1. Essay-writing

2. Choose a topic Identify a knowledge deficit (“no one has looked at x before”) Identify a shortcoming in the scholarship (“scholars have interpreted x inadequately”) Identify a controversy (“scholars have debated this issue…”) Identify a rich, compelling, mysterious aspect of the text that demands to be interpreted (“the trope of x is ubiquitous in his work…..What does it mean?”)

3. Find out about the critical conversation Using the MLA Bibliography database, search for terms key to your topic, i.e. the title or author of the text, and a theme or issue Examine the full entries for each relevant article, deciding among them, based on their keywords, which will be the most useful to you. Print or photocopy these articles.

4. Read and Summarize the Critical Conversation Take notes that summarize the key arguments of the articles, especially if you disagree or want to complicate these arguments Do the articles indicate a “knowledge deficit”, a “controversy”, a “shortcoming of the scholarship” or inspire you to address a mysterious aspect of the text itself?

5. Most recent scholarship on [ ] argues that [ ] but no one has argued [ ] (knowledge deficit) Although scholars have outlined the significance of [ ], they have missed the importance of [ ]. (shortcoming) Scholars are divided on the significance of [ ]. Psychoanalytic critic Joanne Blow says [ ] while Hawthorne scholar John Doe suggests that [ ]”. (controversy) I would like to investigate the significance of the recurring tropes of [ ]. (mysterious aspect of the text)

6. Establish yourself in relation to the Critics Disagreement Rather than read [ ] as Joanne Blow does, as a “blahblahblah”, I will argue that ….. Qualified agreement While Joanne Blow makes several good points, she does not go far enough in [ ]…. OR I will build on Smith’s thesis… A compromise position between two extremes While scholars such as x and y have viewed Benito Cereno as upholding racial hierarchies, and scholars such as a and b have argued that it rejects these hierarchies, I will argue [a third way].