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Literary
Analysis
Paper
Objective: In this paper you will
consider a work of popular fiction and explain what benefit it can be to
contemporary audiences, particularly in helping them understand the
relationship between science, religion, and magic.
This assignment will help you
develop your skill of discussing, explaining, and
analyzing a piece of writing, and it will also help you
develop your skills of evaluating a piece of writing and
of reacting to another's writing. Additionally, it will
demonstrate that you can identify themes within and
components of literature.
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Harry Dresden, Chris McGrath |
Your first step on this assignment is
to pick a Dresden Files novel or episode. After choosing a piece, re-read or
re-watch it several times to make sure you
remember and understand its finer details. In this paper you will explain
what
(its theme)
and how it means, particularly in relation to
science, religion, and magic.
You should discuss how at least one of the elements the
author or director uses is essential to the
communication of the piece's theme (for example, a
thesis for
Sharon Olds's "Sex without Love" might be that the sarcastic tone helps convey that
people can have different attitudes toward sex) or you might concentrate on how specific symbols or words are used to
communicate the piece's theme (a thesis might explore how several of the
characters in Ivan Reitman's Evolution
illustrate that people who have trouble getting along
with others often impede their own success).
Remember that the theme, for these purposes, can be understood
as the moral or lesson that readers learn about their own lives from the poem--and
it will have something to do with science, religion, and/or magic.
Remember to state your thesis clearly
in your opening paragraph. You must then pull (and quote) evidence from the piece, or
from research on the piece, to support that thesis and organize it in a logical manner.
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The main difficulties you are likely to
experience while working on this paper (after deciding what to use) are creating
your thesis, narrowing it effectively and then making sure that the rest of your paper
supports that thesis and does not stray to other interesting but irrelevant points
and/or does
not repeat the same supporting points. You should steer clear of including biographical
information about the writer or director, as that can often sidetrack you from the theme or lead you to
make the error of believing the story's
narrator is its author. Writers often adopt
different imaginative personalities to communicate their themes.
Format: This paper should be
double-spaced, carefully edited and proofread, and prepared using MLA
format; it should have a heading listing your name,
my name, the course title and section number, and the date on it. You should have
the paper number and the title of your essay on a separate centered line before you begin
your paper. Additionally, your last name and the page number should appear at the
top right of each page. The essay should be two to three
pages in length with one-inch margins, not including your required Work(s) Cited.
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