SOME GUIDELINES:

An effective short paper begins with a succinct (one or two sentence) statement of your argument. Limit your first paragraph to one or two sentences! For the most part, do not write long introductions to your short papers; you don’t have the space for them.

Every argument, however small, needs support. Following your thesis sentence/paragraph, you should present one or two specific pieces of evidence for it from the text(s) you are considering. Such evidence should almost always include a citation from the text, with your analysis of that cited passage, or a very brief paraphrase (one or two sentences) of an event, character, scene, idea, or argument. In your short papers you should have one or two paragraphs of supporting argument; as a general rule of thumb, each paragraph should focus upon one idea only, and each idea should be supported by one or two specific pieces of evidence. Do not summarize the plot of a text as evidence; refer briefly to an element of the plot and then analyze it.

The best short papers conclude by offering to the reader some sense of why your thesis matters. If the reader accepts your argument, what insight have you provided for him or her about the novel or critical work as a whole, or about this course? How does the specific evidence which you have analyzed resonate with some larger issues of the novel, the critical reading, or the course?

EVALUATION: Short papers are graded with check, check-plus, or check-minus. I use this form of grading with the short papers in order to allow you the freedom to experiment with your writing and your ideas about this course and the works we are reading together. The short papers are the ideal forum in which you and I can work, in a low-pressure dialogue, on developing your ideas.