Assignments

For All Assignments: 

Please visit the Online Writing Lab at Purdue for help with MLA parenthetical citations and “Works Cited.”

Sample MLA Paper

Updated: Please see the Online Writing Lab at Purdue’s explanation of the 8th edition of the MLA. 

Please also see the following resources for integrating quotations in your writing:

USING-QUOTES-IN-THE-ANALYTICAL-ESSAY

They Say/I Say Sentence Templates

Writing Assignment # 1: New York Stories

Writing assignment inspired by Sarah Schulman’s The Cosmopolitans

Writing Assignment # 2: The Personal is Political

Writing Assignment 2

Writing Assignment # 3: Texts & Contexts

Writing Assignment 3

 

Final Research Project

Final Research Project

Sample Annotated Bibliography MLA 8th Edition

Sample Outlines for Final Research Project

Reader Response Papers

ENG 1121 General Guidelines for Reader Response Assignments

Reader Response Assignment # 1: After reading and discussing Plato’s “Allegory of the Cave,” write a response answering the following question: How is Plato’s Allegory relevant today? Choose one important idea from Plato and explain why this ideas is important today. Be sure to include at least one direct quotation from Plato. To do so, choose one specific example from the current political or historical moment—you may refer to a news story, your own experience, or a conversation with someone else, but be specific.  Use OWL at Purdue to include a “Works Cited” that provides complete bibliographic information for Plato’s “Allegory of the Cave,” using MLA format. If you also reference another article, you should also include this in your works cited.

Reader Response Assignment # 2: 

After reading Baldwin’s “A Letter to my Nephew” and Danticat’s “Message to my Daughters,” write a letter of your own to someone in your life conveying your opinion about race, inequality and/or oppression in America today. In your letter, include at least one quotation from either Danticat or Baldwin (or both). As always, be sure to follow the general guidelines for the reader response papers (Note: bibliographic information for both readings is available on the ‘Readings’ page of the OpenLab site).

Reader Response Assignment # 3: 

Write a response to Jesmyn Ward’s Men We Reaped based on the reading you have done so far. You may choose your own focus, for example you could write about a character, a theme or a symbol that elicits some kind of reaction either negative or positive, or discuss the author’s politics and your opinion of them, or discuss the relevance of Ward’s memoir today. Or, if you prefer, you could write a letter to someone who you think should read this memoir and explain why. As always,   be sure to follow the general guidelines for the reader response papers.

Reader Response Assignment # 5: 

Write a response to Jesmyn Ward’s Men We Reaped focusing on the end of the memoir or your overall impressions of the memoir after reading the end. You may choose your own focus, for example you could write about a character, a theme or a symbol that elicits some kind of reaction either negative or positive, or discuss the author’s politics and your opinion of them, or discuss the relevance of Ward’s memoir today. Or, if you prefer, you could write a letter to someone who you think should read this memoir and explain why. As always,   be sure to follow the general guidelines for the reader response papers.