Literature and Philology
Due in class Oct. 8; worth 5% of your total grade.
To prepare:
• Read the essay topics (below) and choose the question on which you plan to write.
• Plan your essay: reread the poems, story, or novel; decide on your argument; make a note of the
major points you plan to argue and the major evidence you will use from the primary source
(poems, story, or novel); and write an outline.
To hand in:
• Write an informative title that indicates the focus of your essay and identifies the text and author.
• Draft a detailed, well-thought-out first paragraph that provides the full name of the text(s) and
the author(s) and that begins with a general discussion of your text(s) and then introduces the
narrower concern of your own essay and your plan of argument.
• End the paragraph with your thesis statement — the hypothesis you intend to argue.
• Format the page exactly as you will in your essay, modeling it on the sample page posted in the
“Assignments” folder:
— the page number and your last name as a running head at the top right
— identifying information at the top left
— the title centred over the first paragraph
— all text, including the identifying information and title, double-spaced and in plain 12-point
type (no boldface) with 2.5 cm margins.
• On a second page, attach a list of your Work or Works Cited, in correct MLA style. See the
Dept. of English Requirements for Essays and the sample Works Cited pages in Broadview Pocket
Guide p. 240-41 for formatting details.
The draft of your title, first paragraph, and Work C
