Great Expectations: The Essay
Great Expectations crosses over into a number of different literary genres, but first and foremost Great Expectations is social satire. Your essay for Great Expectations is a hybrid Research Paper & Literary Analysis Essay. In the first body paragraph (you will provide an argumentative research paper on a specific element of Victorian Culture. For the second body paragraph, you need to assess how your research topic serves as a recurring motif and contributes to Dickens’ criticism of Victorian Culture. For example, if your topic is sport, you will spend your first body paragraph arguing about the importance of sports in the revolutionizing the definition of the English Gentleman. The second half of that essay would then need to discuss the importance of sport - rowing & boxing - in the novel, answering the question, how does Dickens use sport to satirize a Victorian Culture and dismantle class prejudice?
I: The Research Paper
You are responsible for researching one specific aspect of Victorian culture, using information provided on the LibGuide, at the websites below, databases, and books on reserve in the library. Your research paragraph should be a minimum of three EV’s on a particular topic. You need a minimum of two (2) different research sources with a minimum of three research quotations woven into this portion of your paper. You will be using databases and educational websites to find your information. Your Signal Phrases in this section will be more elaborate than in literary analysis. Make sure always to provide the following for your RP SP:
1. Author’s Name
2. Author’s Qualifications
3. Title of the article.
4. Name of the website or data base “container”
II. Literary Analysis
The second Body Paragraph will explore how understanding of your topic enhances reading of Great Expectations. In this section of the paper, you want to explore how the topic of culture you researched serves as a motif and supports Dickens’ satire, his criticism of Victorian Culture. As you write this section, you need to use your body paragraphs to support a central argument about Dickens’ use of your chosen topic. Your BP2 requires a minimum of three EV from the novel using normal signal phrases (character thinks, expresses, describes, ponders, hollers…) and correct MLA citation: (Dickens x) – Note as you are including other sources in this essay, you must put the author’s last name in the citation.
Structure:
1. Your Introductory Paragraph is more complex than usual:
2. BP1 Your Research Paragraph
3. BP2 Your Literary Analysis Paragraph. Begin with a Strong Transition, taking your reader from research to the novel.
4. End the entire essay, both research and analysis, with a concluding paragraph that wraps up your discussion in 4 – 5 sentences. Follow the three R’s:
3. Include a proper MLA format Works Cited page. Double check your WC to make sure every work you cited is listed.
4. In addition to the standard elements of essay writing, you also need to write this report in MLA format, including correct header, page numbering, in-text citation, and works-cited page.
