Instructions
For this Essay, your job is to compare and contrast how two of the short stories
that we have read represent issues of microaggressions and what the stories
seem to say about the issue of racism or sexism in a deeper sense. Your goal is
not simply to show how they are similar or different from each other but to take a
position on whether their approach is beneficial or whether it distracts from the issues
they depict. Do the stories, for example, clarify some aspect of the issue of
microaggressions either showing why they are important or why they distraction from
deeper racial issues? Or do the stories misrepresent microaggressions pushing a
misleading political agenda? Are both stories equally effective/ineffective, or does one
story do a better job of giving insight into the issue while the other just muddies the
waters?
Story Pairings
PIck TWO of the following stories to compare and contrast in your essay:

1. “The Politics of the Quotidian Actions by Caille Millner.
2. Omakase by Weike Wang.
3. “Boys Go to Jupiter Actions,” by Danielle Evans. For the censored version, go
4. “Control Negro ,” by Jocelyn Nicole Johnson,
   Goals
   The goals of this assignment are:
5. To give you practice in looking at how stories deal with social issues.
6. To re-enforce your knowledge of close-reading and observation.
7. To build your researching skills in the context of literature.
   Remember that your goal is not just to point out similarities and differences about the
   short stories but to make an argument for whether the way the stories present
   microaggression is insightful or misleading. So don’t simply point out superficial aspects
   of the stories like “they both have female protagonists,” but focus on things that are
   relevant to the issue at hand: “While Story 1 shows how it is difficult to disentangle
   racism from sexism, Story 2 shows how we can take part in racism even when we do
   not have the intent to uphold racist ideas.”
   Further Guidelines
   When you write your essay, be sure the final draft includes the following:
   ● Introduction: An introduction that sets the stage for the essay.
   ● Thesis: A thesis should have an insightful point to make about how the
   stories treat microaggressions or racism. Ideally you essay should
   point something out that the average reader doesn’t get from a first
   reading of the stories.
   ● Your Audience: Think of your reader as someone else who has already read
   the stories but hasn’t given them much thought. Your goal is to show them
   something that they wouldn’t have already noticed on such an initial reading.
   ● Insightful Points: An essay that is clearly organized and that does more than
   just make a series of unrelated points. An “A” essay will allow the reader to
   have a deeper understanding of the stories or some aspect of the stories
   having to do with how they represent microaggressions.
   ● Topic focused paragraphs: Your topic sentences and transitions should clearly
   identify the main point of individual paragraphs. Your body paragraphs should
   not consist of two long paragraphs, one about one story and the other about
   the other story. You must identify individual points about the stories that you
   are analyzing. (Don’t write: “There are microaggressions in the first story.”
   Write something like: “Although this story also shows how microaggressions
   work, in this story it is often hard to tell if the microaggressions are due to
   race or due to gender. The author seems to want to point out that these two
   aspects work together in microaggressions and that trying to parse out how
   much is due to one versus the other is a fool’s errand.”)
   ● Analyze don’t summarize: Assume you are writing to someone who has read
   the story but not thought too much about it. You don’t need to retell the story,
   you just need to focus in on the details that are most pertinent to your
   analysis as evidence for the points you are making.
   ● Support: Support for your points in the form of clear and specific evidence
   from the work you are using. This means you will use quotes effectively
   following MLA conventions.
   ● Include a Works Cited list that includes the short stories and, should
   you decide to include secondary sources in your analysis, the
   secondary sources you use. (This is not required nor recommended.
   The stories themselves and what I placed in the modules should be
   enough.)
   Grading Criteria: Your essay will be graded according to its insight, clarity, logic, and
   attention to detail.
   Length: Approximately 1500 to 1800 words.
   Checklists!!
   Essay Checklist: Make Sure You Are Really Ready to
   Upload Your Essay
   Make sure your essay includes the following:
8. Your essay starts with an introduction that introduces the
   topic–micro-aggressions–and the 2 stories you have chosen to analyze.
9. You have a thesis at the end of your introduction (first paragraph). Your thesis
   is on the first page and summarizes how microaggressions contrast and/or
   work similarly in the stories you are analyzing.
10. Your essay effectively explains how aspects of the stories work and what they
    seem to say about microaggressions. [For example, does one story do a
    better job of explaining how microaggressions work while the other actually
    leaves the reader questioning about whether microaggressions even exist?]
11. Your essay is broken up into body paragraphs (no more than 1 per page)
    which take up one aspect of the stories at a time (e.g., unintentional
    race-based microaggressions in Boys Go to Jupiter).
12. Your essay is organized in a logical way that moves from, for example, the
    more obvious points to the more subtle points.
13. Your body paragraphs all follow the TEAS format.
14. Your body paragraphs all begin with topic sentences that identify and
    evaluate one aspect of the story in your own words (e.g., body positioning).
15. You incorporate quotes from the stories to back up your point (e.g., you quote
    from “Omakase” to show how microaggressions can also occur between
    ethnic groups that are often grouped together by the majority culture).
16. Your evidence section doesn’t just retell the stories–the points should all be
    supporting the point of the topic sentences.
    10.You connect the evidence back to your topic sentence and redirect your point.
17. Your essay has a final concluding paragraph where you emphasize how the
    point that you are making about the way the stories present
    microaggressionst.
    12.Your essay is in MLA format
    13..
    14.Your quotes are formatted clearly and effectively.
    15.Your works cited includes both the stories you used and the texts from which
    you quoted.