This is a short homework assignment for you to complete before our next meeting.

1) Post a title for your midterm paper that sums up the topic of your paper, including the title and author of the work you're analyzing.

Example: Clown Noses and Big Shoes as Metaphors in Bozo's "Tears of a Clown"

(Remember: you don't put your own title in quotation marks in your paper.)

2) In one or two sentences, sum up the thesis of your paper.

Example: Contrary to conventional wisdom, big red noses and floppy size 40 clodhoppers are not simply humorous devices in Bozo's epic poem "Tears of a Clown." Actually, if we read his poem as an ironic lamentation of the lonely existence of clowns, we see that these shoes and noses are actually metaphors that point to the poem's true meaning.)