Essay 1: Early America

Writing Assignments: Almost all long-form writing for this class will occur outside of regular class-time.

• All papers need to be formally presentedi.e. typed, spell-checked (theres really no excuse anymore), researched, and written for an academic audience. Additional sources should be included when asked for, and all references should be properly cited/documented in MLA format. (This is a literature class: do not use APA.)
• Pay attention to details: if you misspell the name of an author or character, you risk losing my trust in what you have to say about the story as a whole. Sloppy mistakes tell me youre either not paying attention or dont care and if I get that impression, youll get that grade.
• All essays should make use of the text of a short story weve read, not just summarize or paraphrase what has happened. Just as you would precisely quote lines of scripture to make a point about what the Bible says, for example, a secular authors actual words constitute evidence for what you will argue about his/her work. If your essay includes zero quotations from the stories you discuss, expect your grade to be quite low.
• Provide page numbers for quoted material when applicable. All of our stories this semester are paginated, so theyll all require page references when quoting. All your written work should ideally refer to the editions Ive assigned. So, if you quote something found on p. 23 of your text, the same quote needs to be found on p. 23 of my text. (Do not quote the PDF page #; quote the books page #.)
• If you look up something online (such as an authors bio on Wikipedia), make sure you cite what youve researched.