Short Story Critical Paper Assignment
Page count: 3-4 pages
Format: MLA, double-spaced, 12-point font
Required sources: The short stories weve read to date
Now that we have nearly completed the short fiction unit of this course, its time to get to work on your critical papers.
The goal of a lens analysis essay or critical paper is not to simply compare and contrast two or three works of literature, but to put them in conversation with one another. We arent necessarily interested in how two or three particular stories contrast (because every story is different in a myriad of ways). Were interested in looking at the ways the stories and their writers illuminate one another, how elements of craft and author intention are evident across multiple works of literature, and were interested in seeing how these elements of craft work to create different effects and create meaning in many works of literature.
Start your paper by formulating a two or three-sentence thesis statement or argument. You must then pull no less than two quotes from each story or text, passages of the story that serve as evidence to your thesis/argument.
You may choose one of the following essay topics (or another idea altogether) to address in your paper: