Keyword, Keystone Passage, & Keystone Chapter Papers

For these three writing exercises, you will for the first paper take a "keyword" from Les Liasons Dangereuses (Grp. Black (odd & even) due 9/20; Grp. Red (odd & even) due 9/27); for take the second paper a "keystone passage" from The Red and the Black (Grp. Black/odd Part 1 due 10/4; Grp. Red/even Part 2 due 10/11) or Madame Bovary (Grp. Red/odd Part1 and Part 2 (chs. 1-8) due 10/18; Grp. Black/even Part 2 (chs. 9-15) and Part 3 due 10/25); for the third paper take a "keystone chapter " from Anna Karenina (Grp. Red/even from Books 1-2 due 11/1; Grp. Black/odd from Books 3-4 due 11/8; Grp. Red/odd from Books 5-6 due 11/15; Grp. Black/even from Books 7-8 due 11/22). Your main goal is to select and analyze a keyword and keystone passages respectively as a means of interpreting the given text's theme. Your task, then, is to provide a focused "close reading" of your selected word or passage or chapter and to draw inferences related to your overall reading of the text. Remember that isolating keywords, keystone passages, or keystone chapters is often merely a starting point for critical writing, and you may well need to cite other passages from the narrative to help you make your point. At the same time, remember that you cannot do everything in a 1,000-word paper, and I don't expect definitive readings.

Process:

In preparing the paper:

1. Reproduce the keyword or keystone passage as part of your introduction (for the keystone chapter paper be sure to identify the chapter and place it in a narrative context. Your thesis should be targeting the significance of the word or passage or chapter for revealing the meaning of the text.
2. Since you may be using a different edition of your novel than the one I'm using, you need to provide accurate page citations in the your paper whenever you are quoting from the narrative, and to provide a separate Work(s) Cited page at the end. Also, make sure you transcribe all quotations accurately--I often find in my own writing that I begin with one point when I quote a passage but discover two or three more during the process of transcription; don't underestimate this "clerical" task as part of your close reading strategy.
3. Even though it is a short paper, you need to have a title that will be indicative of the paper's content.

See the Sample Paper handout for specific conventions in preparing these papers; I do evaluate the total paper when I grade.