Exam 2 (Section 2): Essay on Kindred - Requires Respondus LockDown Browser

EXAM TWO Section 2:  Essay on Kindred

• This section is worth 75% of Exam 2

• Maximum time recommended for section: 75 minutes

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section 2

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Instructions:

The main goal is to write an essay that proposes and proves a persuasive interpretation of an important theme in Octavia Butler’s novel Kindred. Thus, unlike the essay on the first exam, you yourself will decide the focus of your essay by selecting the theme that you believe of most interest for you to discuss and for your readers to read about. The essay should use relevant quotations and / or concrete supporting examples from the novel to make your unique interpretation of your chosen theme and your unique sense of its importance convincing to your reader.

Requirements (from Exam Guidelines):   

The essay does not have to be of any specific length, word- or page-wise, but it does have to have at least five paragraphs (an introduction, conclusion, and three body paragraphs focusing on three distinct facets of your topic). These paragraphs should together make for a substantive analysis of the theme that you have decided to foreground in your essay.   You do not need to write a completely polished essay, but rather communicate as much insight about your essay topic as you can within the time that you have, using specific details from the texts to support your argument and presenting ideas in the order that will be most persuasive.

Essay Criteria (each worth 20%):

1. 1. 1. Selecting an interesting and important essay topic and clarifying its significance to your reader; 
      2. Reflecting on your topic with concerted, critical, and creative attention; 
      3. Substantiating your argument about the topic (that is, your thesis) with an array of concrete and convincing details, details that other, less conscientious, readers may have overlooked; 
      4. Discussing the novel accurately and expertly, showing how it relates to your topic and supports your argument; 
      5. Keeping your argument consistent, your focus coherent, and your writing organized throughout the essay. 
         

Essay Organization and Structure:  

The essay should have at least FIVE substantive paragraphs, ideally arranged as follows: 

• • • An Introductory Paragraph explaining your topic (what particular issue raised by the novel will you be highlighting in the essay?), its importance (why is your topic significant to think about? what will your reader learn by reading your essay or thinking of the novel in connection with it?), and stating your main argument, or thesis statement, at the very end of the paragraph. * The thesis should be a single, complete sentence announcing a debatable position that the rest of the essay will support. 

• • • At least 3 Body Paragraphs each with a topic sentence identifying the subtopic of your main topic that you will be discussing in the particular paragraph and asserting an argument about that subtopic. * Like the thesis, the topic sentences need to be debatable with the rest of the paragraph proving the claim through concrete details and/or quotations used for support. 

    • A Concluding Paragraph that reinforces, but does not repeat, the main argument or other statements above. The conclusion needs to generalize the scope beyond the particular novel to the larger implications of your analysis for events in the world beyond (e.g. what does your argument about the theme of the novel reveal about the people and places in the actual world outside literature?)