M Mahoney. AP Literature and Composition. Spring 2018
Write an essay that explores what one book or the other says about imperialism. Both books are complex and offer multiple readings, so your paper should not reduce the works to an argument for imperialism or against it. You can explore the works from many angles, but you must touch on the essential question: How does the work treat the history of European imperialism in Africa.
The focus of your essay must be the novel. However, you may take different approaches. You may use “Shooting an Elephant” as a lens to look into either book. You may explore how women are treated as a way of understanding colonialism. You may explore the psychology of a character, if you can reasonably connect this to imperialism. You explore Yeats’ poem as a source of the title for Things Fall Apart. Drawing from old AP prompts, you may consider the role of the tragic hero (antihero), parallel events and characters, exile, acts of violence, alienation, etc. I think you could make a good paper looking at lies in Heart of Darkness or storytelling in Things Fall Apart. You can also take a more straightforward approach and look at how effectively a book challenges imperialist ideology.
You must bring in at least four sources in addition to the novel. These secondary sources need only a single mention and should be used to support the argument you are making about the main book. (one must be from the packet of source documents. Do not cite encyclopedia or websites that you have not vetted and I have not approved. Your essay must be 6-7 content pages (at least 1800 words, not counting header and work cited). Avoid padding your essay with empty verbiage, tautology, and over-long block quotations. You must use MLA format and citation. Include a work cited page. Failure to use MLA format or citation will result in a severe points penalty. There are four mini-deadlines. For each deadline you miss your essay will be penalized five points.
Advice:
Intro: Start with a compelling attention grabber; end your intro with an argumentative thesis. Thesis should be long sentence (20+ words) and end with you most important and impactful claim. Include title and author in intro. Avoid author’s name in body.
Body: Paragraphs should usually be at least 12 sentences and should begin with a longish topic sentence that is an opinion that sets up the idea of the paragraph and develops the thesis. You should weave in at least two well-chosen, short quotations in a paragraph. Make sure quotations are quote-worthy and woven in. Make sure they are properly punctuated. Usually comment on the quotation before moving on.
Part of your essay can be a close reading a passage.
Conclusion: Make connections and tie back to the opening paragraph.
This essay is worth 200 points (16.6 percent of your grade). You will be able to meet with me during the drafting, but you cannot revise the final. Your essay is due to turnintin.com. You must turn it in to turnitin.com in a readable format. Do not post directly from google docs or pages. Instead make a PDF. Files submitted in an unreadable format are late. Papers that are turned in late because of illness or technical issues are still late. Plan on turning in your essay early so you don’t have to worry about power outages or computer failures. Starting one minute late essays will be marked down as follows: 1 day late: -20 pts. 2 days late: -40 points. 3 to 5 days late -100 points. More than five days late: Not accepted. You can meet with me to go over your paper, but there will be no revisions of the final draft.
Dates:
- Topic and thesis: Thur, Feb 15..
- Intro and (revised) thesis statement. Topic Sentence Outline. Rough first body paragraph (must have good topic sentence and one quotations woven in): Friday, Feb. 16.
- Three polished body paragraphs (good topic sentence, at least 12 sentences each, at least two quotations/para). Google doc. Share with me. Monday 2/26.
- Revised complete draft for proofreading. This will be your best effort, a paper you could turn in for a final grade. Include work cited page. Turn in to Turnitin.com by midnight Wednesday 2/28. We will peer edit using your turnitin submission.
- Final draft: Sunday, March 4, midnight.
- Grace period: In case of emergency, you have 24 hours after the submission deadline before penalties kick in. If you do not need the grace period, you may use it for another assignment.
Note we will continue reading and discussing literature as you write this paper.