READING AND WRITING

Writing the FINAL ACADEMIC PAPER

DURATION: 2 Weeks
SUBMISSION: JUNE 22, 2023
TOTAL POINTS: 400
(Marxism – 100/ Formalism – 100/ Feminism – 100/ Reader Response – 100)

SECTION TOPIC ASSIGNED

11 – ABM 1 “Sandaang Damit” by Fanny Garcia
11 – ABM 2 “Ang Pamana” by Lamberto Gabriel
11 – HE 1 “The Happy Prince” by Oscar Wilde
11 – HE 3 “”The Cask of Amontillado” by Edgar Allan Poe
11 – HE 4 “The Little Prince” by Anotoine de Saint - Exupery
11 – HE 5 “Dead Stars” by Paz Marquez Benitez

FORMAT:

Strictly follow the format of the final academic paper. Papers that will not follow the
guidelines and format will not be accepted.

Font: ARIAL
Size: 12
Line Spacing: 1.5
Paper Size: Short Bond paper
Margins: 1 inch on each side (with pagination)

To help you in writing your paper, here are some guide questions that you need to consider in
composing your paper. Each theory/Approach in Literary Criticism requires a different
approach to questioning and in analyzing.

FORMALISM
This approach focuses on form, stressing symbols, images, and structure and how one part of
the work relates to other parts and to the whole.
1. How is the work’s structure unified?
2. How do various elements of the work reinforce its meaning?
3. What recurring patterns (repeated or related words, images, etc.) can you find? What is the
effect of these patterns or motifs?
4. How does repetition reinforce the theme(s)?
5. How does the writer’s diction reveal or reflect the work’s meaning?

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 6. What is the effect of the plot, and what parts specifically produce that effect?
7. What figures of speech are used? (metaphors, similes, hyperbole, personification, etc.)
8. How does the writer use paradox, irony, symbol, plot, characterization, and style to enhance
the story? What effects are produced? Do any of these relate to one another or to the theme?
9. Is there a relationship between the beginning and the end of the story?
10. What tone and mood are created at various parts of the work?
11. How does the author create tone and mood? What relationship is there between tone and
mood and the effect of the story?
12. How do the various elements interact to create a unified whole?

MARXISM
This approach focuses on literature’s relationship to others in society, politics, religion, and
business. Specifically, this approach aims to reveal social conflicts and class struggles presented
in the literature,
1. What is the relationship between the characters and their society?
2. Does the story address societal issues, such as race, gender, and class?
3. How do social forces shape the power relationships between groups or classes of people in
the story? Who has the power, and who doesn’t? Why?
4. How does the story reflect the Great American Dream?
5. How does the story reflect urban, rural, or suburban values?
6. What does the work say about economic or social power? Who has it and who doesn’t? Any
Marxist leanings evident?
7. Does the story address issues of economic exploitation? What role does money play?
8. How do economic conditions determine the direction of the characters’ lives?
9. Does the work challenge or affirm the social order it depicts?
10. Can the protagonist’s struggle be seen as symbolic of a larger class struggle?
11. How does the microcosm (small world) of the story reflect the macrocosm (large world) of
the society in which it was composed?
12. Do any of the characters correspond to types of government, such as a dictatorship,
democracy, communism, socialism, fascism, etc.? What attitudes toward these political
structures/systems are expressed in the work?

FEMINISM
This approach is a subset of the sociological approach and examines images of men and
women, concepts of the feminine in myth and literature, and the presence or absence of men
or women in the story.
1. How are women’s lives portrayed in the work?
2. Is the form and content of the work influenced by the writer’s gender?
3. How do male and female characters relate to one another? Are these relationships sources
of conflict? Are these conflicts resolved?
4. Does the work challenge or affirm traditional views of women?
5. How do the images of women in the story reflect patriarchal social forces that have impeded
women’s efforts to achieve full equality with men?

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 6. What marital expectations are imposed on the characters? What effect do these
expectations have?
7. What behavioral expectations are imposed on the characters? What effect do these
expectations have?
8. If a female character were male, how would the story be different (and vice versa)?
9. How does the marital status of a character affect her decisions or happiness?

READER RESPONSE
This approach focuses on what is going on in the reader’s mind during the process of reading a
text. The critic attempts to read the reader by exploring how reader’s expectations and
assumptions are met or not met. Reader-response critics believe that readers create rather
than discover meaning and that a literary work evolves as a reader processes characters, plots,
images, and other elements while reading.
1. How does the meaning of a text change as you reread it?
2. How do your values alter your perceptions of the text?
3. How have readers in different time periods or of different ages interpreted the text?
4. How is the informed reader’s response to the text shaped by the reader and the text?
5. Which of your personal experiences or memories is affecting your perceptions of the story?
6. What was the work’s original intended audience? To what extent are you similar or different
from that audience?

Remember that this Academic Paper is four papers combined into one. The paper, although
combined, will be graded per part so you need to flawlessly transition from one approach to
another in writing this paper. The flow of the paper was explained during the class discussion. The
deadline for this paper will be strictly implemented, papers submitted the day after Friday that
week will not be accepted.

If there are questions and clarifications about the paper, feel free to see me at faculty during
my breaks or message me from 3 pm to 5 pm during weekdays.

“Wala tayong inspirational quote dito sa dulo. Hindi quote ang kailangan mo, ang kailangan mo
makapag tapos kaya pilitin mong mag aral ng mabuti. Wala kang choice but to be resilient and
strong. Wag ka mag alala, final paper na to, and Nakaya mo yung subject ko, I appreciate you
for that at bilib ako sa galing mo!”
- Sir Paul