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3.15 Essay Outline
Due Mar 25 by 11:59pm Points 25 Submitting an external tool
Essay 4 Outline
The best way to construct a solid paper is to write a detailed outline. It helps you
see the structure of your argument and what’s missing. By knowing what’s
missing you can go hunting for the information and evidence that you need. Not
used to writing an outline? Check out this basic outline of a paper
(https://academics.umw.edu/writing-fredericksburg/files/2011/09/Basic-Outlines.pdf)
example to help you out. You’ll need to add to this basic outline and manipulate it
for this assignment, but this will get you going.
Choosing one of the prompts below, construct a very detailed outline for Essay
4. In your outline make sure to include the following elements:
A working thesis statement for your essay
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Topic sentences for each paragraph you plan to write. Make sure these
sentences tie to your thesis.
Evidence (meaning quotes) and analysis to support each topic sentence for
each paragraph.
For this, I expect to see exact quotes with citations followed by analysis of
your quotes. Analysis may appear in bullet points.
Transitions between pieces of evidence
Transitions between paragraphs
A concluding thesis (what we will have learned by reading your text)
Essay 4 Prompt
The Handmaid’s Tale by Margaret Atwood presents a dystopian society, post
United States, in which women’s rights are largely squashed in the service of
procreation after near complete environmental collapse. Atwood’s novel questions
the morality used to justify authoritarian, theocratic governments. Most
importantly, all that Atwood includes has basis in history and it has occurred at
one point in time or another. Atwood’s critique presents if the most “moral”
government as completely inept at dealing with crises of environmental disaster.
Significantly, Atwood’s text was written post World War II and during the Cold War
but before COVID 19 so the work is informed by the atrocities of the Holocaust
without knowledge of how a global pandemic could actually damage society.
For this Assignment
We have yet to discuss the presence of religion and belief/ideology in examining
this text and what that theme holds for how we understand Atwood’s commentary
on contemporary society, our society. For your essay, I would like you to examine
how Atwood use of religion/belief/ideology combines with one of the other themes
we have discus so far. For example, you might discuss religion/belief/ideology as
used to justify a handmaid’s sexual exploitation, or you might examine
religion/belief/ideology as tied to the creation of a handmaid’s identity, a
subservient woman. I leave the interpretations up to you so long as you can
provide evidence from the text. Word of warning, only choose one theme.
You’ll need to focus your essay.
Second, consider that Atwood’s use of religion/belief/ideology is similar to
disease; it is a cancerous agent running loose in society, and it is used to oppress
women in many ways. How does Atwood’s epidemic of religion/belief/ideology
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change the way in which characters understand their world, their idenity? In a
world like Gilead, how is change possible? In what existential ways does Offred
experience change? What about Serena, Nick, the Commander?
Finally, as you prepare to write your essay, do not lose sight of the themes we
have worked with so far in the text:
Identity
Good vs. Evil
Morality and Moral Conscience
Sexual exploitation and personal power
Ideology and theocracy
While you do not need to incorporate all of these themes in your essay, using one
or two of them to help you explain the larger context of religion/belief/ideology.
Each of these themes provides a perspective on Gilead’s society.
To help you get started, please do some research regarding Atwood’s text. I
would like to see you include at least two scholarly sources in this essay in
order to ground your ideas in current scholarship. I strongly encourage you to
use the library databases (https://libguides.pasadena.edu/az.php) for your
research. I would encourage use of Academic One File, Project Muse, or JStor
databases for your research. PCC Librarians have also put together a Literature
and Literary Criticism Research Guide (https://libguides.pasadena.edu/litcrit)
with helpful links, video tutorials, and other information.
Expectations
Essays should be thesis driven with introductory, body, and concluding
paragraphs.
Supporting evidence in the form of textual analysis, meaning quotes, and
visual analysis of graphic elements of the text is expected.
In addition to the text, students should conduct outside research and use
reliable sources, preferably scholarly, to support their arguments. Two outside
sources are expected.
Essays should be written in MLA format with Times New Roman 12pt. font.
A works cited page is required.
Essays should be five pages in total. (I stop reading after page five.)
Due Dates
3/15/23, 12:14 PM 3.15 Essay Outline
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Essay 2 Outline: Mar. 25
Essay 2 Rough Draft: Mar. 27; Peer Review Apr. 1
Essay 2 Final Draft: Apr. 8th-ish
