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MLA Handout
Additional Information
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She’s Come Undone
Girl, Interrupted
Contact Information
 Tele:
(860) 231-5353
 Email: jarzt@sjc.edu
 Email tutoring at SJC : tutoring@sjc.edu
Office: Mercy Hall, 250
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Critical
Analysis Paper # 2
Write a critical analysis of some aspect of the
coming-of-age theme and the effect of the New England settings in Girl, Interrupted and She’s Come Undone. Feel free to generate your own thesis for
this paper just so long as you touch on some aspect of what could be
considered related to the concept of coming of age.
As people last time had some hesitation about doing
much with setting, here are some questions to consider for helping you probe
this concept: (1) How does the time period affect the characters? (Note there
is some overlap in time period in these two works.) (2) How do the places the
character live in or inhabit affect them and their progress toward growing
up? (3) How do shifting settings in the work affect the coming-of-age
theme? (4) What specifically is said
about growing up in parts of new England during the duration of these
stories? (For example, Susanna comes
from an affluent suburb of Boston where high school seniors in
the late 1960s went on to prestigious private colleges. Delores spent the early years of her life
living in a housing development in a middle-class community in Connecticut in the 1950s and moved to
Easterly, Rhode Island, a
small city, populated with immigrant families, when her parents
divorced.) You might also consider how
moving among different settings helps or hinders the characters in their
coming-of-age experiences.
In your discussion of Girl, Interrupted include some references to cinematic
techniques, as there are plenty in this film that underscore meaning, and for
She’s Come Undone consider some
literary techniques, such as symbolism and the use of the first-person
narrator. Again, there are no specific
techniques that you must select, but use ones that will help you develop the
original thesis that you have come up with for writing this second analytical
paper on the course theme: coming of age, particularly in stories set in New England.
Steps: This is a general list of steps to guide
you in preparing this assignment. For
some, two adjacent steps might be inverted, depending upon your preference
for completing a college writing assignment.
However, all steps should be considered to help you along the way.
- Review your film
notes on Girl, Interrupted as
well as class discussion notes on She’s
Come Undone and question guides that I have given you on the
works. You might also consider
some ideas from the articles that you are reading this week. (The timing of these two assignments
overlaps because often writers find it helpful to read while they are
writing—to get fresh ideas and to see how others have approached a
similar topic.) Your film and
class notes, as well as your quizzes on She’s Come Undone and Short Writing Assignment #4 (a
comparison of the two works), should also be reviewed. Furthermore, feel free to discuss this
assignment with others in the class and anyone who has seen the film or
read the book. Allow yourself to
be creative while considering an appropriate angle to take in this
assignment, just so long as you stay within the boundaries of the
coming-of-age theme and consider the New England settings. You also might want to re-see specific
scenes from the movie, and certainly refer back to the book for examples
and particular sections that you think are critical for developing your
ideas.
- Once again, review
relevant information in A Short
Guide to Writing about Film to refresh your memory about what a good
critical paper should entail.
Review information and sample essays in the following sections:
Chapter 1 (pp. 11-16); Chapter 2 (pp. 21-25); Chapter 2 (pp. 28-34);
Chapter 3 (pp. 46-55); Chapter 3 (pp. 55-69); Sample Essays, Chapter 4
(pp. 92-104). Also, see the
“Checklist for Writing an Effective Essay” on pp. 121-123 in Chapter
5. You might be tempted to skip
this step, but the information in your textbook is quite useful,
especially for helping you write a film analysis in a concise style.
- Review comments on
your last essay for some areas to focus on in this essay. Speak to me if your questions about my
feedback. Also, note what you did
well on in the first essay, and capitalize on your strengths.
- Formulate a set of
notes based on the coming-of-age themes, use of setting, and literary
and cinematic techniques. Your
list will likely contain more ideas than you need, but it should provide
you with a good starting point from which to write your essay. However, if you are like me, sometimes
ideas come flowing fast and it is, therefore, easier to write a fast
rough draft rather than do notes. (Afterwards, notes can be taken to
develop ideas and add supporting examples.)
- Review your notes
or exploratory draft, and figure out ways to organize your ideas into a
paper that follows a logical plan.
