English 5250                       Fall 2014                  First Essay Assignment

Due Friday, October 3; electronic submission preferred

 

The topics for each of the shorter papers (5-6 pp.; ±1800 words) are open.  You can find some suggestions (drawn from previous undergraduate and graduateclasses) here: http://www.umsl.edu/~gradyf/chaucer/essaytopics.htm. 

I’d like at least a one-paragraph description of your proposed topic—ideally, your argument in miniature—by Friday, September 26.

The usual guidelines apply: double spaced, one-inch margins, original title, etc.  For the first essay you are not obliged to use any secondary critical sources, though you certainly may do so, citing properly and consistently whatever you use. 

Remember that poetry is cited by line number, not page number—and in the Canterbury Tales, typically fragment + line, e.g., “Allone, withouten any compaignye” (I.2779).