Your research and writing will focus solely on a specific issue raised by that author or, in the case of literature, an issue raised by a scholar who has studied the author you are reading.  Additionally, for literature, you do not need to focus solely on the stories or poems; you may, if you choose, focus on a social or other issue that is raised in those literary works. In other words, your final critical essay may not be specifically about the author or his or her work but about a topic of interest that is generated when you read that author.

· A 3-4 page essay in which you write a short survey of the author’s work or the specific field the author is a part of. Who is this person and what has s/he contributed to his or her field and why is it important? Do not focus on biography. Instead, focus on the specific works the author wrote and why they are important.