GUIDELINES FOR WRITING CONNECTION PAPERS
You are responsible for writing two Connection Papers in this class.  These writing exercises are designed to complement one another and build skills which will help you to analyze and interpret literary texts in a more careful and thoughtful manner.  If, at any point, you have questions about your papers or would like to talk, please feel free to contact your discussion leader.  You may also seek help from the course's undergraduate intern or the Writing Tutorial Services located at the Wells Library Information Commons.  (If you go to the Writing Tutorial Services, an advance appointment is usually necessary.)
   

A) Goal of this Assignment:
This paper is designed to get you to think more deeply about a text and make connections between particulars of the story and major themes within that story.   This is an exercise in form and content.

B) Length
Papers should be typed and double-spaced. These papers should be four  paragraphs long.  Each paragraph should have a clearly identifiable thesis sentence.  The paper should not be longer than two pages.

C) Content:

i) Focus in on a particular aspect of the book about wish you desire to write. This aspect can be any number of things: a character’s name, a location in the story, a speech, an interaction, an animal, a custom, a word, a paragraph, a title, an epigraph, a gesture, a physical attribute, or something else.  Use your imagination. 
Then take the particular aspect of the text you have chosen and make an argument for how it connects and illuminates a larger theme within the story.  The key to success in these papers is found in making a thoughtful connection between a particular aspect of the text and the nature of the text as a whole. This connection should teach your reader something new and interesting about the story. 

ii) The first paragraph should serve as your paper’s introduction.  It should have a thesis sentence telling me what connection you are making between a particular aspect of the text and the larger themes of that text. 

iii) The second paragraph should focus on the particular aspect you are discussing. 
iv) The third should link this particular aspect to a larger theme in the work. Make an argument for how the particular aspect elucidates the larger theme.

v) The final paragraph should introduce no new evidence, but serve as a conclusion.  It should tell the reader what can be learned from the connection you have made in the paper.  It is the place where you as the author can muse about the implications of the connection you have made.

vi) Try to write about texts which engage your interest.  It is practically impossible to write a quality paper about a work which did not challenge you in some manner.

vii) These papers ask you to crystallize your thoughts and express them concisely.  Make sure you are making a significant statement about the work.  Even though you are elucidating a "minor" detail of the narrative, be careful to make a statement about its importance by connecting it to a dominant theme within the work.

D) Due Dates:

Text	Due Dates
Life of Washington	Sept. 13
Uncle Tom's Cabin	Sept. 13
Charlotte Temple	Sept. 20
Quaker City	Sept. 27
Ten Nights in a Bar-Room	Oct. 4
Ragged Dick	Oct. 11
Secret of the Old Clock	Oct. 25
Peyton Place	Nov. 1
The Godfather	Nov. 14
Misery	Dec. 6
Harry Potter	Dec. 13

No late papers are accepted.  If you miss a deadline, just move on to write about another text.  Papers must be submitted in hard-copy: no email attachments.

EVERYONE MUST TURN IN AT LEAST THEIR FIRST CONNECTION PAPER BY OCTOBER 11TH.

E) Use of Textual Evidence
In your paper, BE SURE TO USE AND CITE specific textual evidence from the text you are discussing.  This means quotations from the texts and page numbers for those quotations.  Avoid plot summary, but do not avoid references to the text. Avoid generalizations.                       

F) Format:
(An average or "C" paper, should have all of the following characteristics.  The lack of any of these will affect your grade.)  Pay close attention to the following format instructions:

i) a title page (this should include your name, my name, the date, the course number, and of course, the paper's title -- try to make your title engaging and creative)

ii) type your paper

iii) double-space your pages

iv) number each page (not including the title page)

v) pages should be held together by paper clip or staple

vi) PROOFREAD your paper (if I get the impression your paper has not been proofread carefully, you will get a "D" no matter how good the ideas are.)  Proofreading is simply an assumed characteristic of any average paper.  Proper editing, spelling, punctuation, and other mechanics are essential to any good piece of writing.

vii) leave margins at the top, bottom, and on both sides

vii) long quotations should be single spaced and indented on either side

ix) Always keep a second copy of your paper in case the one you turned in gets lost or damaged.  In the case of such a misfortune, you will be held responsible for being able to submit another copy of your paper.

G) Plagiarism:

i) Plagiarism, simply defined, is taking credit for ideas or work that is not your own.  It involves including ideas or phrases in your paper which did not originate with you and then not giving credit to their source. When in doubt, always cite sources for material which is not your own.  It is fine to use the work of others if you credit it as their work.

ii) If you are citing quotations from a one or two texts from our class reading, simply place the author's last name and the page number of the text in parentheses after the quotation.  Never have a quotation in your paper which does not have some sort of page number or citation along with it.

iii) If you are using secondary sources, please footnote the source giving: author, title, publisher, copyright date, and pertinent page numbers.  With this kind of complete footnote, bibliographies will not be necessary.

iv) If you plagiarize in this course, you will fail the course.