Documented Essay on August Wilson “Fences”
Requirements: 5 pages plus a Work Cited page; 4 sources, at least one of which must be a library resource (book, reference

work, journal article, etc.), 3 may be from Approaching Literature. Also an ANNOTATED BIBLIOGRAPHY PAGE FOR ALL THE 4

SOURCES.
Paper assignment: Although this assignment asks to do outside reading, the main task remains the same: to produce an argument of your own about one or more literary texts. The outside sources are meant to help you develop and deepen your

own interpretation of the literature, not to substitute for it.
This essay is not a traditional research report where you just write down all the facts you can find about your topic.
The central claim should be your own, not a summary of what your sources argue; your own ideas and analysis should shape

the paper, while your sources will provide the evidence to support your claims.
Textbook Approaching Literature features “author in depth” sections that include literary criticism and “author in depth”

section, consider how the secondary sources (criticism, info about the author, etc. ) affect your understanding of the

primary literature (August Wilson’s play).
The goal of this paper should be to make an argument about the literature that can be supported by the information in the

secondary sources. You need to have at least one library source, in addition to the source in the book, so think about

what you would like to know more about and what could help you better understand the literature.
Here are some ways that research can help you develop an argument about literature:
1. Research political, historical, or social events as they impact the literature. (Maybe this one would be better to use

for this paper)
2. Research information about the author’s life and explain how knowing this information affects your understanding of his

or her work.