Each student will compose, write, and submit a unique essay of a minimum of 1500 words (in the body of the essay’s text), properly documented and formatted per MLA guidelines (with absolutely no exceptions allowed, even in the draft phase) an essay responding effectively to the following prompt for analysis:
Using Ngugi wa’Thiongo’s “Decolonising the Mind” from The Norton Reader, you will commit analysis of the structure of the essay and how the author’s text strategically affects and impacts an audience. Your analysis must be grounded in the original text, and you must teach me HOW the structure works. You must have a provable thesis that sets up analysis, claims that can be proven, evidence to support those claims, and analysis of how the evidence does the thing you’ve claimed AND why the way that works helps to build the case for your thesis.
Remember that everything about your essay and its presentation impacts YOUR ethos. Following MLA formatting and citations standards matters, as does proofreading, as does the organization of your essay. Remember to check on the Purdue OWL site for current MLA citation requirements, as The Norton Reader was published before the changes occurred, but you are responsible for adherence to the latest version of MLA. Transitions are your friends when used effectively. This essay, to be considered analytical and persuasive (your job is to teach me to understand what you’re positing), must be a minimum of 1500 words in length. Egregious quotations will not count towards the required length.
The Questions Regarding Your Essay
1. does the essay have a PROVABLE thesis?
2. is the thesis appropriate to the assignment?
3. does the essay have CLAIMS to prove said thesis?
4. does the essay have evidence to support the claims?
5. is the evidence analyzed to explicate the claims and the thesis?
6. is the conclusion an actual conclusion or just a restatement of the introduction (hint: any time a conclusion begins “In summary” or “In conclusion,” it is a bad sign)? A good conclusion is a mic-drop.
7. does the essay conform to MLA standards of formatting & citation?
8. does the essay have mechanics that do not interfere with comprehension?
9. does the essay make its case persuasively?
Tips to Remember
1. an author doesn’t “say” anything; the author writes, argues, posits, demonstrates, proves, etc.; only a character “says” anything.
2. in an analytical essay in academia, “I” is not appropriate; by the time your final, revised, edited, and proofread essay is submitted, there should be no such language as “I think that” or “I believe that” or “It seems to me that” – the actual idea appears after “that” in each of these instances; do not give your reader an easy out by making your analysis “just” your idea
3. if you don’t feel the need to explain and explicate your claim, it’s not a claim (it’s just a statement)
4. lack of correct citations and works cited entries is plagiarism; no excuses will be accepted
5. formatting errors will result in a 10 point deduction from the grade the essay would have earned if there had been no such errors.
