ENGL 490/Senior Seminar Essay: Invitation to Write
Dr. Tracey Schwarze
Christopher Newport University, English Department

Your final essay, an extended examination/meditation on madness, comprises your principal work for this course. This paper is to be an original work of literary interpretation, based in--but distinct from--the work of literary critics and cultural theorists. As you will note in the syllabus, I have broken this task into four distinct parts: a 1- to 2-page abstract, a 5-page draft, a 10-page draft, and a final 20-page essay. I will be grading and commenting on each stage of your work. I hope that you find this structure helps you to stay on track with your writing and that you will avail yourself of the ample opportunities for revision it provides. In addition to receiving my responses to your work (in conference and/or in writing), I will also expect you to actively seek the responses of your writing partner and/or other students in the course. All writers need readers to tell them what's working and what's not--I expect that your final paper will have been read by many people in addition to me, and that its several parts will have been re-thought, re-seen, and revised many times before you hand in a final paper. I look forward to reading your thoughtful, provocative analyses.

I strongly suggest that you select ONE text of sufficient complexity rather than several pieces on which to focus your efforts. While it may seem daunting at this early stage to think about writing twenty pages on a single text, I believe you will find much more to say than you anticipate, provided you choose well.

My general requirements for the paper, other than length, are that you will

· ground your essay in a theoretical foundation (that is, set out ideas from key theorists-Foucault? Cixous and Clement? Felman? Freud?-that you can apply to your text to begin to understand its representations of madness)
· set out specific historical/cultural contexts for your texts, and try to understand how these contexts interact with the text's representation of madness.
· incorporate the work of literary critics and cultural theorists in your paper, applying and responding to their ideas in a way that makes clear your own distinct vantage point
· use MLA style
· hand in your best, most thoughtful, most professional-looking work at all times

What follows are descriptions of each part of the assignment.

1-2 page abstract: Tell me what you're thinking. Include a tentative thesis (Why are you writing this paper? What do you hope to discover?) and a clear description of your project. What text(s) you will work with, what theories/theorists you will apply? What are the issues of the texts you've selected? How do you think your theorists help to illuminate these issues? What historical/cultural context will be important to the consideration of the texts you've chosen? This is a large paper-how do you envision shaping your ideas into distinct sections? Please describe the focus of individual sections. (10%)

5-page draft: Consider this as the introduction to your longer paper. You should set out brief, salient summaries of the issue(s) you intend to explore and their connection to the text that you've chosen. This paper needs to have a thesis that is perhaps broader than what can be covered in 5 pages-the thesis you offer at this stage should encompass the entire project (to the best of your ability at this stage). The bulk of these 5 pages should be devoted to setting out the theoretical foundation and cultural/historical backgrounds of your argument. You should also begin to assert connections to your chosen text. (15%)

10-page draft: Include here a REVISED version of the previous 5-page draft-that is, your tentative thesis/theoretical foundation/background information. In the new 5 pages, please begin to apply this foundation to the literary text you've selected-this new material should provide clear textual analysis of your play, novel, poem, or story. Consider thoroughly developing just 1-2 of your major points in this new section. (15%)

20-page final essay: Includes REVISED versions of the previous 10 pages, along with another 5-8 pages of extended literary analysis and a 2-3 page conclusion that not only recaps your major argument(s), but also leaves the reader with some new, significant point to ponder about your topic. (35%)

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