Choose a “short story” from the list, “The 50 Best Short Stories of All Time.”
 Compose a formal documented research essay (a literary analysis) according to
MLA style.
 Design a webquest Electronic Poster on the author of your story.
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sign up for a story so that
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Class @ https://www.signupgenius.com/go/10c0f4faaa62da0fa7-engl
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Read and annotate the short story so you can refer to the text quickly in order to support
or refute or exemplify/illustrate your critic’s assertions if necessary.
 You can save your story as a Word Document and use the New Comment
feature (you can find it in the Toolbar) to annotate the text, or you can print the
text and make your annotations in the margins of the text.
 You can use this method for your criticism also. It is a very effective way to
gather important information about your text and have it visible at all times during
the writing of the paper.
 As you read and annotate your text, you are actually writing small segments of
your paper, which will help you, later on, to compose your final draft.
You will write a literary analysis, around 450 words, according to MLA style, using a
minimum of one criticism (the Works Cited page is excluded from the word count). You
can find a sample of an MLA style paper on OWL @ Purdue Writing Lab page
@ https://owl.english.purdue.edu/media/pdf/20091250615234_747.pdf

Criticism:
Log into KSU Library website @ http://library.kennesaw.edu/ to search for criticisms.
 Select at least one literary criticism; read and annotate the text so that you
can pull out a thesis statement easily. The labels in the margin will help you
determine what the thesis statement should be–what the critic is analyzing:
characters, time period, literary elements…
 Since this is a very short paper (around 450 words), you need only a one-part
thesis statement. That way, you will be able to provide a more rounded
discussion on the issue that the critic is analyzing and incorporate his
assertions into your analysis.
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 Next, the thesis will help you write your outline; it is essential that you prepare
an outline to make sure that in your body paragraphs you are covering the
issue stated in your theses statement.
 Then you can move on and prepare your rough draft, and, at the end, your
final copy.
 Everybody has a different writing process. Once I write my thesis statement, I
like to write the body of the paper first to make sure that I am justifying my
thesis statement with summaries, paraphrases, and short quotations from the
criticism and the story; and then I go back and write my intro. and conclusion.
 Use your best writing processes.
Remember: This is a short essay, so budget your words so you can compose a
short, well-developed essay:
Introduction (at least 100 words): provide a very brief story line so that the reader
can become acquainted with the characters and the main conflict in the story;
end your intro. paragraph with your thesis statement—one-part thesis statement.
Body: use your criticism and compose two good paragraphs (150 words each),
analyzing the main issue stated in your thesis statement. Make sure that you
provide internal documentation (last name of critic or last name of the author of
your short story) when you are using your critic’s words or when you are referring
to excerpt from the story.
Conclusion: pull everything together and state your own evaluation of the story
(at least 50 words).
Works Cited page: at least two sources: the criticism and the story.