PROJECT 2: DIFFICULTY PAPER (Adapted from Salvatori)
We read to find answers and to grow as thinkers, but in the process of growth we inevitably come up against impasses. It is of vital importance to your success in this class and beyond that you do not ignore these difficulties or try to force your way past them. This project asks you to use writing as a tool to untangle a difficulty you encounter in reading one of our modernist texts.
Think of this assignment as an extended description of a problem. You are essentially responsible for three things: identifying a difficulty or problem; elaborating how or why your problem is indeed a problem; and illustrating the problem with an example from the text. There is an optional fourth item that is closely related to the second step; this optional fourth item involves a discussion of how far-reaching or how significant a problem is for the entire text. Try to capture your difficulty in 700-800 words.
The following breaks down the most important aspects of the assignment in slightly more detail. The order in which you address these is less important than your ability to address them all.
1. So You've Got Problems
The terms difficulty, problem, tension, paradox, and question are all closely related, and I may use them from time to time as though they were interchangeable. The first thing to understand is that not all difficulties, problems, etc. demand your extended analysis in writing. To know if a difficulty is difficult enough to merit your attention, refer to the document, "How to Ask a Good Question About Literature." To be clear, I am asking you to write about difficulties that a text poses for you as a reader, not difficulties that fictional characters encounter in a text (though these can sometimes overlap in interesting ways). In other words, a summary of the conflict of a fictional narrative does not add up to a description of a critical problem. Once you encounter a problem, try to describe it in a single sentence.
Templates for drawing attention to a problem:
Think of this assignment as an extended description of a problem. You are essentially responsible for three things: identifying a difficulty or problem; elaborating how or why your problem is indeed a problem; and illustrating the problem with an example from the text. There is an optional fourth item that is closely related to the second step; this optional fourth item involves a discussion of how far-reaching or how significant a problem is for the entire text. Try to capture your difficulty in 700-800 words.
The following breaks down the most important aspects of the assignment in slightly more detail. The order in which you address these is less important than your ability to address them all.
1. So You've Got Problems
The terms difficulty, problem, tension, paradox, and question are all closely related, and I may use them from time to time as though they were interchangeable. The first thing to understand is that not all difficulties, problems, etc. demand your extended analysis in writing. To know if a difficulty is difficult enough to merit your attention, refer to the document, "How to Ask a Good Question About Literature." To be clear, I am asking you to write about difficulties that a text poses for you as a reader, not difficulties that fictional characters encounter in a text (though these can sometimes overlap in interesting ways). In other words, a summary of the conflict of a fictional narrative does not add up to a description of a critical problem. Once you encounter a problem, try to describe it in a single sentence.
Templates for drawing attention to a problem:
2. Create a Profile for Your Difficulty The second major thing to note is that not all difficulties are difficulties for the same reason. One of the most helpful things you can do for yourself and your readers is to classify the kind of difficulty you are up against. For instance, ambiguity can describe a kind of difficulty where the same utterance can be shown to have multiple meanings, each valid or important in its own way. A paradox describes a proposition about something where the proposition involves internal contradictions, making it appear both true and false at the same time, e.g., "This statement is false." A paradox can also involve a statement that could be true or false because the logic that would make it true is missing, e.g., "Standing is more tiring than walking."More important than your ability to name the difficulty you are confronting is your ability to describe it using whatever language you have available to you, pointing to examples where helpful for you and your audience. Templates for classifying and describing difficulties: |
3. Illustrate Difficulty: Making it Real
The biggest piece of advice I can give at this point is to make sure that your problem is specific to the text you are writing about. If you could pose the same question in relation to another text, it is not specific enough to permit your elaboration of it. The best way to make sure you are being specific is to illustrate how your difficulty grows out of your readings of specific passages of text. Describe points in the novel that were difficult to you. Quote at least one passage of text and show how the passages presents a problem that is a problem of the kind you indicate.
What You're Not Responsible For
You do not have to solve or resolve the problem or difficulty. You do not need to explain why it is there, what it's impact on the reader is (besides creating difficulty), or its implications for other aspects of the text.
The biggest piece of advice I can give at this point is to make sure that your problem is specific to the text you are writing about. If you could pose the same question in relation to another text, it is not specific enough to permit your elaboration of it. The best way to make sure you are being specific is to illustrate how your difficulty grows out of your readings of specific passages of text. Describe points in the novel that were difficult to you. Quote at least one passage of text and show how the passages presents a problem that is a problem of the kind you indicate.
What You're Not Responsible For
You do not have to solve or resolve the problem or difficulty. You do not need to explain why it is there, what it's impact on the reader is (besides creating difficulty), or its implications for other aspects of the text.