Approach Paper ???

[Heathermomster]

While perusing EIL, I have discovered the approach paper and have never heard of it. Neither has DH. Mind you, we graduated in the 1990s in STEM fields. Today, spoke with my niece who is a sophomore at Marymount University, and she's never heard of this style of paper either.

 

I realize this is used for literary analysis. Does the approach paper go by other names in different academic settings? We are just trying to figure out when this style of writing came about and whether it is worth our time. Thank-you, H

[Maureen]

I have only seen this style of paper in this book. That said, I do think it has merit. I've had my girls use either the Approach paper or her version of the Literary Summary for most of the novels they've read. I think you get out of an Approach paper what you put into it. Writing only essay questions and not the answers could lead some students to write lame or ridiculously difficult essay questions without putting much thought into them. I really like the Key Quotation and response. You could certainly tweek this to fit your goals, but I do think the assignment can be beneficial.

[Candid]

I had to look it up, to be honest, this strikes me as an overall waste of time. I think finding a key passage, thinking about possible questions is good, but to call it a "paper" is silly.

 

SWB suggests something different for a pre-discussion paper: a literary response paper. I'd suggest looking at that instead.

[Heathermomster]

I had to look it up, to be honest, this strikes me as an overall waste of time. I think finding a key passage, thinking about possible questions is good, but to call it a "paper" is silly.

 

SWB suggests something different for a pre-discussion paper: a literary response paper. I'd suggest looking at that instead.

 

Thank-you Ladies.