Topdog/Underdog, Zone One, The Crying of Lot 49, or A Mercy. (“Pastoralia” is not an option.)

Analyze the significance of a pair or sequence of details, passages, or moments in and for one (1) of the following: Topdog/Underdog, Zone One, The Crying of Lot 49, or A Mercy. (“Pastoralia” is not an option.) Analyze how the pairing or sequence illuminates what the author is saying or showing about a particular keyword or intersection of keywords. Essay Guidelines These are the same as the Essay 1 Guidelines. Argument and Analysis Your essay has three aims. It must: offer an original and discerning, and persuasive analysis of a textual echo, the importance of which may have escaped our notice on a first reading; show how the author, through the construction and use of this echo, develops an analysis of or argument about a particular keyword (i.e., topic, problem, or question) or intersection of keywords clarify how the author’s analysis or argument enables us to understand the keyword(s) in a new way. Your argument must elaborate and support a fresh thesis. See Echo Analysis 2 to review what a fresh thesis is and what a fresh thesis does, and review the handouts “Designing a Thesis” and “Successful Theses” for thesis models. Study the important handout “Crafting a Thesis.” It is required reading because it clarifies how to craft an original and rewarding thesis. Crafting a successful thesis is hard work and takes a long time. Your essay must offer a focused and flowing argument, supported by textual data, that coheres around your thesis. Each body paragraph must advance your argument in a clear and constructive way. See next. Each body paragraph must develop a single analytical claim and must signal this claim in its opening (or “topic”) sentence. Since each topic sentence makes a claim about what the author is doing, use the author’s last name in each topic sentence. The claim developed in each body paragraph must clearly and usefully advance (build on, refine, etc.) the claim developed in the previous body paragraph. The important handout “Creating a Staircase Argument” specifies how to do this. This is required reading/listening because it introduces two ways to organize an essay argument in this class. Your thesis and analysis must be original and rewarding. This means they must advance your classmates’ understanding of what the author is saying or showing about a particular keyword or intersection of keywords. Remember, in literary studies, the quality of a thesis and analysis is based on whether they have sufficient originality, subtlety, and complexity to be illuminating, persuasive, and consequential. Consequential means that they enable your classmates to think about moments, connections, or keywords in the book in a new way. Simply re-hashing what has been said in lecture is inadequate since your classmates have already heard those lectures and thus won’t learn anything new from your essay. Make sure your introductory paragraph is efficient and adequately sets up and previews your argument. Use the handout “Introductory Paragraphs” as a guide. Briefly recalling the context of a particular detail or scene is often helpful, but avoid summarizing the plot more than is absolutely necessary. Assume your reader is a classmate who has read the book and listened to the lectures on it. Read the “Essay Grading Rubric” and use it to guide your writing. Your ideas and words must be your own. You are not expected to do any research or read any criticism, but if you do, and if your argument is in any way indebted to other sources, you must cite this help in footnotes. Review the course policy on plagiarism.