HOMEWORK

Essay #3: Joining the Scholarly Conversation
200 points
Due April 5 to turnitin.com
In this essay, you will integrate research and close reading in order to argue for your own
interpretation of a character, scene, or place in a text we have read as a class.
Directions:
1) Choose a text (a poem, essay, play, or short story) that we have read or will read in EN 160.
2) Using the library resources available to you, find a scholarly (peer reviewed) article or book
chapter that makes a claim about that text that you disagree with.
a. Find the thesis statement/main argument of the article/chapter
b. Find two quotations that you could potentially disagree with
c. Use this to complete the pre-writing worksheet (due in conference with the first draft)
3) Using close reading of one or more passages from the primary text, argue why the article you
found is wrong in its reading of the text, and why your interpretation of that character or place is
a better one.
a. Choose two or three quotations from the text that you can interpret in a way that
creates a different understanding of the character or place than the article you chose.
Your essay will be 3-4 pages, double-spaced, in Times New Roman font, with 1-inch margins,
and correct MLA citations