Choose one or two readings from the course syllabus under the section “slavery and its legacies” for your essay.

Four 1,200-word (four-page) essays exploring a theme, character, setting, or symbol in one or two texts for the corresponding course sections are required for this course. Prior consultation with instructor and instructor’s approval of topics and texts for the essays are required. Note: Essays should be close readings of the texts, which is a literary analysis, and not include additional sources. All essays should include a “Works Cited” page for sources used. All sources should be cited within the essay.
Choose one or two readings from the course syllabus under the section “Slavery and Its Legacies” for your essay. Your essay should explore a theme, character, setting, or symbol, or may explore another aspect. Essay should be 1,200 words and should follow MLA guidelines. Your topic and texts must be approved by your instructor.
Readings for the section “Slavery and Its Legacies” are as follows:
Jocelyn Nicole Johnson, “My Monticello” (Bb)
Honorée Fanonne Jeffers, The Age of Phillis (Course Reserve, VSU Library)
Phillis Wheatley, selections from Poems on Various Subjects, Religious and Moral (Bb).
Title (should pertain to your thesis or a point in your essay)
Note: Well-developed paragraphs are usually six to eight sentences. A four-page paper will usually be about eight to twelve paragraphs.
I. Introduction
A. Introduce the topic of your essay.
1. Include the title of the literary text(s) and author(s).
2. Include your thesis statement.
II. Body
A. Each paragraph should include a topic sentence, explain a point (subclaim to support your thesis), include evidence from the text with quotations enclosed in quotation marks and with in-text citations, and then your analysis (explanation) of the quotation that supports your subclaim (i.e. topic sentence.)
Note: If doing a comparison, you may interweave your comparison of the texts through your thesis, or you may devote equal portions of the body of your paper to one text and to the other, then include a synthesis paragraph that discusses them together. This last paragraph may function as a conclusion.
III. Conclusion
A. Conclude with reiterating your overall main idea (i.e. argument/thesis) of the essay.
Note: This statement should not be identical to your thesis statement in your introduction.
1. You may close with a summary of your subclaims, a discussion of the implications (Why is your thesis/argument important/significant?), or reconnect with a quotation or idea you used in your essay and elaborate to reinforce/support your thesis.
IV. Works Cited
A. Works Cited should list each source used in your essay. In-text citations should match sources listed in your Works Cited.
Phillis Wheatley, selections from Poems on Various Subjects, Religious and Moral (Bb).
Poems: https://www.gutenberg.org/files/409/409-h/409-h.htm