Main Parts of an Essay:
Is the opening sentence an effective hook? A “hook” can be a question, statement, anecdote or quote to introduce the theme of your paper. (J) Is the thesis statement 1) crafted clearly? 2) original? 3) arguable and not a statement of fact or generalities? 4) limited enough so the paper can be fully developed? 5) unified around a particular idea? Does each paragraph have a topic sentence? Do these topic sentence act as premises for your thesis? Is the evidence from the work of literature clear, specific, quoted correctly and properly? Does each body paragraph end with a strong concluding sentence which connects the reason and the evidence with the thesis? Overall, does your paper contain more analysis than summary? (J) Do your implications show what the reader can learn from this piece of literature? Language and Style: Is the language in your essay academic and suitable for your audience? (J) Are the references to the piece of literature written in the present tense? Do you use connecting words or transitions to link the paragraphs in the essay? (J) Have you corrected all grammatical errors? (J) Did you choose your words carefully, avoiding unnecessary repetition and unclear language? (J) Are all quotations embedded within sentences? (J): relevant to journal entries as well. Important points to remember:
Sokari Ekine on the narratives of queer Africa:
“Western interventions which seek to impose a Western narrative on the queer African struggle are part of an uninterrupted history of suppressing the needs and experiences of Africans dating back to colonisation. The African struggle is not only directed at changing existing legislation; it is a struggle in which we seek to reassert our own narrative and reclaim our humanity” (Ekine, 87) “Even as African LGBT people have become the site of struggle between competing but related narratives and as the associated tensions push against each other in internally divisive ways, it is essential they engage on their own terms, with the national and international, and continue to explore the challenges of a transformative politic” (Ekine, 90). General Questions: 1) How is Okparanta’s novel intervening in these competing narratives? Does her novel help reclaim Nigerian queer humanity in the face of imperialist narratives about queer Africa? 2) Homi Bhabha, in his preface to Franz Fanon’s Black Skin White Masks, argues that "the state of emergency is also always a state of emergence." How can we think of national emergency and war as leading to certain new possibilities (or changes) in the novel? How does war impact the domestic life of Ijeoma’s family? How does a state of national emergency foster emergence in Okparanta’s narrative? Discussion Questions (chapters 1- 11):
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