Choose one author’’s work. You may not use authors or texts that are not assigned in the lessons

Paper requirements
Cut-off for uploading your work
Directions for writing the essay draft
Templates for signal phrases
Samples for parenthetical citations
Sample Works Cited entries

Requirements:

1. Consider only these literary periods:
   • The Renaissance (Shakespeare’s sonnets #18, 29 and 130; “Is This a Dagger I See before Me” from Macbeth; “To Be or not to Be” from Hamlet)
   • The Enlightenment (Tartuffe by Molière; Candide by Voltaire)
2. Choose one author’’s work. You may not use authors or texts that are not assigned in the lessons.
3. Then, choose one of the themes in the list below. Do not try to combine them. To be effective, the theme must be working throughout the text you chose in Step 2.

   Themes for Essay #1 (Choose 1):

   • Death
   • Exploration
   • Friendship
   • Love
   • Power
   • Religion
   • Wealth
   • Truth
4. Write 3 pages of analysis.
5. Do not use secondary sources. Use your own ideas and the works you are analyzing, not something you found on the Internet or anywhere else except your own head. You may use links provided for historical background, etc. However, be sure you are using only the links in the course. It’’s all too easy to go from a link on a web page in the course to a different web page outside the course. Make sure you treat those linked web pages in the course like the sources they are, with signal phrases that identify the title of the web page, quotation or paraphrase from the web page, and a parenthetical citation (use paragraph numbers for a website even if that means you have to count the paragraphs yourself). Outside sources will lower your grade.
6. Introduce all source material (quotations and paraphrases) adequately with a signal phrase rather than “dropping” them into the paper with no introduction. You should provide a signal phrase before each quotation or paraphrase, giving some context for the quotation.
7. Use parenthetical citations for all source material. Keep in mind that different genres required different information in the parenthetical citations. Follow MLA requirements for parenthetical notation as shown in the template section below.
8. MLA-style documentation requires a Works Cited. Start your Works Cited on a new page after your essay. Include all the sources you used in your essay.