Essay Prompt
Read the excerpt from W.t. Stace's "Man Against Darkness," then write a well-planned, well-written essay in response to the question below:
Would either Swift, as evidenced by Book 4 of Gulliver's Travels, or Voltaire, as evidenced by Candide, agree with Stace's arguments about human nature and our status in the universe? Support your thesis with evidence from the both the essay and the work you choose to treat.
- Length: 500-750 words
- Scoring: PA Rubric / 20
- Focus:
- Clear and insightful thesis that responds to the prompt
- supporting paragraphs relevant to thesis
- Content:
- Appropriate textual evidence supports and proves the thesis.
- The essay offers an analysis, not a description. It shows how the evidence supports the thesis.
- Organization:
- The essay presents the thesis in the introduction.
- The essay follows a rational, logical plan that is easy to follow.
- Individual paragraphs are organized.
- The essay's conclusion is synthetic.
- Style:
- The essay is written in a plain, clear style devoid of vagueness.
- Every sentence contains an athletic, meaning-laden subject and verb.
- Conventions:
- The essay follows the rules of standard English for
- punctuation
- capitalization
- agreement of subjects and verbs and pronouns and antecedents
- usage
"Chunks" of the Stace Essay
Chunk 1: Intro and Thesis
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This chunk answers the question.
It contains the thesis.
"Voltaire/Swift would (not) agree with Stace's position that... because..."
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1 paragraph
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Chunk 2: Concise precis of Stace's position in the essay.
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This chunk objectively paraphrases Stace's view of human nature and it status in the universe.
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1-2 paragraphs
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Chunk 3: Precise of Voltaire's or Swift's view
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This chunk describes what you believe is Swift's of Voltaire's view of human nature and it status in the universe.
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1-2 paragraphs
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| Chunk 4: Articulated, convincing, text rooted analysis of how Swift or Voltaire would (not) agree with Stace. |
This is not plot summary. This is the core of the essay. It is here that you take the reader into a specific passage of the text and show how Voltaire or Swift would or would not agree with Stace. Text-rooted close reading and analysis is necessary here. The essay is a comparison, so compare Stace with Voltaire or Swift.
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3-5 paragraphs
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Chunk 5: Synthetic conclusion
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The conclusion discusses the theme of Gulliver or Candide in light of the analysis in the paper. (Significance to the work as a whole.)
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1-2 paragraphs
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