FORMAL BLOG POST-KEY PASSAGE ANALYSIS
For one class period during the semester, you will need to compose a short thesis-driven analysis
of a key passage from one of the assigned readings. You both will post this analysis to our
BLSEH blog and turn in a hard copy (which will be returned to you with comments and your
grade). The word count is 375-625 words, and this blog post will be worth 10% of your final
grade for the course.
After our roster is finalized this Friday, I will assign your writing date, so you will know by next
Tuesday at the latest on which class meeting you will have one of these short writing assignments
due. As you will see from the posting deadline below, you will need to plan to work ahead.
To do well on this assignment, you will need to refer to and discuss specific textual evidence
from your key passage in support of your thesis. You will be well served to select a focus that
can be meaningfully developed in a short piece of writing while still demonstrating a depth and
sophistication to your argument. You also will need to write with clarity, correctness, and style.
Your first job will be identifying a key passage from your assigned day’s specific reading
assignment(s)—something that has ideas, images, or language that can be fruitfully examined in
detail. Again, make sure the key passage itself is not too long or too short for you to discuss
within the official word count parameters. Where the former in particular is concerned, please
note well that this assignment asks you to practice close reading, so you do not want to select a
lengthy set of lines or sentences only to then discuss a few words from the whole. You want
your analysis to be as comprehensive as possible in its coverage of your key passage.
Title your posts/papers as follows: [Name]’s Key Passage Analysis on [Name of Writer]’s
[Name of Reading]—e.g., Christy’s Key Passage Analysis on William Butler Yeats’s
“Easter 1916” or Cristóbal’s Key Passage Analysis on Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein. Your
post/paper also should reproduce the full text of your selected passage (including its page number
information, and any line number information, if applicable) right below your title and right
above your analysis. Do not add in this prefatory material when calculating your word count
total; the word count should only include words in the essay proper.
Then, provide a thorough analysis of your passage that illuminates its importance for our
understanding either of this particular part of the text or of the text as a whole. Be careful, if
addressing the latter, not to stray away from a focus of the passage itself, though; you need to
make sure that your primary emphasis is on developing an argument about your key passage, not
discussing other parts of the text or drawing generalizations about the work as a whole.
Remember, above all you need to offer a thorough and convincing argument that supports a clear
thesis through a detailed explication of your passage featuring careful analysis of individual
words, phrases, and/or lines.
These posts must be uploaded to the blog by 10:00 p.m. on the night BEFORE we discuss
the specific reading(s); a hard copy is due at the start of class that day. Unless I have
granted you an extension ahead of time, failure to meet the blog deadline will result in your grade
for the assignment being knocked down two grade-level notches (e.g., from A+ to A-), and you
will lose one further notch (e.g., from A- to B+) if it is not posted by the start of our class
meeting. You also will suffer an additional penalty of a full grade level (e.g., from B+ to C+) for
each subsequent class period that passes without your both posting it to the blog and turning in a
hard copy. All papers should be typed and double spaced, and they should include the word
count total somewhere on the last page.
They also need to be pledged. No outside research is required; indeed, ideally, it is just you
sitting down and offering your own original reading. If you do consult any secondary source
material at any point during your writing process, be sure your thesis is your own, as well as the
bulk of your argumentation; this is a personal interpretation, not a report on somebody else’s
analysis. And, of course, make sure you document all borrowed ideas and wording properly
following MLA guidelines. I expect you to abide by the honor code in all your work for this
course, including this blog post. I will prosecute honor violations, and ignorance is not an excuse
where plagiarism is concerned; again, it is your responsibility to avoid misuse of source
material(s). If you are at all unclear about any issue related to plagiarism, you always should
check with me first before submitting your work.