Final Paper and Portfolio

Final paper and portfolio requirements:

Your final paper and portfolio are due no later than 5 p.m. Monday, May 9. Late work will be docked 10 percent for each day it is late and no work will be taken after Wednesday, May 11.

Portfolio Requirements:

• rough draft and revision of your memoir

• rough draft and revision of your personal reported essay

• rough draft and revision of your lyric essay

• One page of writing that discusses the revisions you made to your pieces and how it incorporated the feedback you received in critique and your own understanding of the elements of creative nonfiction.

Final Paper:

• 800-1,000 words

• follows MLA style

You have two options for your paper:

Option No. 1 Craft Analysis of Creative Nonfiction Techniques

Analyze Malcolm’s use of two elements of creative nonfiction, with cited examples from the text as well as use of our critical readings to bolster your examples of the types of creative nonfiction and their importance in the text.

Option No. 2: Critical Analysis of the Issues of Nonfiction

Discuss, with a thesis, the issues and concerns raised in The Journalist and the Murderer as it relates to the reporting and writing of nonfiction, using secondary sources to bolster your argument.

Here are some secondary sources that may be helpful:

Joe McGinniss website (includes a response to Janet MacDonald)

Jeffrey MacDonald CNN piece

Legal Roundtable on the Jeffrey MacDonald case

Pro-MacDonald website with legal history

Paris Review interview with Janet Malcolm