FYWS Thinking Green
Paper #1
Analysis of a Text
Length: 3-5 pages (remember MLA format)
Due Date for Draft: 1/31
Due Date for Revision AND Revision Statement: 2/2
For this assignment you will be reading Derrick Jensen’s Orion magazine essay “Forget Shorter Showers.” The goal of the assignment is to give you practice reading, analyzing and responding to a written text, skills you can apply in just about every class you take at UMF, and that will hold you in good stead whatever your job after graduation. For this assignment, it will be helpful for you to the chapter in your Bedford Handbook, Academic Writing: “Writing About Texts.”
Good writing requires pre-writing. Include with your draft a copy for me of the following pre-writing exercises:
- Read and annotate the text. See pages 86-89 for tips on active reading and how to annotate a text. Include your annotated copy of the Jensen essay with your draft.
- Outline the texts main points. See pages 90-93 for tips on how to do this. Do your outline on a separate sheet of paper and include it with your draft.
- Summarize to demonstrate your understanding. See pages 92-93 for tips. Write a 250 word summary of Jensen’s main ideas, copying the format and style of the sample at the bottom of page 92.
After you have done these pre-writing exercises, proceed to the first step of your analysis. While a summary focuses on WHAT a text says, an analysis focuses on HOW a text or essay makes its point—in other words, an analysis focuses on the steps a writer takes along the way toward building an argument or stating an idea. See pages 93-100 for a step by step guide to developing your analysis. Please write out on a separate sheet of paper your responses to the guidelines questions on page 95 and include them with your draft. Use this prewriting as fodder for your essay.
After you have done this thinking and pre-writing you are ready to proceed with the next steps—writing your analysis and response. Please read the sample student essay on page 98-100 as a model for this paper.
Your analysis paper should include:
1. An introduction that briefly identifies and summarizes the text.
2. A thesis where you state your own judgment about the text (not only observations about how the Jensen makes his point, but how you respond to him—what ideas you have that may conflict with or support his, etc. ) This is not an “argument paper.” Look up thesis development on pages 94-97.
3. Body paragraphs that support your thesis with details.
4. A list of works cited in MLA style (look for this section in your Bedford).
