The Crucible and how Abigail Williams is to blame for the Salem witch trials

To practice critical, analytical thinking through the medium of writing, you will perform a text wrestling analysis and synthesize your findings in an essay driven by a central, unifying insight presented as a thesis and supported by evidence.

Assignment
First, you will determine which text it is that you’d like to analyze. Your teacher might provide a
specific text or set of texts to choose from, or they may allow you to choose your own.

1) If your teacher assigns a specific text, follow the steps in the next section.

2) If your teacher assigns a set of texts to choose from, read each of them once. Then, narrow it down by asking yourself,

  • a. Which texts were most striking or curious? Which raised the most questions for you as a reader?
  • b. How do the texts differ from one another in content, form, voice, and genre?
  • c. Which seem like the “best written”? Why?
  • d. Which can you relate to personally?

Try to narrow down to two or three texts that you particularly appreciate. Then try to determine which of these will help you write the best close reading essay possible.
Follow the steps from #1 once you’ve determined your focus text.

3) If your teacher allows you to choose any text you want, they probably did so because they want you to choose a text that means a lot to you personally.

  • a. Consider first what medium (e.g., prose, film, music, etc.) or genre (e.g., essay, documentary, Screamo) would be most appropriate and exciting, keeping in mind any restrictions your teacher might have set.
  • b. Then, brainstorm what topics seem relevant and interesting to you.
  • c. Finally, try to encounter at least three or four different texts so you can test the waters.

Now that you’ve chosen a focus text, you should read it several times using the active reading
strategies contained in this section and the appendix. Consider what parts are contributing to
the whole text, and develop an analytical perspective about that relationship. Try to articulate this analytical perspective as a working thesis—a statement of your interpretation which you will likely revise in some way or another. (You might also consider whether a specific critical lens seems relevant or interesting to your analysis.)

Part 2 Assignment
Next, you will write a 250–word proposal indicating which text you’ve chosen, what your working thesis is, and why you chose that text and analytical perspective. (This will help keep your teacher in the loop on your process and encourage you to think through your approach before writing.)
Finally, draft a text wrestling essay that analytically explores some part of your text using the strategies detailed in this section. Your essay will advance an interpretation that will

  • a) help your audience understand the text differently (beyond basic plot/comprehension); and/or
  • b) help your audience understand our world differently, using the text as a tool to illuminate the human experience.

Keep in mind, you will have to re–read your text several times to analyze it well and compile
evidence. Consider forming a close reading discussion group to unpack your text collaboratively
before you begin writing independently.

Your essay should be thesis–driven and will include quotes, paraphrases, and summary from the original text as evidence to support your points. Be sure to revise at least once before submitting your final draft.

Although you may realize as you evaluate your rhetorical situation, this kind of essay often values Standardized Edited American English, a dialect of the English language. Among other things, this entails a polished, “academic” tone. Although you need not use a thesaurus to find all the fanciest words, your voice should be less colloquial than in a descriptive personal narrative