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1447,"href":"http:\/\/blogs.shu.edu\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/1446\/revisions\/1447"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/blogs.shu.edu\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1446"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}