Critical Lens Essay Directions

Name:

Ms. Hoffmann

English 10

Date:

Critical Lens Essay Assignment

Your Task: Write a critical essay of two to three pages in which you discuss two works from the perspective of the critical lens quote.  In your essay, provide a valid interpretation of the quote, agree or disagree with it, and use examples from the two works to support your response.  The two works that you will be discussing already have been chosen for you.  They are The House on Mango Street and American Born Chinese.  

Critical Lens: “Maybe it's wrong-footed trying to fit people into the world, rather than trying to make the world a better place for people.” ― Paul McHugh, in The New Yorker

Guidelines:

• Provide a valid interpretation of the critical lens that clearly establishes the criteria for analysis.  (You should be able to do this within the introduction of your paper.)
• Indicate whether you agree or disagree with the statement as you have interpreted it without writing I, me, or my.
• Make sure you are using specific examples from both The House on Mango Street and American Born Chinese.
• Use the criteria suggested by the critical lens to analyze the works.
• Avoid plot summary. Instead, use specific references to appropriate literary elements (for example: theme, characterization, setting, point of view) to develop your analysis.
• I already know what happens in each of the texts.  You do not need to tell me.
• Use quotes where appropriate.  Introduce said quotes.
• Organize your ideas in a unified and coherent manner.  
• Make sure that your thesis is at the end of your introduction and that you are writing topic sentences for each of you paragraphs.
• Use transitions where appropriate.
• Follow the conventions of Standard, written English.  
• Include MLA in-text citations as well as a works cited.

Due: Nov. 12th