[ORDER SOLUTION] Critical Reading

The Critical Reading Paper is an analysis of a literary text that should include: a) an informative title (including the name of the literary text being analyzed); b) a thesis paragraph (usually the first paragraph of the paper); c) an incisive and original thesis (usually expressed in the final one or more sentences of the thesis paragraph); d) a convincing and tightly organized discussion of the evidence you have found to support the thesis, drawn directly from the language of the text you’re analyzing; e) a successful integration of evidence into your paper, according to standard practices (see the MLA Handbook or consult with me); and f) a brief conclusion that formulates the larger implications of the paper’s argument (not covered to that point in the paper) and gestures toward further issues that could not be addressed in the current project but that would build directly off your paper’s insightful argument. (In general, conclusions should not merely reiterate what the paper has already successfully demonstrated.) The paper should be free of grammatical mistakes and typographical errors; and it should be written in a formal, yet natural-sounding, voice. For this paper, investigate the following topic: Re-read carefully the descriptions in the “General Prologue” of the Miller, the Wife of Bath, and the Pardoner. Drawing on a combination of two or more descriptions, prologues, or tales, discuss how one of these pilgrims implicitly contradicts, exposes the flaws of, meaningfully informs, re-contextualizes, or otherwise corresponds with one of the other three pilgrims, over the course of their journey to Canterbury. As part of the process of conceiving your thesis, you may wish to think through one or more of the following questions: What is the relationship between community and conflict? How do stories soften or disguise social arguments? Can one be attacked without being harmed, or without realizing the attack has taken place? How is the social fabric tested and re-tested by storytelling? [These questions are here to help you formulate an argument, but you are free to ignore them and pursue your own sets of questions, too.]