The assignment for this lesson is to read a draft of an essay, “Two Critiques of Imperialism,” that examines the treatment of colonialism in Joseph Conrad’s Heart of Darkness and Jonathan Swift’s Gulliver’s Travels. Then you’ll revise the essay to make it clearer and more persuasive. Try to make the use of rhetorical devices more effective, the tone more consistent, and the transitions more organized.
The rubric reads:
Content — 14 points
Your assignment includes a thesis that clearly takes a stand about how Jonathan Swift and Joseph Conrad use their literary genres to critique colonialism.
Your assignment supports the thesis and reasons with evidence from Swift’s Gulliver’s Travels and Conrad’s Heart of Darkness.
Explanatory text: In order to be effective, your thesis and reasons need to be clearly connected. Each body paragraph will cover a different reason, and the first sentence or two in that body paragraph should remind the reader of your thesis in some way.
The rubric reads:
Your assignment shows a good understanding of Gulliver’s Travels and Heart of Darkness and persuasively defends your interpretation of both works.
Explanatory text: You are persuasive if you provide clear, logical reasons to support your points. It’s also a good idea to engage a reader’s emotions using writing techniques such as tropes and schemes, and to show you know what you’re talking about by presenting well-developed ideas in a formal tone.
The rubric reads:
Your assignment uses at least one trope and one scheme effectively.
Explanatory text: Tropes and schemes are best used in important parts of the essay, such as the opening hook and the concluding sentence. It’s probably not a good idea to use a trope in the thesis statement, but you could use a scheme like parallelism or repetition.
The rubric reads:
Organization — 10 points
Your assignment follows standard essay structure by including:
An improved introduction that presents your revised thesis clearly
A revised body that includes sufficient evidence and commentary to support each point
A revised conclusion paragraph that reminds readers of your thesis and main points
Explanatory text: Your revised essay needs to follow standard essay format. Be especially careful to show how all the ideas fit together and to explain all the reasons and evidence thoroughly. Don’t assume, just because the sample essay already has these different types of paragraphs, that they’re used effectively.
Your assignment uses transitions to:
Smoothly guide the reader from one idea to the next
Make the relationship between the thesis, supporting reasons, and evidence clear
Explanatory text: Transitions may be fairly long if you’re shifting between key ideas in your essay, such as between paragraphs. Otherwise, it’s often fine to use short transition words and phrases like however and for instance to link ideas.
The rubric reads:
Style — 6 points
Your assignment is written in a clear, careful way that:
Uses an appropriate tone for a classroom assignment
Explanatory text: The original essay you read does not maintain a consistent tone. Your revision needs to take a formal tone from the first sentence all the way through to the end.
The rubric reads:
Is free of obvious mistakes in grammar, usage, spelling, and punctuation
Explanatory text: If necessary, read your work out loud and listen for errors. Sometimes you can hear mistakes you don’t notice when you read silently.