Auburn

For the paper project, you will extend one of the four journal assignments, by supporting a debatable thesis statement with sufficient textual evidence. The final paper should be 1300-1500 words long (5-7 pages). Please provide a word count on the first page (do not estimate the word count). Deduct block quotes from the final word count. You do not need a title page; however, you do need a title. Please use Times New Roman font, and make sure that it is no larger than 12 points in size. Consult the MLA Purdue OWL site for MLA formatting requirements. Your paper needs a separate, complete, and correct works cited page (even though you are only using one source).

Please note that you are not merely tacking on a few paragraphs to your original journal assignment. Your thesis must make a debatable claim about the text you are working with that is supported with sufficient textual evidence and explication. The paper needs a clear method of organization with transitional words and phrases used throughout to provide a sense of cohesion. Please use quotes from the text to support your claims (aim for about 25% quoted material). These should also be cited using MLA guidelines. Papers submitted without a complete and correct works cited page are incomplete and will receive a failing grade. Please submit papers via Canvas by the due date/time. Late papers will not be accepted, resulting in a grade of -0-.

Additional information:
• Properly punctuate the title of the text that you use.
• Avoid stand-alone quotes (quotes from texts that are not correctly introduced or embedded into sentences of your own). I deduct 10 points per stand alone quote.
• It should be clear in the first paragraph which text you are working with in the paper. Include a formal line in which you mention the title & author of the works.
• The paper needs an original and creative title.
• Although I will make the effort of assist you with your papers via email, it is unlikely that I will always be able to respond to your emails in a timely or comprehensive manner, especially in the week before the paper is due.
• Please consider visiting the Writing Center for help with your paper.

Finally, it’s fine if you wrote the original journal assignment in 1st person (“I”), but you will need to shift to the neutral 3rd person in this paper. This assignment should be more formally presented than the journal paper, and 1st person is too informal for the tone you should adopt in the paper.

The paper is worth 75 points. I will consider the following when assessing the grade of the paper:
• Originality and creativity of the paper’s topic and thesis;
• Strength of supporting evidence and illustrations;
• Overall quality of writing;
• Use of an effective and creative method of organization;
• The writer’s ability to correctly document sources using MLA style.

In order to receive a passing grade, the paper must:

• Meet the minimum requirements of the assignment;
• Be written in formal, edited, American English;
• Be logically & appropriately organized around a focused, productive, and debatable thesis statement & feature transitional words and phrases that help provide a sense of cohesion;
• Have a clear and well-organized introduction, body, and conclusion;
• Contain a sufficient amount of specific textual support for precise and identifiable claims (in the form of quotes, summaries, paraphrases of the text as wells as references to the action that you performed). All quotes must be correctly introduced into sentences of your own construction (Smith explains that “all literary works are products of their age” (17).)
• Have no or very few block quotes;
• Be well written – no awkward sentence structures, no wordy sentences, few, if any, mechanical and grammatical errors;
• Be well edited—no typos, pagination errors, missing or repeated elements, etc.;
• Have a correctly formatted works cited page (even if you use an electronic version of the text).

Please note: Canvas does not accept Pages files. Please submit only PDF or Word files to Canvas.

This is the Journal I selected:

https://www.ancient-origins.net/news-history-archaeology/previously-unknown-lines-epic-gilgamesh-discovered-stolen-cuneiform-tablet-020553

Scholars have translated a recently discovered cuneiform tablet of “The Epic of Gilgamesh” that sheds new light on two aspects of the poem: 1. The character Humbaba, and 2. Enkidu’s reaction to the destruction of the sacred cedar forest.

Read the article above that provides a translation of the newly recovered lines and write a journal entry in response to ONE of the following questions.

1. How do the new lines provide a new context in which to consider Humbaba? What impact do the lines have on your reaction to his death at the hands of Gilgamesh and Enkidu?

2. What do the new lines tell us about Enkidu and his evolution from wild man to “civilized man?” What impact do these lines have on your reaction to Enkidu as a character?

Pick only one of the prompts. Please do not write about them both. Your journal should:

Be formally written. You can use first-person (“I”), but please use formal syntax and diction;
Provide support for claims. Use quotes from the text (both the Mitchell translation that we’re using for class AND the recently translated lines in the article. Please do not use lengthy block quotes in this paper;