The Swimmer (John Cheever) Custom Paper

In Standard written English, write an argumentative essay using MLA conventions for formatting, in-text citations, and a works cited list. You may write about any of the literary texts we have covered so far in class, but do NOT focus on the same text you wrote about in the first essay. It would be preferable if you wrote about texts from the second half of the course, but it is not required. You may also write aout poems and short stories that were assigned, but not discussed in class due to time constraints, as well as film adaptations of any literary text covered in class.

While your final paper may refer to interpretations discussed in class, it should be organized around an original argument. Of course, you may need to summarize certain aspects of a poem, short story, novel, or film to make your argument clear, be aware that you essay should not be a mere summary of events. Your paper should delve under the surface and bring to light what isn’t immediately obvious to the casual reader. Try to avoid vague abstractions or irrelevant universal statements.

Furthermore, you should adopt a tone of persuasive argument. While I recognize that you may have strong feelings about the text you have chosen to write about, I am no asking you to give me a “thumbs up/thumbs down” review. Certainly, your appreciation, hatred, or ambivalence about the text in question will likely be apparent, but your argument shouldn’t hinge on whether you believe people should like or dislike the text.

For this assignment, you are required to use secondary sources. Your essay must include properly cited directed quotations and paraphrases and uses a minimum of two reputable secondary sources. Citations from both primary and secondary texts should be given parenthetically just after the quotation and listed in the Works Cited at the end.