Now, write your first full draft, focusing on content and
organization. Check this
completed draft to see if you addressed the three key parts of the
assignment: coming of age (most important part), setting, and
techniques. Add any need
information to make your paper adhere to the assignment. Be sure you have topic sentences and
transitions to guide your reader in showing how ideas in the essay
connect back to your thesis. If
possible, consider if you need to rework your thesis to make it better
fit what you wrote. (Sometimes we
find after we have written a paper, our initial thesis does not fit what
we wrote. Thus, we should revise
our thesis to make it match the ideas in the paper.) Also, check your conclusion to see if
you remembered to restate your thesis and summarized key points.
- You might, at this
point, want to again re-see parts of the film or reread parts of the
novel for finding examples related to your points. Now that your main ideas are
established and the bulk of your essay is completed, finding additional
supporting evidence to develop your essay could be another critical
step.
- Go back to the
computer, and add and delete what you need to make your essay flow and
stay unified. Perhaps, consider
saving this new draft under a new name, in the event that you would like
to go back to something that was in an earlier draft. (I use this trick of renaming drafts
often, because sometimes I like what I wrote better in an earlier draft
and want to retrieve it.)
- You should now be
ready for some feedback. Print
some copies of your work, and find people in our class to read it. Also, email me a copy, or leave me a
copy to read. You can try showing
your essay to ARC writing tutors, who could help you with focus, and if
they have seen the movie or read the book, they also could help you with
developing specific ideas.
- Prepare a more
final draft. Bring your draft to
class on the announced peer review day.
(See the peer review form so you can be prepared for this class.)
- Revise your draft,
as needed, possibly adding supporting details and refining
phrasing. Be sure your ideas are
adequately developed and that you have addressed all parts of the
assignment.
- Edit the essay. At this stage, you might want to work
with an ARC tutor who can help you with clarity and identifying
sentence-level errors.
- Be sure to add
citations if you used any material from references. Follow the MLA method for citing your
sources. (See the sample MLA
essays in your text.) Again, ARC tutors can help you with
this format. Also, see your
Corrigan text for a model of an essay with MLA style.
- Once the essay is
fully written, work on final documentation preparation: double-space,
Time New Roman 12-point font, one-inch margins on all sides, MLA header
instead of title page, Works Cited page (if needed). You are required to submit both the
hardcopy and an electronic version, which will be scanned with
Turnitin.com.
Evaluative
Criteria
Class essays will be evaluated by applying the
following uniform criteria to all papers:
1) critical thinking: ability to analyze the coming-of-age theme and
the use of setting and cinematic techniques
2) *organization: logical progression of ideas throughout the
essay; appropriate introduction and conclusion; well-organized paragraphs;
transitions between paragraphs and between ideas within paragraphs;
well-sequenced body paragraphs; use of transitions to connect ideas
3) elaboration and detail: full development of ideas and inclusion of adequate
supporting details to develop ideas
4) *clarity: fluid written expression, ease with which a reader
can grasp ideas
5) *diction and tone: college-level vocabulary and use of cinematic
terms
6) mechanics and usage: punctuation, spelling, correct MLA (if applicable),
correct verb tenses, pronoun-antecedent agreement, subject-verb agreement,
sentence construction (no fragments, run-ons, misplaced modifiers, etc.), no
commonly confused word errors (e.g., its and its, affect and effect)
*Please
be sure to consult Corrigan, Chapter 5 “Style and Structure” to assist you
with tips on diction, tone, varied sentence structure, organization,
avoidance of clichés and repetitions. His tips are likely to help you with both revising
and editing your essay so you do well with criteria (2) organization, (4)
clarity, and (5) tone and diction.
Enjoy working on this critical essay. Feel free to establish your own style and
do not feel obliged to use the traditional 5-paragraph essay format. However, do make sure your paper is well
organized and can be readily followed by a reader. Think of your audience as any student in
the class as well as your professor.
Your purpose is to convince your reader that you can write a solid critical
analysis that addresses the assignment prompt, which requires you to analyze
film and literature with a good critical mind. You will also want to convince your readers
that you can express your ideas clearly and meet the criteria established for
this assignment. You have two weeks to
complete this multi-step assignment.
Work through the steps by designing a schedule right from the
start. The peer review session will be
held one or two class meetings before the paper is due. You are required to bring two typed copies
of your full draft to this class. In
addition, you are strongly encouraged to have me and ARC tutors review your
paper before the final submission date.
(Check the class schedule online daily for updates.)
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