ENC 1102

Professor Julian Munoz

Essay 2: Modernism (1500 words)

Due: no late papers accepted.

1. Description

You will write an argumentative essay in which you develop, support, and provide evidence to a well-developed thesis responding to the topics below.

Remember that in any paper you write, you will try to persuade the reader of your point. To do this you must exercise the three appeals: logos, pathos, and ethos. Similarly, persuasion will require you to take a stand, so be sure to have a strong thesis that encourages the reader to adopt your point of view.

In order to support your paper, you must support your arguments with direct quotations. Unsupported statements weaken your argument. Failure to support your statements with direct quotations, even where you show proper knowledge of the material, will not result in a passing grade.

The paper will be 1500 words. I will not read late assignments, but I will be very available to you until then. If you need Office Hours let me know.

2. Grading

This assignment is worth 30% of the overall class grade. I will be grading grammar, spelling, and punctuation judiciously. I recommend that you have someone you know read your paper to see if they understand the arguments made. I will be reading these in close and hurried succession, so do not trust that my patience will be great; if I do not understand what you are saying, it will not be scored. You must use the MLA or APA format, which includes a Works Cited page even if only one book was used. I encourage you to use foreign sources to support your statements.

3. Topics

You are required to answer one of the following prompts or, alternatively, to develop your own topic with my permission. In all cases, make sure your thesis statements are clear and that you support your statements using texts that we have discussed in class.

· Modernism occurred in a time of crisis. In what ways do three stories and poems we have read reflect this sense of crisis or doom? (Look at the war poems!)

· We have talked of the five important thinkers (Darwin, Marx, Nietzsche, Freud, Einstein) of the 19th and 20th centuries. Please write an essay in which you explain how their ideas are visible in at least three Modernist stories.

· Modernism was a time of renovation. The modernist authors that we’ve read certainly took new attitudes and approaches. Write of three stories where you see this renovation occurring. Think of Chopin and Hurston on women or Faulkner and Hurston on race. Think of style in Woolf and Hemingway. Think of the role of art in Stevens and Eliot. Or come up with your own category!

· In Realism and Modernism, we come across very interesting styles of writing. Discuss the writing styles. Why do you think they are more difficult? What were the artists trying to accomplish. For this question, you can compare and contrast modernist stories with realists ones.