English

 

One of the common tasks in academia (and in life in general) is to uncover information and organize it into a coherent and well-reasoned argument. Nineteen Eighty-Four has a number of themes that make the story rather complex upon deeper analysis. Some of these themes include:

• Abandonment/Loneliness
• Death
• Surveillance
• Control/Manipulation

Task: Pick one of the themes (either identified above or one that you found while reading the story) and look at what other people have said about this theme, either in general terms and/or specifically in the context of Nineteen Eighty-Four. Discuss what you think is important with the theme and if Nineteen Eighty-Four is still relevant in contemporary society while incorporating the other material that you identified. You must use a minimum of five sources (in MLA format), three of which have not been used in this course.

NOTE: SINCE LITERARY TEXTS ARE FICTIONAL AND DO NOT NECESSARILY PORTRAY REALITY ACCURATELY, LITERARY WORKS ARE NOT ACCEPTABLE SOURCE MATERIAL.

Length: 1250 – 1500 words (5 – 6 pages)

Grading Emphasis: developing an effective subject; writing for appropriate occasion and audience; expressing ideas; spelling; critical analysis; clear statement of conflict and each side’s position; research and use of evidence; appropriate tone; sentence variety; consistent agreement; elimination of non-rhetorical fragments; effective ordering of ideas; effective resolution; punctuation (period, question and exclamation marks, colon, dash, ellipses, parentheses, brackets); formatting; elimination of second person; adoption of formal conventions (i.e., no contractions, using “one” and “we” rather than “I” or “you”); including citations