Structure of the Essay
The paper should be organized as a traditional thesis-support essay. The thesis should identify the key points of comparison and contrast that you plan to discuss.  Use a sub-thesis at the end of the introductory paragraph to set up your comparison and a second sub-thesis after the section of comparison to set up your discussion of the key contrasts.  Note: It will be easy to organize your discussion, moving from one character to the next (Examples: Jesus, Mary, Abraham, Jonah, etc.).  A more sophisticated approach, however, will be to organize the discussion around selected features, roles, or characteristics that unite the characters on common grounds (Examples: teachers, prophets, adventure heroes, supporting characters, gods, scribes of revelation, etc.).

Content of the Essay 
1) You will be able to find a number of discussions of the same topic over the Internet, but do not plagiarize from them!  A flagrantly plagiarized paper will result in automatic failure in the course!  While they will give you useful points for development, you must cite each source that you use.  You must make rich use of your reading found in the text!

2) Use short quotations worked into the text of your own analytical sentences to provide support for the paragraphs. Papers that summarize only information found in the online sources without specific support in the form of short quotations from the readings will fail!

3) Each topic sentence should be a claim that adds support to your thesis.

Stylistic Standards
Avoid using "I," "you," and any references to "the reader."  These terms create wordiness and misdirection.  Use present tense and active voice verbs when referring to the author's contributions (like this: "The writer of "Matthew notes," "the author of The Koran suggests").

Format of the Essay 
Key-in the essay into the computer and save it to your floppy disk or hard drive. Each line should be double- spaced with only a single double space between each paragraph. Block only those quotations longer than four lines of your text.

Criteria for Grading
Your paper will be graded according to the following standards:

1) Development - Does the essay satisfactorily develop the thesis and meet the minimum page requirement? 
2) Organization - Does the essay reflect the thesis-support format? 
3) Use of Source - Does the essay make use of important supporting passages in the short story? Are all references to the store correctly documented?
4) Style - Does the essay reflect diction and syntax appropriate to a literary analysis? 
5) Correctness - Does the essay reflect mastery of basic writing conventions (spelling, punctuation, grammar, usage)?

Sample Essay
You will find in this site a sample essay to give you a better idea about how to organize and develop your paper. Click here to go to the sample essay.

Submission of the Paper
Using your first initial and last name, name and save your file exactly like this:

ggrimes-Ex1

E-mail your essay as an attachment to Dr. Grimes at geoffrey.grimes@navarrocollege.edu.

How to Send  Emails to me
When sending emails, always include the following information in your message window (the space where you write your comments):

1) Your first and last name (ex. Geoffrey Grimes)
2) Your course name, course number, course section number (ENGL 2332: NTW)
3) The date
4) The file name of the exercise you are attaching

Example:
Geoffrey Grimes
Engl 2332:071
June 20, 200X
GGrimes-Ex1

Sending Assignments to me
When sending me your exercises, place the following information in the subject line:
Your first initial/last name-file name of the exercise

Example: GGrimes-Ex1

Sending  Questions to me
When sending me a question about your work or the course,  place the following information in the subject line:
Your first initial/last name-Question

Example: GGrimes-Question

Do NOT attach any exercise to a question.  I will delete it and ask you to resend it to me.

Sending Comments to me
When sending me a comment about your work or the course, place the following information in the subject line:
Your first initial/last name-Comment

Example: GGrimes-Comment

Do NOT attach any exercise to a question.  I will delete it and ask you to resend it to me.

Sending Urgent Messages to me

When sending an urgent message to me about your work or the course, place the following information in the subject line:
Your first initial/last name-Urgent

Example: GGrimes-Urgent

Do NOT attach any exercise to a question.  I will delete it and ask you to resend it to me.

Evaluation of the Paper
Your paper will be evaluated on the basis of 
1) organization, 
2) level of development, 
3) insight into the work, 
4) spelling, mechanics, punctuation, and grammar, and 
5) level of sophistication of the poem selected.

Revisions
As with all papers in our class, you may revise this paper according to suggestions from your instructor.

Grades
Each submission will receive a numerical grade.  Grades of each submission will be averaged for determining the final grade on the exercise.