Essay #1:

A Melvillian Digression

Introduction:

For this writing assignment, you’ll essentially be writing a new chapter for Moby Dick—the kind of chapter you love, starting out with a whole bunch of information about something relating to sailing or whales, and ending with a deep thought about life. 3-5 pages (750-1500 words); VERY rough “discovery” draft due Friday, 12/11, by 3:05pm.

The assignment:

Pick a topic out of the reading you would like to find out more about. (Examples: Dolphins, blubber, sail cloth, giant squid, etc.)  Do a little research about the topic and report back what you find, keeping track of any sources you use for information. Then make connections between your subject and one or more themes from Moby Dick. (For example, what do dolphin mating patterns teach us about humans’ quest for the divine?)

Hints:

+ Keep track of all sources you use for research. If you use any actual phrases from any source, it must be in quotation marks. If you don’t use quotes to mark another author’s words, that’s called plagiarism, which is grounds for failing the assignment.

+ Be like Melville: Give all the detail you can. Be nice and descriptive about it. You can even make up some things if you want, as long as they fit with the research you’ve done.

+ The last third of your paper (at least a page) should be used to explain what this topic you’ve researched can show us about people, about life. This is where you connect your random research topic with a theme from the book. If you don’t know what the major themes are, you could go back and listen to the class from November 18, when we talked about what the book is about so far.

+ If you want to copy Melville’s style of writing or organization, you could look at Chapter 60, “The Line,” for inspiration.

Essay #2: