Assignment: The student will engage critical theory, primary and secondary sources, and close-reading analysis of the chosen and/or approved text(s). Primary sources include the works of literature being analyzed and author interviews or essays. Secondary sources are foundational essays of the theoretical approach, contextual sources of the text’s and author’s time period and life, critical reviews and essays that vary in topics and approaches to reading the text and/or theory.

Required Steps to Approaching this Essay:
1. You will include existing interpretations (minimum of 3 sources; must be from a peer-reviewed scholarly journal). There are many ways readers interpret text(s) in part or in whole, so one way to narrow the search is to find particular theoretical interpretations as a focus as well. For example, you may choose feminism as the theory and see how various feminists have interpreted your chosen text(s). POTENTIAL TRAP: focusing on another’s argument rather than your own.
2. You will include cultural/historical context for making the literature matter (minimum of 2 sources; these can be biographical, historical, or cultural sources depending on the paper’s focus). Not only is the author’s cultural/historical information a possibility to look into, but also the context presented within the text itself may prove useful. POTENTIAL TRAP: using the essay as merely an information dump rather than using the context to argue an interpretation.
3. You will include primary sources (that means the literature itself and any author interviews; minimum of 3 sources).

Possible Approach to this Essay:
4. You may focus on using the literature as a springboard to discuss social issues. Making old(er) literature matter to today’s issues can be enlightening and fun. POTENTIAL TRAP: not focusing on the literature as a springboard, but making tenuous connections