Below, you’ll find links to anonymous sample essays from previous Comp Lit R&C students. Please note that, while none of these are perfect (and that’s ok!), these papers all received B-range grades or higher and can provide helpful models about the general arc and structure of what close reading looks like in a paper.
As we’ve done with sample writing that we’ve looked at together in class, try to bring a critical eye to these papers. What do you think could be improved, and how? What reading and writing strategies and tools do you notice? What do you think is going well that you’d like to try out?
If you have questions about what you see in any of these papers and/or how it might relate to your own writing, please feel free to send an email or come talk to one of us in office hours.
Sample 1 – on Coleridge’s “Rime of the Ancient Mariner”
Sample 2 – On Chekhov’s The Cherry Orchard
Sample 3 – On Toni Morrison’s Beloved
Sample 4 – On Patrick Modiano’s Dora Bruder
Sample 5 – On Toni Morrison’s Beloved
Translating Women 