Paper and Essay Prototypes

In advance of each paper or video essay that you write, you will submit two prototypes. The prototypes offer a way to structure your thinking about each paper and get some feedback early in the writing process. Each prototype should be at least 150 words long (total), and it can be longer if you want to share more of your thinking about the paper.

• A pattern of textual evidence that you want to examine, based on the practices of close reading that we have learned together. This pattern should be specific and concrete: images of clocks, for instance, or a narrator's rhetorical questions, or scenes where clothing gets torn. Use two or three specific examples to illustrate the pattern.
• A concept to which you want to link that pattern of evidence, such as a motif of time, a link between painting and dance, or the opposition between spoken and written words.
• A hook, or way of talking about the connection between your pattern and concept that most readers would not easily see. You can connect images of clocks to the motif of time, for example, but every reader will understand that connection instantly, so the hook should add something unexpected. On the other hand, if the pattern and concept lack an obvious connection--what do clocks have to do with dancing?--then explaining the connection itself can become your hook.