Analysis of Jane Tompkins’sProblem with History

Paper Two: Analysis of Jane Tompkins’sProblem with History

[focus on rhetoric, purpose, and genre]

Your first paper assignment this semester was to write a summary of Jane Tompkins’s essay, “’Indians’: Textualism, Morality, and the Problem of History.” For Paper Two, you will be analyzing Tompkins’s essay, meaning that you will be adding your own insight and interpreting what her intended meaning is. To determine Tompkins’s intended meaning, you should focus on why key points are important and how they suggest a deeper meaning v. simply stating what is said, as you did in the summary.

Moving from Summary to Analysis

Now that you have a solid knowledge of what was said in Tompkins’ essay, it’s time to add your thoughts and commentary about what the text means. Summaries should be objective (state the facts and leave your opinion out of it) but analysis should include a balance of subjective and objective elements (present and explain your opinion or interpretation of the facts to determine meaning).

You’ve probably already formed opinions about the main point that Tompkins is making in her essay (i.e., why she is telling us about her research). For this paper assignment you should present your views but be sure to support those views with explanation and to use evidence from the essay—combining all of these elements will result in an analytical essay about “’Indians’: Textualism, Morality and the Problem of History.” 

You can use parts of your summary from paper one but don’t try to include all of your summary in this paper. It will be far more important for you to rely on the summary to refresh your memory so that you can more precisely refer back to Tompkins’s essay and to more efficiently locate and select direct quotes to include in Paper Two as support for your interpretation. 

Analysis Question: The focus of your analysis should be on explaining or interpreting the title of Tompkins’s essay. Consider the title, “’Indians’: Textualism, Morality, and the Problem of History”—what point is Tompkins trying to convey in her essay, based on how you interpret this title?Although this is a fairly limiting focus, there is room for a range of interpretations from multiple readers (in other words, there is no single ‘correct’ answer—the ‘answer’ is really going to be based on your opinion, understanding, and interpretation of the title in relation to the essay). Once you have some thoughts about your premise or interpretation, you should choose examples from the essay that support your view. Unlike the summary you wrote in Paper One, the analysis can refer to selective examples. For instance, you might choose to focus on only three of the sources that Tompkins examines in her essay and that would be fine. Explain why you interpreted the essay the way you did and justify your interpretation with evidence--quotes or examples--from the text of Tompkins’s essay. 

Tips for Completing Paper Two:As you move from summary to analysis it is important to understand how these two genres differ. Summary tells us whathappens but analysis explains what this information means and why certain pointsare important. An effective analysis should include the following elements:

1. Your view or interpretation about Tompkins’ text (this is the basis for your thesis).

2. Support and examples (paraphrased information and direct quotes).

3. Analysis (explanation of how the examples that you provided support your interpretation).

If you only include #1, you will have an opinion paper, not analysis; if you only include #2, you will have an objective research paper (or another summary) and not analysis. The importance of #3 is that this is how you connect #2 (support) to #1 (your interpretation)—the combination of all three elements creates analysis. 

Your body paragraphs should focus on one main point per paragraph and each paragraph should clearly support your thesis. You should be using MLA citation style to acknowledge quotes. We will be working on different strategies for moving from summary to analysis (brainstorming, listing, outlines, using quotes effectively, citing with MLA, and so on) in workshops and informal meetings (extra credit Zoom meetings can focus on this if you’d like some extra help on transitioning from summary to analysis).

As always, you should produce an early draft that will be workshopped and revised before you attempt to finalize your essay (multiple drafts and revision are required).

Requirements:

Your final draft should 

--be 4-5 pages long

--use MLA citation to cite quotes

--include a Works Cited list

--be saved as a Word file and be posted on Canvas in the appropriate assignment space

Grading Rubric:

In addition to meeting the above requirements, your paper should

--include an original, arguable thesis

--add some additional insight about the essay or your perception of this essay

--focus on analyzing Tompkins’s essay, with particular focus on the title

--use distinct paragraphs that focus on one key point per paragraph

--develop paragraphs fully and thoroughly, using specific details and analysis

--use an effective organization strategy

--include direct quotes from Tompkins’s essay

--integrate and engage with direct quotes (introduce and discuss quotes)

--attempt to cite quotations using MLA

--include a works cited page

--show evidence of revision

--submit all required drafts

--be clear and reasonably free of errors with grammar and mechanics (we will work on this)

See Course Calendar for due dates.