English 1B, Introduction to Literature

Dale T. Jensen, Instructor

A Fully Accredited Online Course Offered By Barstow College

Novel Paper

Your fourth literary paper must be on The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald; no other novel is acceptable.

You need to say something intelligent about the novel.  I have posted possible topics you could write on throughout the plot summary in lesson eight. You may use one of those topics, or you may come up with a topic of your own.

DO NOT WRITE A PLOT SUMMARY! YOU ARE TO ANALYZE AND INTERPRET.

Here are a few websites that have posted essays on the novel:

http://www.123helpme.com/view.asp?id=4728

http://www.123helpme.com/view.asp?id=7733

These essays are just to give you ideas about writing your essay. DO NOT PLAGIARIZE! YOU WILL FAIL THIS CLASS IF YOU DO. I am aware what is available on the Internet and can easily do a search to determined if the your submission is copied.

Be sure to included the following in your paper when you type it up in your word processing program:

1. Create a title for your essay.

2. Write an introduction that gets the reader’s attention. State the title of the novel and the author’s name. Write a thesis that argues for your interpretation and analysis. Don’t write an announcement ("I am writing about. . ." or "My essay is about. . ."). 

3. The multi-paragraph body must support your thesis. Here you may use short quotations to prove your points. Every idea in the body must support the thesis.

4. In the conclusion reword your thesis and summarize your main points. End with a clincher (a strong memorable statement).

5. The length should be between 500-700 words. Use your word processing to count the words. It is just as bad to overwrite as it is to underwrite. Writing errors will lower your score, so proofread carefully and do a spell check.

6. When you are finished with your essay, put a few extra spaces between the paragraphs to prevent your paragraphs from being run together when I receive it.

7. You must use the feedback form to submit your paper. Your submission will automatically be labeled so it can easily be sorted. Just copy, paste, and submit.

Use your real name, not your username or password in the feedback form. If you do not type in your e-mail address correctly, you will not get your graded assignment returned. 

By submitting this assignment, you affirm  that you wrote it for this class and allow it to undergo a plagiarism search.  Plagiarism is punishable by failure in this course.

If you have any questions on this assignment, contact me by e-mail. Put HELP!!! in the subject line. Sometimes I get over 100 e-mails a day. I look at the HELP!!! messages first. Good luck!

Happy Reading and Writing!

Mr. Jensen