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Keyword &
Keystone Passage Papers
For these first two writing exercises, you will take for the first paper a
"keyword" and for the second a "keystone passage" (less than
100 words) from the novel being studied in class.
Your main goal is to select and
analyze a keyword and a keystone passage respectively as a means of interpreting
the text's theme. Your task, then, is to provide a focused "close
reading" of your selected word or passage and to draw inferences related to
your overall reading of the text. Remember that isolating keywords or keystone
passages is often merely a starting point for critical writing, and you may well
need to cite other passages from the narrative to help you make your point. At
the same time, remember that you cannot do everything in a two-page paper.
Process:
In preparing the paper:
- Reproduce the keyword or
keystone passage as part of your introductory paragraph. Your thesis should
be targeting the significance of the word or passage for revealing meaning
in the text of Jane Eyre.
- Since you may be using a
different edition of the novel than the one I'm using, you need to provide
accurate page citations in the your paper whenever you are quoting from the
narrative, and to provide a separate Work(s) Cited page at the end. Also,
make sure you transcribe all quotations accurately--I often find in my own
writing that I begin with one point in mind when I quote a passage but
discover two or three more during the process of transcription; don't
underestimate this "clerical" task as part of your close reading
strategy.
- Even though it is a short
paper, you need to have a title that is indicative of the paper's thesis (a
title such as "Keystone Passage in Jane Eyre" won't do).
Idea
for this paper from Bernard Duyfhuizen
University of Wisconsin at Eau Claire
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