Humanities Homework Help

As a capstone to previous assignments, you will write the first chapter of a detective story by assembling and appraising the information gained from comparing and contrasting different detectives and their characters and methods of detecting, from the discovery, analysis, and evaluation of clues (the Whodunit essay), from interpreting and analyzing the use of cultural context to create meaning in a detective story, and from integrating your own personal experiences into the creation of a detective and a crime/crime scene. 

Description of Assignment: 

Now that we have studied different components of detective fiction, including the characters, settings, tone, genre as well as the culture which influences these stories and their setting, I invite you to create your own detective with a crime to solve. As you have noticed, a detective story usually begins with a description of the detective and his introduction to the crime. Write the first chapter –  five to eight (5-8) pages of your detective story. 

Decide which subgenre you prefer – cozy or hardboiled? Include a description of the detective, his/her setting, and the cultural context. Is s/he professional or amateur? urban? Rural? Present day? Past? American? Other nationality? Will s/he be ratiocinative or intuitive? Be generous with details. 

Then introduce your detective and the crime to be solved with its crime scene. You will have to get a lot of information into these pages, so choose your words carefully for maximum meaning. Writers do best when they write what they know, so take advantage of any special cultural or professional information you are familiar with. For example, I have lived in Paris for several years, so I might set my story in Paris with an (amateur) detective who is a visiting professor at the Sorbonne. I’ll choose cozy as my subgenre, so the tone, mood, characterization, and setting will all reflect this aesthetic in a cloistered academic building. And then I’ll introduce one more character, the murder and crime scene, and circumstances surrounding its discovery, and perhaps even a description of who the victim is. As I describe the setting, I will be sure to weave into the story a cultural issue that appeals to me or has affected me in some way, let’s say the weight of student debt and how that pressure might provoke someone to do something drastic like murder. 

Checklist to self-assess assignment: This is not a creative writing course, so your assignment will be assessed by your inclusion of essential elements of a detective story. A checklist that includes the following criteria with three levels will be used, indicating the degree of success: achieved (4 points), emerging (3 points), minimal (2 points) or absent (0) for a total of 24 points. 

1. Clear establishment of subgenre through various characteristics – cozy or hardboiled
2. Description of detective
3. Introduction to methods the detective uses to detect clues and in analyze the crime or crime scene
4. Introduction of a cultural issue at play
5. Portrayal of secondary characters (one or two, no more)
6. Description of setting and cultural issue at play