Hi Class,

For October 17, make sure to spend several hours working on the draft of the Midterm Essay. Do not try to write the draft in one setting. I suggest breaking up the essay writing task into three parts, to be done over three days.

Day one: Spend about an hour rereading the stories that you will write about.

Day two: Then spend an hour or so taking notes and freewriting your ideas.

Day three: Then spend at least an hour writing your notes and freewrites into the formal essay. Make sure to spend considerable time writing and revising your thesis. Make sure that the essay is not a summary of the stories or merely a description of the key characters. Think of gothic themes and concepts. Make sure each paragraph has a job to do that is connected to the thesis and begins with a strong topic sentence.

Also: please read the following very short texts:

  1. Introduction and up to page 13 in Gertrude Stein’s Tender Buttons–in Readings. The intro will help explain the concept of modernist fiction.
  2. “A Very Short Story” by Ernest Hemingway.

Best,

Prof. Scanlan