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Short Story Annotation and Response Paper - Spring 2024-1

The document provides instructions for annotating and writing a response paper analyzing a short story selection. Students must choose a 200-300 word passage and annotate it, noting how the author uses language to develop elements like setting or characters. The response paper must present an interpretive thesis about the language and include evidence from the passage to support the thesis.

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23 views

Short Story Annotation and Response Paper - Spring 2024-1

The document provides instructions for annotating and writing a response paper analyzing a short story selection. Students must choose a 200-300 word passage and annotate it, noting how the author uses language to develop elements like setting or characters. The response paper must present an interpretive thesis about the language and include evidence from the passage to support the thesis.

Uploaded by

ianking373
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
Available Formats
Download as PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
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Short Story Annotation + Response Paper

Assignment Overview
For your first major assignment, you will annotate and write a response paper analyzing a 200-300 word
selection from one of the story stories assigned for this class. You may choose a selection that you
discussed in an annotation activity or journal, or you may choose a new passage to write about.

Your annotations and paper should focus on how the author uses word choice, imagery, and other
elements to develop the setting, a character, or a theme in the story.

Annotating the Selection


After you’ve chosen a selection, type it out in a separate document; you will submit the typed-out
passage along with your paper. (You may also copy and paste the passage into a separate document, but
this activity will be more useful if you type it out.)

Re-read the selection several times and make notes about interesting language, images, details, and
other elements related to your focus. You may use the Word comment tool, or you may print out the
paper and annotate it by hand.

Use some of the below questions as a guide for your analysis, noting words and phrases that will help
you answer the questions. (Also keep in mind that you don’t have to consider all these questions—
especially one that aren’t relevant to the passage you’ve chosen—and you’re welcome to consider
additional questions.)

Potential questions to guide your analysis:

• How does the narrator use word choice and imagery to develop the setting of the story? What
kind of atmosphere is evoked through the word choice and imagery?
• If the story has a first-person narrator, what does the narrator’s word choice reveal about
his/her personality? What does it reveal about his/her motivations?
• If the story has a first-person narrator, what does the narrator’s word choice reveal about
his/her attitude towards other characters in the story?
• If the story has a third-person narrator, how does the narrator use word choice and imagery to
provide information about characters’ personalities and motivations?
• If the story has a third-person narrator, how does the narrator’s word choice and imagery shape
the reader’s attitude towards characters? Does the narrator present the character in a
sympathetic light or an unsympathetic light? How so?
• How does the word choice, imagery, and other elements develop or reinforce a central idea of
the story?

Your answer(s) to the above question(s) will form the starting point for your thesis, and the notes you’ve
taken will form the foundation of your response paper.
Writing the Response Paper
Audience:
Your intended audience is someone who is familiar with the story you’re discussing but does not have
the story—or the annotated passage—in front of them. You will need to provide enough context,
specific examples, and quotations in your paper for your audience to follow your ideas without
referencing the passage.

Thesis
Your paper should be organized around specific, interpretive claim (i.e. a thesis) about how the author
uses word choice, imagery, and/or other formal elements to develop the story’s setting, specific
characters, or a specific theme.

Weak thesis: In “Summer,” David Updike uses word choice and imagery to develop the
setting.

Stronger thesis: In “Summer,” David Updike’s word choice and imagery highlights the change in
seasons—the shift from the restless heat of summer to the peaceful coolness of
fall.

The first thesis mentions word choice, imagery, and setting, but it is very general—it doesn’t tell the
reader what the word choice and imagery reveals about the setting. The second thesis is more specific--
it ties the word choice and imagery to a claim about the change in seasons.

Organizing the Paper


Unlike formal essays, this response paper does not need to have a fully-developed introduction or
conclusion. However, it should have a clear thesis (you many simply type the thesis at the top of the
paper), and it should present textual evidence (quotes and examples for the story) that support the
thesis.

The rest of the paper support and develop the thesis. Each paragraph should have a clear claim, which is
presented in a topic sentence, and the rest of the paragraph should support or develop that claim
through analysis of the passage you’ve chosen. A general rule is that for every sentence you include that
presents a quotation or example, you should include a sentence that explains the quotation or example
and connects it back to your topic sentence.

Assignment Requirements
The annotated passage and your paper are due 11:59 P.M. Sunday, February 25. Submit them together
to the dropbox in the Week 6 folder.

Annotation Requirements:

• The selection should be roughly 200-300 words.


• You may annotate the selection using the MS Word tool or print it out and annotated it by hand.
• If you annotated the selection by hand, please scan or take a picture of it and submit it as a PDF
or JPEG. It is your responsibility to ensure that your annotations are legible in the image.
Paper Requirements:

• Most successful papers will be 2-3 full pages, not counting a Works Cited page. If your paper is
shorter than 2 full pages, you probably haven’t adequately analyzed the passage.
• Your paper should follow MLA-style formatting. This means:
o It should be typed in 12 point Times New Roman font.
o It should be double-spaced.
o It should have 1-inch margins on each side.
o It should have the page number and your last name in the top, right corner of each
page.
o The first page should have a heading in the top, left corner with your name, the
instructor’s name, the class, and the date.
• Any quotations should be properly formatted and documented using parenthetical citations.
(See the handout on Blackboard for help formatting quotations and citations.)
• You should include a Works Cited page that lists the story you wrote on.

Your paper will be evaluated on the strength and specificity of your thesis, your support of your thesis,
organization, analysis of word choice, imagery, and other elements, and grammar and mechanics
(including the documentation of sources). See the rubric on Blackboard for a detailed explanation of the
evaluation criteria.

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