FICTION ESSAY
Compares and contrasts two stories from the Fiction Unit. Before you begin writing the essay, carefully read the below guidelines for developing your paper topic and review the Fiction Essay Grading Rubric to see how your
submission will be graded. Gather all of your information, plan the direction of your essay, and organize your ideas by developing a 1-page thesis statement and outline for your essay. Format the thesis statement and the outline in a single Microsoft Word document using current MLA,
APA, or Turabian style (whichever corresponds to your degree program); check your Perrine’s Literature textbook, the Harbrace Essentials Handbook and/or the link contained in the Learn
section to ensure correct citation format is used.
Your submission must include a title page, a thesis/outline page, and the essay itself, followed by a works cited/references/bibliography page listing any primary and/or secondary texts cited in your essay.
Guidelines for Developing Your Paper Topic
The “Writing about Literature” section of your Perrine’s Literature textbook (pp. 1–54) and the
“Writing” section of Harbrace Essentials (pp. 1–12, 15–16, 18–21, 22–28) provide helpful
pointers for writing your literary essay and for academic writing in general. Be sure that you have read these sections before doing any further work for this assignment. Take particular
notice of the examples of fiction essays in the Perrine’s Literature textbook.
Choose 2 of the following short stories to compare and contrast in your essay: “The Lottery” by Shirley Jackson
“The Destructors” by Graham Greene
“The Rocking-Horse Winner” by D.H. Lawrence
“Young Goodman Brown” by Nathaniel Hawthorne
“The Prodigal Son” by St. Luke
Also, at least 1 of these elements of fiction must be the focus of your essay:
Conflict/Plot/Structure
Characterization
Setting
Theme/Authors’ Purposes
