ABSTRACT
Throughout their coursework in literary and cultural studies, most students will write numerous research essays. Although instructors assign various other tests and tasks over a semester, many classes culminate with a research project for which students must generate a complex interpretation and analysis of a poem, novel, play, or other cultural text. In contrast to less structured assignments, such as freewriting and response papers, essays allow writers to present their ideas formally and to explicate in detail their interpretations of a literary work. Most essays also incorporate research on their subjects so that authors can demonstrate a deep understanding of the issues raised by their analyses, as well as their understanding of ongoing critical discussions surrounding these topics. Essays are also termed argumentative writing, not because they must contentiously assert their positions and vanquish a real or imagined foe, but because they put forth a unique interpretation, or argument, about their subjects.
