The Exploratory Draft should be the first two paragraphs of your essay — the intro and one body.
At the end, please also include a **brief note** — it doesn’t have to be super formal or structured writing — describing where else you plan on going with the essay: other elements of the text you want to cover, other points you want to make, what you want your conclusion to do, etc.
How to insert a PDF:
First, export your essay as a PDF in whatever program you’ve been using to write it.
To export your essay as a PDF in Google Docs, go to File -> Download -> PDF Document
To export your essay as a PDF in Microsoft Word, go to File -> Export -> PDF
In OneNote, go to Insert -> File -> File Printout, and select your PDF. That’s it!
This assignment will be worth 25 points, and it will be graded using a slightly modified version of the final Canterbury Essay rubric (see essay overview for details). The grading criteria will all be the same, minus the expectation that you have a complete essay structure.
The Exploratory Draft should include the following (check off the boxes as you write):
FORMATTING:
Proper MLA formatting (see here for further instructions):
Times New Roman, 12 point, double spaced, 1-inch margins
A proper MLA style header on the first page (Purdue OWL: “list your name, your instructor’s name, the course, and the date”)
Your last name and the page number in the top right corner of *every page except the first page* (e.g. Margini 2)
STRUCTURE:
An intro with:
a good ‘hook’ that captures your reader’s attention and introduces the essay’s *topic*
NOTE: PLEASE AVOID THE “THROUGHOUT HISTORY…” OR “SINCE THE DAWN OF TIME…” OPENING! It’s much better to start small: with an interesting detail from the text, an observation, even a quotation…
a well-crafted and compelling thesis statement
One well-constructed body paragraph. The paragraph should be designed to make one interpretive *sub-argument* that advances part of your overall argument. (Use the Perfect Paragraph template!)
The body paragraph should also have a topic sentence that clearly states the point you’re making in that paragraph, builds on the previous paragraph, and clearly connects back to the overall thesis
As always, the ‘meat’ of the body paragraph should be close-reading: specific observations about the language of your textual evidence.
QUOTES:
Quotations from the text. With each one, do the following (the ICE method):
Introduce the quote and integrate it into your own sentence
Cite the quote with an MLA-style parenthetical citation (for the purposes of this essay, since you’re only talking about one book, you don’t have to put “Chaucer” in each parenthetical citation. Just put the line number(s).)
Explain/analyze the quote with at least one line of analysis per line of quoted material (note: just restating what the quote says does not count as analysis. With literary material, you always want to analyze the quote’s LANGUAGE!)
STYLE:
Zero grammar and spelling errors!
Zero passive voice! (pv)
Phrasing *in the present tense* anytime you’re talking about what happens in a text or what the author does
A maximum of 2 “to be” verbs per paragraph! (is, are, were, etc.)
746
And thus screwed was the carpenter’s own wife,
For all the jealous guarding he might try, And Absolon has kissed her nether eye, And scalded in the butt is Nicholas.
290
This nearby Nicholas stood in his.
Now bear you well, you handy Nicholas,
For Absolon may wail and sing, “Alas!”
91
This young clerk was called handy Nicholas.
He knew well both secret love and solace;
168-175
Privately he grabbed her Mount of Venus,…
“In truth, unless my will have I, For secret love of you, sweetheart, I’ll die.”
595-600
Honeycomb, my sweet, what art thou doing… I can’t eat a bit more than a maiden.
240-244
Had, in his heart, caught such a love-longing
That from no wife took he the offering;
From courtesy, he said, he would decline
278-279
That Absolon can go blow the buck’s horn.
He got, to pay his labor, only scorn.
575-577
That is a sign of kissing, at the least.
All night I dreamed that I at a feast.
180-82
Nicholas began to cry for mercy,
Spoke so fairly, and pressed himself so fast
That she her love him granted at last
606
“Alas” said Absolon, “and well away,
That true love was ever beset so sore!
Then kiss me now, since it may be no more
Please only use these quotes, but if you find one that works really well feel free. Only use the new English translation for the quotes, and please use a lot of analyzation. Please focus on the quality of the analyzation I may add a thesis statement in a few hours for you to look at.
