• A favorite poem or song
• A fairy tale
• A picture book
• A short story
• A novel
• A play

Choose an approach to analysis.Your essay does not need to specify which approach you are using. You may end up using more than one theory to interpret the text, too

• Historical/biographical: How did the events of the author's life and times influence the author's writing? Write a biography of the author and analyze the text to demonstrate that the author's life and times influenced the work at hand.
• Formalism/New Criticism: Look at how the author handles the formal elements of the book: plot, character, setting, symbolism, point of view, theme and tone and style. How do these formal elements work to acheive a certain affect on the audience? You should choose to focus on one or two formal elements, such as character and symbolism, for example. To try and analyze all the formal elements would make for a long, unruly paper.
• Sociocultural: Study the political messages in the book. What might the author be suggesting about sex and/or gender roles, about race relations, about class distinctions, about the nature of power and authority? Again, if you choose this option, you will want to focus on just one or two aspects of sociocultural criticism, in order to keep the paper manageable.
• Mythological: Analyze the mythological elements of the book. What are some familiar elements? Do you recognize any archetypes? What larger 'truths' does the story seem to espouse? What messages does the author send about how to live an optimal life?
• Psychoanalytical: Analyze the psychological elements of the book. What are some of the pscyhological concerns of the main characters? How might the text serve as a model for answering some of the psychological questions that readers might be struggling with in their daily lives?
• Reader Response: Analyze the effects (or potential effects) of the book on its audience. Don't forget to discuss the different types of audiences: the intended audience (the audience the author had in mind), the child audience, the adult audience, and the actual audience, which is the audience that might be reading the book today, regardless of when the book was written. How might different audiences have reacted to the book, depending on the age, the background, and the time and place the audience lived?

• Review the material presented on each of the genres of literature (short story, novel, play, poetry)
• Choose one of the following options:
  • Write a short story
  • Write a poem or series of poems
  • Write a chapter from a novel
  • Write an act from a play
• Write a page of analysis explaining to the reader what your poetry, short story, novel or play means to you. What were you trying to express? What creative choices did you make in order to get your point across? What main messages or ideas should the audience come to when reading your work?

• Pick a text that you know has been made into a film version. It could be a feature film, an animated film, or a filmed version of a live play. Of the words we've read this semester, many have been made into films: The Tell Tale Heart, The Lottery, Harry Potter and The Crucible are all works that we've studied that have film versions available. You could also choose a fairy tale that has been made into a film, or any other story that you can get your hands on that has both print and film version available. If you wish, you could choose a movie that is somewhat loosely based on the storyline of the book. For example, you could compare The Things They Carried and Full Metal Jacket or Apocalypse Now, or you could compare the book of Harry Potter to Star Wars, The Matrix or Lord of the Rings, or you could compare the original tale of Cinderella to modern film versions, such as Ella Enchanted or Ever After, etc.
• Read the text, taking note of major themes, plot lines, characters, setting, etc.
• Watch the film, taking note of major themes, plot lines, characters, setting, etc..
• Compare/contrast the film and the movie. Ask yourself the following questions: What elements of the book did the director and actors choose to emphasize? Why do you think the director chose to emphasize these bits? What parts of the author's message or perspective did the director/actors want to convey?
• What are the major differences between the book and the film? How do you account for those differences? Why do you think the director/actors chose to go a different way or see a different version than the author or playwright?
• What is the overall effect on the audience after reading the text, and how is that overall effect different or the same between the movie and the film?
• If the movie was created in a different era than the original text, how might the cultural climate of the day influence the changes that the director/actors make to the text? You could discuss how cultural influences could create different interpretations of the text.
• Write a thesis. As with all analyses, the thesis will be very important. You should identify a clear idea that will serve to anchor your paper. Your main idea should be something more substantial than "There are differences and similarities between the movie and the book". What is the nature of those differences and similarities? How do the visions of the writer and director/actors coincide, and how do they diverge, and what is the overall effect of the coincidence and divergence?
• Develop the thesis by including specific references to both the text and the film. You will need to pull quotes from the text and from the film to develop your ideas.
• Include a bibliography at the end listing both your primary sources - text and film.

• Pick a text that we read this semester that interested you for whatever reason.
• Pick one of the seminars that you wrote on that text.
• Expand on the ideas in the seminar, using more details, more analysis, more quotes, more examples, etc.