Senior Level Essay – Robert Herrick and the Ambiguities of Gender

Course: The Renaissance and Early Seventeenth Century British Literature

8 pages (double spaced) with 5 (minimum) sources.
ONLY USE SCHOLARLY ARTICLES.

Topic of Paper: Robert Herrick and the Ambiguities of Gender

Instructions from Professor:

Beyond the obvious—i.e., a researched, creative, and insightful argument about the chosen text(s)—be sure to include the following:

*a clearly stated thesis somewhere near the beginning of the essay

*proper format, including a Works Cited page in MLA

*when dealing with poetry, please use line breaks, and cite by line number not page

*talk about texts in the present tense!

*remember: sentences containing quotations should remain grammatically

correct!

*an account of the literary-critical context. Who else is talking about this subject

and how have they contributed to your own research or framed the question that you are now addressing? This is where I expect you to draw on your critical narrative.

*this requires an attempted interaction with larger critical arguments rather than just a selected sentence or two from their work.

*a consideration of the implications of your argument (this can be very brief, and

it is often a solid way to conclude an academic essay)

By the way, avoid this construction:

“According to critic [author] in his/her essay, [long extended title], [author] states…”

I cannot tell you how many times I read that type of thing in the critical narrative. A better way to put it:

“[Author] states…”

I can always find the name of the essay on the Works Cited page.

Otherwise, please strive for clear, precise, and concise prose! A great way to make sure that you’re writing like a regular human is to read your own essay aloud to yourself; does it sound like something someone might actually say? Can you follow it?