Analytical Essay

For the second assignment of the quarter, you will write an analytical essay that attempts to answer the question, “what is humanities writing?” The basis of our reading will be Catherine Liu’s Virtue Hoarders: The Case Against the Professional Managerial Class? While the text, of course, cannot stand in for all humanities writing, it displays many of the features of humanities writing and can serve as a useful text to teach us about the concerns, methods, and features of humanities writing, particularly humanities writing that takes up issues of social class and capitalism.
Importantly, this is not a paper asking you to respond to or evaluate the argument of Liu’s book. Neither is this a standard academic essay asking you to develop an argument and defend it throughout the essay. Rather, I am asking that you respond to the following five questions about the text. Each answer should be a well-constructed paragraph or set of paragraphs with a topic sentence and textual references. In each paragraph, point to two or more specific examples from the text that can support the claim of your topic sentence. These examples should be properly cited. The length of each paragraph may vary.
Questions:

How does this text construct and evidence arguments? Be as specific as possible.
How does Liu analyze or “read” the various examples (To Kill a Mockingbird, children, etc.) she uses to make her point? What is her approach?
How does the text understand the concept of class and how does it frame class as a problem?
Understanding that this is only just one book, what does this text tell us about what humanities writing is and what it can do?
What is the significance, importance, relevance, or value of the text (if any) given the contemporary political and social climate?