Your assignment is to write a 500- to 1000-word analysis of the article. Your analysis will be in the form of an essay, with a thesis statement and evidence.

To prepare for writing the paper

1. Begin by reading the text till you think you understand it. Write a one-paragraph summary of it.
2. Then do the exercises that were assigned for October 3. These will give you material that you should be able to use in your paper.
3. Write a sentence that says what you have learned from analyzing the article. This will serve as the thesis of your essay.
4. Make a list of reasons why you believe your thesis.

While you are working on the paper

1. Take advantage of the free services at the Writing Center. You can make an appointment online or in person; they're located on the ground floor of HB Crouse. This is not a requirement but rather a recommendation.
2. Make an appointment to meet with me during office hours, or send me an email, an IM (AIM = "ProfBfromWV"), or a Facebook message (I'm "Rebecca Moore Howard"). Don't send me whole papers with questions like "How good is this paper?" Instead, ask me specific questions, such as "Should I give page citations for my paraphrases?" or "Is this an analytic thesis?"

What should go in the paper

1. Be sure your paper identifies the source you are analyzing, but you need no list of works cited unless you are drawing on other sources. Whether you use other sources is optional; the point of this assignment is for you to analyze how a single text works. Identification of your source can come in your title or in your introduction.
2. The introduction should include your thesis statement. The best places for positioning the thesis are at the end of the introduction or perhaps at the beginning.
3. Your paper will also need to include a brief summary of the text you are analyzing; otherwise, it might be hard for a reader to follow your analysis. The summary might be a sentence or a paragraph; do what works for you. It might be in the introduction, or immediately after it.
4. The body of your paper should focus on your analysis of your source. Don't make this a simple list; rather, make this an explanation of why you believe the thesis.
5. And you'll need a conclusion. Hmm. Look in your Thomson Brief Handbook, sects. 2f and 7g, and see if you get some useful ideas there.
6. Manuscript preparation: When you have produced a final draft of your summary, follow the specifications here.

7. Length: 500 to 1000 words.

How I will grade the paper

Due date: Send final draft of the paper to me by 12:45 p.m. October 15. Send it as an email attachment; the manuscript specifications tell you how. After 12:45 October 15, it becomes a late paper, which means the grade begins to slide.