Graded Assignment ENG304B: Honors American Literature | Honors Project 3 | Lesson 2: Analyze the Text Name: Date: Graded Assignment Analyze The Catcher in the Rye After you have read The Catcher in the Rye and completed the Reading Guide, answer the questions below to analyze the text and develop a thesis statement for your honors project essay. As you answer the questions, remember that a proper thesis statement must make an assertion about some element of a work of literature and that the novel must contain textual evidence to support or prove or defend that assertion. (10 points) Score 1. The first step in developing a thesis statement is to identify a topic or subject. Literary analysis essays can be written about any number of elements, or aspects, in a literary work— its characters, its settings, its events, its language, its images, its themes, or its symbols. The subject of your literary analysis essay should be something that is prominent in the novel, not something that is minor or of little importance. Example: A literary analysis essay on The Great Gatsby might focus on the message that F. Scott Fitzgerald conveys about the adverse effects of wealth on the novel's characters. What topic or subject in The Catcher in the Rye would you like to write about in your literary analysis? Explain why you think that this topic is appropriate for a literary analysis essay. Answer: (10 points) 2. Next consider the purpose of your essay. The purpose is what you intend to show or prove about the subject you have chosen. An essay about one of the symbols in a novel might be written to identify and explain that symbol's meaning. An essay about a character in a novel might be written to explain how he or she changes and grows over the course of a work. Score Example: The purpose of an essay about the adverse effects of wealth on the characters in The Great Gatsby might be to show that wealth is not a source of happiness or contentment for people, but actually harms those who pursue and obtain it. What do you plan to show or prove about your subject? Answer: © 2009 K12 Inc. All rights reserved. Copying or distributing without K12’s written consent is prohibited. Page 1 of 2 Graded Assignment ENG304B: Honors American Literature | Honors Project 3 | Lesson 2: Analyze the Text (15 points) 3. Now consider the role that textual evidence will play in your essay. Textual evidence includes details, quotations, and descriptions from the novel. A writer will incorporate or cite textual evidence to support the assertion he or she makes about the essay's subject in the thesis statement. Score Example: If one were writing an essay about the adverse effects of wealth on the characters in The Great Gatsby, one might cite details, quotations, and descriptions about the unhappy marriage of Tom and Daisy Buchanan, the failure of Gatsby to win Daisy over, and the death of Gatsby to support one's assertion. Describe at least three specific pieces of textual evidence from The Catcher in the Rye that you will use to support the assertion you will make about your subject. If you cannot find several pieces of textual evidence that can be used to support your assertion, consider changing your subject or the assertion you plan to make. Answer: (15 points) 4. Finally, you are ready to compose a thesis statement for your literary essay. Your thesis statement should focus on a specific subject, make a claim or an assertion about that subject, and briefly state a conclusion that you have drawn about the subject based on textual evidence that you plan to include. Score Example: A suitable thesis statement for a literary essay on The Great Gatsby might read as follows: "Through his depictions of the failures and the death of Jay Gatsby and the discontent felt by the Buchanans in The Great Gatsby, F. Scott Fitzgerald shows readers that wealth is no substitute for true happiness but is instead a corrupting influence in the lives of these characters." Look at your answers to the first three questions above and then combine them into a single thesis statement. Answer: Your Score © 2009 K12 Inc. All rights reserved. Copying or distributing without K12’s written consent is prohibited. ___ of 50 Page 2 of 2 Graded Assignment ENG304B: Honors American Literature | Honors Project 1–4 | Lesson 3: Identify Literary Criticism Name: Date: Graded Assignment Identify Literary Criticism After you have developed a working thesis statement for your honors project essay, go to your local library and locate relevant works of literary criticism that support your thesis statement. Provide the bibliographic information and a brief summary of at least two pieces of literary criticism that you find in the spaces provided below. For each work, also include ideas and quotations that could be used to support your thesis statement. Your Thesis: (25 points) 1. Source 1 Score Bibliographic information: Summary of the criticism: Ideas and quotations that support your thesis: © 2009 K12 Inc. All rights reserved. Copying or distributing without K12’s written consent is prohibited. Page 1 of 2 Graded Assignment ENG304B: Honors American Literature | Honors Project 1–4 | Lesson 3: Identify Literary Criticism (25 points) 2. Source 2 Score Bibliographic information: Summary of the criticism: Ideas and quotations that support your thesis: Your Score © 2009 K12 Inc. All rights reserved. Copying or distributing without K12’s written consent is prohibited. ___ of 50 Page 2 of 2 
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