If you chose to write an essay as your project, please read the instructions below:

Specs:
– 2000 words (10% more or less)
– 12-point font (Times New Roman, Arial, Garamond, or Calibri)
– 1.5 line spacing
– doc. format

Structure:
– A good critical title that hints at your topic and chosen text
– An analysis of the text of your choice (can be a close reading of an extract, or a general interpretation of the full text)
– A thesis statement should be explicit in the introduction and should drive your whole essay
– The structure of the essay should be outlined at the end of the introduction (First, second…)
– Should contain quotes and specific references to the text
– Secondary sources are optional (if you use any, please use reliable sources such as those found on the CUNY library databases, and acknowledge them using one of these citation styles.

**Make sure you save your essay every few minutes. You can use Ctrl+S, but toggling the Autosave option at the top left corner of your Word app is best. You can also use Word online through your CUNY Outlook 365 account, and it will save your work automatically.**

Writing Process

Everyone has a different writing process, but if you don’t know where to start, I recommend the methodology below. In any case, please remember that you are required to attend a Writing Center appointment at any point in the semester (please book it online or in person by April 19th and send me the confirmation once you have attended it). You can choose to use that appointment to help with any of the following writing stages:

Understanding instructions: This is so easily overlooked, yet so important to fulfilling the assignment requirements. Read the instructions several times to understand what is expected. Read the checklist on the Assignments main page, and read the rubric on Blackboard.

Planning: The fully written essay is developed directly from your outline and the feedback you received on it. Whether you are a planner or an intuitive writer, some level of planning is crucial so that your essay is well structured. You can’t convey a convincing argument without structure. So, you should plan, while remaining a little flexible about the plan.

Regardless of your writing style, your essay should be structured as follows:

– an introduction with a clear thesis statement and a summary of your main points

– 2 to 3 main points broken down into various paragraphs of subclaims. It might be useful to roughly divide up your word count between those parts (not necessarily equally)

– explicit transitions from section to section (either in short paragraphs or through transitional sentences at the end of each section)

– a conclusion that reiterates your thesis and puts the topic back into perspective (the bigger picture of why this text mattered when published and still matters today)

– if you used any external sources, include a bibliography of works cited, including the text you analyzed.

Once you have done some directed reading and thinking about your chose text, you will have written an outline that maps out the structure of your argument and pre-allocates “evidence” (quotes, references to the text, illustrative ideas and examples) to each claim and subclaim. Once you have revised that outline and you are satisfied with how the structure supports your thesis, proceed to write out your ideas (you can do this in linear order, or you could write separate chunks here and there, and put them together later). It can be helpful to roughly divide the word count and allocate it to your claim sections (this does not have to be equal, you should stay adaptive to the requirements of each claim).

Drafting: At first, when you write, do not worry about the form or language. Just write as you would to a friend. For each claim, write a sentence or two explaining what you are arguing, then introduce a quote or example to support your claim, and reiterate in your own words what your argument is about the text. How do you interpret that particular aspect of the text? Why does it matter? How does it contribute to your thesis statement (your main, overarching claim)? Why would the text have mattered in the socio-historical context in which the text was published? Why does it matter today?

You may find that you get carried away with certain parts of your argument and want to write more about them. This is fine as long as you rearrange your structure to fit these ideas and discard those that don’t end up fitting. Stay within the word count, and make sure that your structure has some balance to it. If you can, do not write all in one go, but write a little over several days. Your argument will have a lot more hindsight that way. You will feel less overwhelmed and you will be less reluctant to come back to your essay if you leave a work session on a high rather than on a low.

Break: Once you have written out every part of your outline into full sentences, check that you are within the word count, and take a break. If you can go and do something else for a few hours, do that. If you can’t, take a break by formatting the layout of your essay (bold, italics, quotations, references, bibliography, numbering pages, aligning the text, the paragraphs, etc.). These things can be done on autopilot and this gives a break to your intellect.

Proofreading & self-editing: When comes the time to polish your essay, there are several techniques you can use to make sure that it is the best version of what you want to submit. In any case do not underestimate how long this step can take. In any case, start by using the Microsoft Word Editor (Menu>Review>Editor) so as to minimize the risk of any typos and errors. You should proofread for both form (language) and content (ideas), but I strongly recommend doing these two separately, so that you can tackle one issue at a time. Use as many of these proofreading technique as you can:

– Using the Checklist (Assignments main page) and ticking off requirement by requirement.

– Reverse outlining: This entails proofreading your essay from the very last paragraph to the very first so as to trick your brain to pay attention to the language rather than getting caught into the narrative content.

– Read-aloud feature (Menu>Review>Read Aloud). You can adjust the voice and cadence, and although it is strange to have your essay read to you, it makes it sound official and it helps taking your argument seriously. It also forces you to take a fresh perspective on your work by countering your overfamiliarity with it, after hours spent writing!

– Form proofreading section by section (not necessarily linearly) to adjust the language, grammar, etc. Make sure your essay is laid out in a reader-friendly manner: normal margins, indent to each paragraph, no full pages without paragraph breaks).

– Content proofreading (linearly): proofread every paragraph of your essay in the order they come, but this time, have your argument in mind. Does each paragraph contribute to making the point you wanted to make through your thesis statement? Has your argument or structure changed since you wrote your intro? (If so, update your intro.) As you proofread each paragraph to make sure the essays flows in logical order and transitions well from section to section, write a comment on each paragraph with a keyword or short phrase indicating what the paragraph is about. Once you reach the end of your essay, look at the comments on the side and see if they make sense in that order. If they don’t, make some adjustments (rearrange, delete, or add sections). You can do this more or less in depth depending on how much time you have, but don’t neglect this step!

– Use another set of eyes: ask a friend or Writing Center tutor to read over our essay and let you know if your argument is intelligible to someone who is unfamiliar with the topic. While you shouldn’t overly summarize or contextualize, you should try hard to make your essay readable to those who haven’t spent hours on the topic (that is, anyone else than you!). Other people may spot typos you may have overlooked, but more importantly, they can let you know if your essay isn’t clear or if your argument needs reworking.

Final checks:

– Title: make sure you have a good, critical title that hints at your specific topic and either the text’s title+publication date or some indication of the spatio-temporal context you are dealing with. Don’t worry about the title being too long.
– Final spellcheck + layout adjustments;
– Take one last look at the rubric on Blackboard;
– Save your document as ENG2850_Full name_Final project & submit on Blackboard.

Happy writing! Remember: it’s a process, with ups and downs. It takes time, which is why the project is scaffolded over the semester! If you need assistance at any point (especially with the lows), please don’t hesitate to let me know! I’ll try to understand your process and help accordingly.