Using the short story you will be writing about for Paper 3, write a 2-page explication, due in class on October 11th.
When writing explications about short stories (which are long compared to most poems!), it's tempting to take on large amounts of the text or even the whole story and address sweeping themes. However, that is not the point of an explication (see "What is an Explication?"). Choose 1-3 paragraphs and focus on them for your explication. While your analysis should be confined to these paragraphs, make sure to connect their meaning to the overall meaning of the story as well; ask "how does this passage function within the larger story?"
Your explication should be double-spaced and formatted according to MLA (Modern Language Association) style. You can find more about MLA style at the Purdue University Online Writing Lab's Web page on Using MLA Format.