| Instructor: Philip Holden, Associate Professor, English Language and Literature,
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Close Reading: Some Sample Essays
The first group of essays below were all submitted for CCLA01, Assignment One, in Semester 1, 2000-2001. Each essay is unique, and you shouldn't necessarily think of them so much as models as examples of how the assignment might be answered creatively, with thought, and with flair. Hwee Chin's essay is perhaps closest to a conventional approach, with areas of discourse carefully selected, a clear thesis, and a clear definition and application of terminology, and Chih Hui's is a slightly more philosophically developed approach on similar lines. Alvin's is more unusual in that it takes off from the text to begin to modify and challenge the technical terms we have examined, while while the first essay on Selvadurai’s “Pigs Can’t Fly” attempts to read her chosen story against the grain, rather than in terms of authorial intention. Yaomien's essay is creative rhetorically, with each section prefaced by a short quote. This kind of creativity is excellent, but make sure that you know the conventions first, and can abide by them, before you attempt to move outside the box.
The second set of essays are Assignment 1 submissions from Semester 2, 2000-2001. Again, they exhibit a series of possible rhetorical responses. April chooses to use close reading to make a critical point regarding theories of character, while the other essays are more conventional in their choice of a limited number of literary techniques for analysis regarding the overall effect of the chosen stories on the reader. Note the subtlety of Audrey's conclusion, which moves us slightly out from the essay, rather than merely summarizing, as April's and Gerald's conclusions--despite the many other good features of their essays--tend to do.
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