Self-Reflection Journal
December 8, 2020
Contemporary Art History
December 8, 2020
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Themes in American Literature

Revise and expand your previous essay (attached below) to about 2000 words (7 pages). As before, this essay should develop your own argument about a theme of your choice in literature assigned to the class. You must articulate the theme in your thesis statement, which should be your own clear and specific argument about the text(s) that you arrived at through not only interpretation but also research.

To help you, develop questions to guide your revision and expansion of your essay using the research that you did for your Annotated Bibliography (attached below). Provide answers to these questions in your finished essay. Interpret evidence from your literary texts in ways that support, extend, or challenge your researched sources. The theme, texts, and/or thesis of your revised and expanded essay may change from your first essay. In your revised and expanded essay, you should cite and respond to at least one idea or example from each of your four researched, credible sources, including at least 3 that are scholarly, peer-reviewed.

When incorporating source material into your essay, use a signal phrase to attribute evidence to its author; describe the evidence and identify its context for readers who are unfamiliar with the source; and be sure to represent the source accurately. Avoid block quotations of sources (i.e., quotations of more than four lines in paragraph format); instead, incorporate brief quotations into your own sentences, placing quotation marks around any exact language from the source.

NOTE: I have included files of the sources listed in the annotated bibliography for your reference. I have also included links to the poems and summaries of the course readings used in the original essay. One of them is a file uploaded below (Captain Pipe).

Wieland: https://www.gradesaver.com/wieland/study-guide/summary
I, Too: https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poems/47558/i-too
I Hear America Singing: https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poems/46480/i-hear-america-singing
The Slave Mother: https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poems/51977/the-slave-mother-56d23017ceaad

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