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For your final essay, begin by mentally posing an interpretive question about a specific topic, section, or problem that is explored in 1984 and respond to it analytically by articulating the answer to your question in the form of an assertion, showing your readers where and how the text of the novel supports, explains, or clarifies your analysis.   (This is not a plot summary or book report.)  Look for a question that you have that might lead to differences in opinion among your audience (think about a college literary journal or the school newspaper) and offers readers new, creative, and original insights into the story and/or our place in the world.    The answer to your question is your thesis.   Your task in this assignment is not to discover the right way to interpret the text, but to explain your very focused way of reading one aspect of it or to explain one very particular insight.   That is, think about how you can participate in the knowledge-making process and add to the intellectual conversation in some way. 
Your essay topic is up to you, but you should offer an insightful, complex response in the form of a very narrow thesis that is thoroughly and thoughtfully developed.   Some topics that students have approached in the past include surveillance and social media and its connection to the novel, Winston’s conceptualization of beauty, Julia’s political ideology,  the inherent malleability of human beings, and the use of hate and deflection as propaganda.  Or, you might make a connection between the novel and something that is happening in the United States right now.  It is easy to think about the practices in the novel as methods that might occur somewhere else in the world (i.e. North Korea, China, etc), but think more about current events in our culture (i.e. hate and division, surveillance, Covid, elections, misinformation and disinformation, social media, and fake news, etc.) and then comment on the connection and its significance.   But, you must also remember that you must offer support from the text and other reliable/verifiable sources if necessary.   Remember that, ultimately, the essay is about the book, and you must stay close to the text.  
It is up to you to come up with your own assertion based on your own insight.   Be as narrow and precise as possible; then, drill down for real depth —real substance.      
Regardless of your approach, keep your commentary grounded in the text.  Remember that your essay needs to be about the book, not just a topic mentioned in the book.  And, you must refer to passages in the text to support your analysis.   
** Avoid long quotes.   Remember that best practices include paraphrase and embedded / partial quotes.   
** Do not offer any more plot summary than is absolutely necessary to support your thesis. 
** Use passages from the text and personal examples from your life and the world you live in to support your assertion.   
Final essays should be at least 3 pages in length.   
One more final note.   There is a lot of information about this book on the internet (and I have seen most of it).   Do not be tempted to use the internet to inform your essay.   Even if you do not use quotes, ideas that you find on the internet demand proper attribution.   Failure to do so is considered plagiarism of ideas (which results in an F for the entire course).   You have worked very, very hard this semester.   Do not compromise your efforts by turning to the internet to get ideas or materials for this essay.   One of the biggest lessons that college should teach is the ability and willingness to trust ourselves and our ideas.   Do your best work and be proud of your contribution.   

1. Portfolio cover letter
The portfolio cover letter demonstrates who you are as a reader and writer to your reader. The cover letter should be 250-500 words long (about a page or two) and it can be addressed to your future writing instructor if you would like. The content of your cover letter should include the following:
Identify your strengths and areas for improvement as a writer using evidence from the work contained in the rest of the portfolio. For example, if you think that one of your strengths is clear and concise language, then you should quote and analyze example sentences from your major writing projects that would demonstrate that language. You may be tempted to write an overly positive cover letter, but your failures and areas for improvement are just as important to recognize as your success. You do not need to argue that you are a perfect writer now (that is an academic myth anyway), but if there are any aspects of your writing that you want to improve upon, make sure to quote examples from your work as well.
Establish goals for how you want to continue to develop as a writer, academically and personally.
Explain how you will use what you’ve learned in this class about critical thinking, reading, and writing in other academic, professional, and personal situations (for example, how will you apply what you’ve learned in this class to other classes in your major or in your workplace).
2. Major writing projects 
Your portfolio should include the following:
Your submission for Writing Projects 1, 2, and 3, with instructor’s comments if possible (you can download PDFs of your Projects with instructor’s comments from the Grades page). You DO NOT need to include the assignment prompts.
These submissions will help contextualize the portfolio revision letters, and you can also use excerpts from your writing projects as evidence in your reflective cover letter.
3. Revision letters for all major writing projects
For each of the major writing projects that you include in the portfolio, you will write a 250-500 word revision letter to accompany each major writing project (a total of 3 revision letters, so at least 750 words total for this portion). In your revision letter, you should:
Explain the strengths and weaknesses of your initial submission by addressing your instructor feedback, peer feedback, and your own assessment now that you have developed as a writer. You should also explain HOW you utilized that feedback and how that impacted your writing process.
Explain how you would rewrite this assignment now. You will not actually need to revise your writing project, but you will need to explain in detail what changes you would make based on your draft’s strengths and weaknesses and what effect these changes would have on the draft. For example, if you think that the topic of Writing Project 1 was not engaging to the reader, you would explain in detail why the topic was not engaging, what your new topic would be, and why this new topic would be an improvement.
If for whatever reason you did NOT turn in a writing project, you can still describe your learning and writing process and discuss how you would approach the project differently.