Length: 2-3 pages
Format: Word document (.doc or .docx) typed, double spaced, numbered pages, inch margins, 12pt font
1. Read the article, “Stuff Psychologists Like – #1. Diagnosing Fictional Characters” by Jared DeFife, Ph.D.
2. Refer to the Word document containing a list of links to psychological conditions from the Psychology Today website and read the entries for selected conditions
Annie is dealing with inner turmoil. Pretend you are her psychologist and the novel are the notes you have taken from her weekly counseling sessions. In a thesis-driven essay, “diagnose” Annie John as having one (and only one) of the listed psychological conditions. Include specific incidents, Annie’s narration, dialogue between Annie and other characters and/or patterns of behavior you observed throughout the book in your analysis.
It is certainly possible that your diagnosis could contain features of other conditions, but choose the one you think she is dealing with primarily. It is always better to go into depth with your subject matter than say too little about several subtopics.
Because the class is working from the same research sources, there is no need to do in-text citations or a works cited page. However, the rules for paraphrasing and quoting do apply. If you use information from the Psychology Today entries in your paper, (which you most likely will) those sections must be paraphrased in your own words or put in quotation marks.
Guidelines
Your introduction/thesis paragraph should give a brief 2-3-sentence summary of Annie John giving the name of the book (in italics per MLA format) and the name of the author. It should be followed with your “diagnosis” and a statement of why the evidence you have gathered from the book supports that diagnosis.
Your body paragraphs should follow this basic format:
1. Choose a specific moment in the text—a plot point or dialogue, for example.
2. Say what is happening during those specific moments in the text. In other words, give the context.
3. Show how that moment in in the text supports your thesis.
This will be done in one paragraph or a series of paragraphs.
Summarize as little as possible! Only give enough of a summary so that the reader knows what part of the text you are talking about in a given paragraph/series of paragraphs.
Quoted material must be set up, meaning that before you offer a quote from the text you must, again, give the context of that quote. Otherwise, the quote sounds “plugged in” and leaves the reader wondering what the connection is between the quoted material and either the paragraph your writing or the essay as a whole.
Your conclusion should restate the big ideas of the essay without repeating the introduction word for word. What are the final thoughts from your essay do you want to leave the reader with?