What is an Analytical Response Paper ("AR") in English 339?

• The AR must be based on one of the STUDY QUESTIONS on the course web site •

An analytical response is a 1-2 page response to any assigned reading on the syllabus during the course of one week.  Responses are due on Thursdays.  If you’re assigned to week five, for example, you may write on any work covered in the syllabus during that week ONLY.  Most students choose to focus on one specific work, poem, or a passage or chapter in a longer work—however, compare/contrast responses are possible, as long as you stick to the page limits.

Think of the responses as mini-papers: all the usual ground rules apply.  Here, the number one rule is that you support your argument using at least one specific quotation.  ARs that fail to include at least one specific quotation will not pass (e.g. below C-).  Critical analysis, the development of an argumentative and compelling thesis, and originality are all encouraged.  The short length requires you to cut any extraneous sentences that don’t contribute materially to your argument.  Most importantly, it is an opportunity to practice the art of close reading of specific passages, a skill that is at the heart of everything you write as an English Major.  Responses should be typed and double-spaced (see “Guidelines” attached to this syllabus).  Email submissions are not encouraged, but may be accepted under extraordinary circumstances.

Please write out the Study Question you’re answering at the top of the page.

Always include a TITLE with your Response Paper (see Writing Tips).

You MUST REWRITE your AR if your grade is 89 or lower.  REWRITES ARE DUE THREE WEEKS AFTER THE ORIGINAL DUE DATE.  Include your original paper with my comments with your rewrite.  You may choose to re-write if your grade is 90 or higher.  Please note that re-writing doesn’t guarantee a higher grade—or even the same grade!  In the case of re-writes, the final grade shall be the highest of the two.   

Example of a weak analytical response:

One of the most notable features of T.S. Eliot’s "The Waste-Land" is the way that the speaker addresses the reader, forcing us to reflect on our experience of reading the poem.  This self-reflexive quality is one of the hallmarks of the modernist aesthetic that Eliot developed.

Example of a more persuasive analytical response:

One of the most notable features of T.S. Eliot’s "The Waster-Land" is the way that the speaker addresses the reader, forcing us to reflect on our experience of reading the poem.  In the first section of the poem, the speaker accuses humanity of ignorance: “you only know/ A heap of broken images…” (l. 21-2).  The work “broken” contributes to the sense of cultural malaise and spiritual decay that permeates the work as a whole.  Yet the second person address draws the reader into the poem, as well as forcing us to reflect upon what we do or do not “know” about this difficult poem, while the “heap of broken images” to which the speaker refers is an accurate summation of the poem’s modernist stylistics. This self-reflexive quality is one of the hallmarks of the modernist aesthetic that Eliot developed.