Edgar Allen Poe’s The Black Cat

 4 pages MLA Style about Edgar Allen Poe’s The Black Cat

Purpose: To produce a well-written and well-argued essay that examines a single text for its literary elements. Once this has been accomplished, one may then tie the explication to a theme related to literature:  how lines are constructed, the drift and tenor of metaphors and symbols, rhythm, and how these (and other texual elements tie-in to larger concerns (for example, transcendentalism, dark romanticism, or anti-transcendentalism). Be aware, in either case, if you quote (and you must) more than three lines, it shall be in block quotation style. If you quote poetry within a paragraph, then you must use a foreward slash to indicate a new line. For example: Frost writes, “Whose woods are these I think I know / His house is in the village, though

Grading Criteria: the following criteria will be used in assessing your paper.  Your essay will be judged on:

• the overall effectiveness of your analysis & the skill of your close reading
• the analysis of the literary text
• the intellectual complexity of your essay
• the depth, thoroughness, and efficiency of your interpretation
• the level of skill of your writing (including clarity, cohesiveness, organization and eloquence)
• the avoidance of summary and grammatical errors (especially run-ons and sentence fragments)