Hum 122
Paper #3: Voltaire’s Candide
Spring 2009
Assignment:
An essay answering the question, Is Candide a utopian or an anti-utopian book?
Due date:
Monday, February 16, at the beginning of class. Papers not available at the
beginning of class for a classmate to read will be marked down as late.
Length:
3 typed double-spaced pages.
Purpose:
To learn to write persuasive academic argument, in which evidence is marshaled
in support of a disputable claim in order to answer a question posed about a text.
Writing aim: To become familiar with the basic elements and structure of academic essays. To
work on flow and cohesion (“passing the baton” from sentence to sentence).
Format, etc.:
Give the paper a meaningful title. Otherwise the format is the same as for the
first two papers. You may use parenthetical page references instead of footnotes.
For this assignment, you’ll take the next step in academic writing by moving from close readings
and comparisons to making an argument that answers a larger question about a text. In this case,
I’ll provide the question (sometimes called the problem) for you to solve. Your task is to answer
the question and support your answer with reasoning about and evidence from Candide. Your
answer (often called the thesis or interpretation or argument) will take the form of a disputable
claim. By this I mean that your answer to the question—like interesting answers to almost all
significant questions—can be challenged and contested by other knowledgeable readers of
Candide. Because the question I have posed can be answered either way, you’ll not prove your
point simply by asserting it again and again. You’ll need to figure out a strategy for convincing
skeptical readers that your claim is plausible. Making your case will require you to think about
how to set up and unfold your argument. It will also require you to develop evidence for the
claim by using the techniques of close reading that you have already learned. You might also
find the techniques of comparative analysis helpful because deciding if Candide is a utopian book
might depend on the understanding of utopianism gained from reading The Republic and Utopia.
The “preps” for the classes on Candide pose questions that can help you decide on your thesis.
Preparatory reading for this paper:
For excellent advice about this kind of paper, read Gordon Harvey’s “Elements of the Academic
Essay” (attached to this assignment sheet) and the Harvard Writing Center’s online handouts
entitled “Overview of the Academic Essay,” “Essay Structure,” and “Counter-Argument.”
In writing this paper I want you to work on cohesion (the flow in a paper from sentence to
sentence and from paragraph to paragraph). One way to improve cohesion is by keeping the
topics and the point of view consistent throughout a paragraph. You can test for consistency by
underlining the grammatical subject of every clause in a paragraph. If the paragraph is cohesive,
the words that you have underlined should seem to be a related set of topics. They do not have to
be identical but they should be closely associated with one another. Remember what we learned
about characters and actions, and you’ll realize that you can make a paragraph seem focused and
cohesive by presenting it from the point of view of one person (e.g., Candide, or Voltaire, or a
reader of the book Candide.)
Another way to improve cohesion is to provide clear transitions that guide readers through the
unfolding logic of your argument. Think of the sentences in a paragraph (and the paragraphs in
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the whole paper) as runners in a relay race. At the end of each leg of the relay, the runner must
pass the baton to the next runner, who begins another leg. Less metaphorically, what this means
is that each sentence (or paragraph) should end with the word, topic, issue or concept that the next
sentence (or paragraph) will take up. In effect, the baton should be extended for the next runner
to grab. Correspondingly, at the front end of the sentence you place the ideas and concepts that
you have already referred to. In effect, you should begin a sentence by grabbing the baton. Thus,
you move the old and familiar to the front of the sentence and place the new and significant at the
end. Put another way, you end each sentence with the new thing that you intend to emphasize.
Here are two examples. The first set of sentences lacks cohesion and so the discussion seems
disjointed. In the second set, the sentences flow into one another; as a result, the discussion
seems focused. The examples come from Wayne C. Booth, Gregory G. Colomb, and Joseph M.
Williams, The Craft of Research (Chicago: University of Chicago, 1995), 225-26.
The biosphere could be permanently damaged if rain forests continue to be stripped to
serve these short-term interests. National policies that deal with local problems and
ignore the global impact will not halt this damage. Only the efforts of the industrialized
countries of the world will achieve that goal.
If rain forests continue to be stripped to serve these short-term interests, the biosphere
could be permanently damaged. This damage will not be halted by national policies that
deal with local problems and ignore the global impact. That goal will be achieved only
by the efforts of the industrialized countries of the world.
Here is another set of examples. In the second, improved version, note that the writer violates the
advice about characters and actions in order to accomplish a more important purpose—improving
the flow between the sentences by passing the baton:
Because the naming power of words was distrusted by Locke, he repeated himself often.
Seventeenth-century theories of language, especially Wilkins’ scheme for a universal
language involving the creation of countless symbols for countless meanings, had
centered on this naming power. A new era in the study of language that focused on the
ambiguous relationship between sense and reference begins with Locke’s distrust.
Locke often repeated himself because he distrusted the naming power of words. This
naming power had been central to seventeenth-century theories of language, especially
Wilkins’ scheme for a universal language involving the creation of countless symbols for
countless meanings. Locke’s distrust begins a new era in the study of language, one that
focused on the ambiguous relationship between sense and reference.
In both of the improved examples, notice how the writer places familiar information at the start
and unfamiliar information at the end of sentences. In short, the writer is passing the baton!
IMPORTANT REMINDER:
You must use the services of the Center for Writing and Learning for at least one paper in
this course. (See page four of the syllabus for details.) This assignment is the first of three
opportunities to do so. Because this paper is more complicated than the first two, it can
benefit from the scrutiny and suggestions of one of the Center’s excellent writing advisors.
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