- Research papers will have a body of seven to ten (7-10) pages and will not divide the paper into sections under section headings.
- Outline and Works Cited pages are required but are NOT part of the page count. DO NOT include a title page.
- All pages will be submitted as a single document, not separate files.
- At least 5 literary sources (those that comment upon the novel) MUST BE CITED within the essay. Read the details in the next section regarding the types of sources allowed.
- The novel itself MUST BE CITED within the essay to provide examples of your points.
- Quotations must be used sparingly–no more than 25% of the essay should come from sources. Avoid lengthy quotes or running quotations back to back.
- Works Cited page entries must use MLA 8th edition. Be sure to look for 8th edition if you consult an online source for help with MLA citations.
- This is not a history paper or a biography of the author.
- Use third person only.
- Literary essays use present tense.
- Do not define literary terms in the essay. Your audience is assumed to be familiar with them.
- MLA format is required. Sections/section headings will not be used. Topic sentence and transitions should be used instead to move your reader through the essay.
- The level of diction should be formal (no slang, contractions, jargon, or technical terms without definition).
- Drafts will be returned with commentary. Address the necessary revisions in your final copy. Simply fixing grammatical errors will not be enough.
- Late points will accrue at 10 points per day for the final copy.
- Grading will be based on form, grammar, mechanics, content, and documentation.
- Students are welcome email the instructor to discuss particular questions regarding this assignment at any time. Students are also encouraged to post questions to each other regarding the research paper or format on the Discussion Board.
PLAGIARISM: Each student is responsible for constructing a research paper based on his/her own idea about a topic. Borrowed material–whether paraphrased or cited word for word–must be scrupulously documented. Plagiarism is a serious offense and will result in an F in the course.
A. Proposed Topic
You will create your own topic within the guidelines noted here. The proposal should be at least one well-developed paragraph stating which topic you have chosen and exactly how you will go about presenting that topic in your essay. Include specific details from the novel that you believe will be relevant for your argument (you must have read the novel BEFORE doing this assignment, but research of critical sources should NOT be done prior to this point). This assignment involves analytical thinking, not research at this point. Research comes later in the process as a way to support what you are already interested in. Researching first to choose someone else’s idea to regurgitate only results in frustration for the student (due to an overwhelming number of sources that you may encounter without having a narrowed idea first) and creates the temptation for plagiarism to occur. The idea that you shape must be your own. Remember, the more specific you can be in your proposal, the more detailed information I can give you about keeping your research on track.
You may be wondering what you should write about. Let’s think about a topic using A Farewell to Arms as an example. You might decide to study characterization. From there, you would need to narrow down–just Catherine? Frederic? Rinaldi and Frederic? just the secondary characters? just the main characters? just the couples? OK, now say you decide to explore the couples in the novel. How do their relationships differ or mirror one another? Why are they necessary to the novel? How do their relationships help, hinder, or reflect the novel’s progress? Answering these questions will bring you closer to a thesis that addresses characterization in some way specific to this novel and specifically regarding a so what point for your essay as a whole.
Consider the following questions ABOUT YOUR ASSIGNED NOVEL as a way of brainstorming a potential topic for your essay:
Is the central character of the novel dynamic? What does he/she learn and how does he/she achieve change?
Consider the tone of the novel. What sets the tone? How does it affect the interpretation of the events in the story?
How important is the setting of the novel? What impact does the setting have on the interpretation of events? If there is more than one setting, how do these settings work together?
Explain the use of symbolism in the novel.
Does the novel convey a moral? If so, how does the author develop the idea?
Are any of the characters foils for one another?
How important are the secondary characters to the novel?
Can particular sets of characters be compared/contrasted (i.e., just the women, certain classes of people, etc.)?
Does irony play a part in the novel?
From what point of view is the story told? Why is it important that this particular POV (or more than one POV) is used?
********TOPICS CANNOT FOCUS ON HOW THIS NOVEL CONNECTS TO SOCIETY TODAY, AS THAT WOULD BE MORE APPROPRIATE FOR A SOCIAL SCIENCES OR HISTORY COURSE. THIS IS A LITERARY ESSAY; THE FOCUS IS THE NOVEL ITSELF.
B. Thesis
The thesis statement you plan to use must control your essay; the thesis is generally one sentence that controls the main idea of the entire essay. The thesis is NOT a statement of intent (“In this essay, I will . . . ” is a statement of intent, for example),nor is the thesis a statement of fact (The author uses symbolism in Fahrenheit 451). Instead, the thesis is an argument to be proven or supported, as noted at http://libguides.uta.edu/c.php?g=517839&p=3592550 . Your thesis must be approved by the instructor prior to the submission of your paper.
A thesis WILL NOT include statements like “The author uses ______ to give meaning to, to help the reader understand better, to appeal to readers, etc.”. We cannot know the author’s intentions for the reader specifically; mentioning these kinds of things provide only opinion, and this paper will focus on an objective argument instead. If you find the symbolism interesting and think it gives more meaning to the novel, ask yourself what that meaning is. Doing so can lead to a connection between symbolism and theme–and the basis of a thesis. In addition, AVOID statements like, “The novel wouldn’t be the same without _____.” Any novel and any literary device could complete that statement; it’s agiven, as is saying that comics would not be the same without (pick any superhero to insert here).
C. Outline
Following the pattern for a formal MLA outline in any grammar handbook, at MLA Outline — HCC Learning Web (hccs.edu) , or at the Purdue OWL site, you will organize your ideas for developing the research paper. Each Roman numeral in your outline will reflect a new idea of support for the essay and the outline as a whole will reflect the order of development in your essay. In order to maintain proper MLA format, this assignment will need to be saved as yourlastnameOUTLINE and submitted as an attachment in messages.
D. Annotated Bibliography
- The Annotated Bibliography is a PREVIEW of the required FIVE critical sources you might use for the final draft of the research paper (it is NOT the same as a Works Cited page, which lists ONLY the works actually used in the paper and does so WITHOUT annotation). This will help me evaluate the course of your research and help you to choose the most appropriate resources.
- Finding Sources: This is a literary research paper; it will NOT be appropriate to do internet searches, as those will generally turn up papermills that sell research papers, bloggers who spout their opinions, and webpages created by high school English classes. In other words, sources ending in .com are not going to work for this assignment. You can use Google Scholar, Jurn, and the CTC Library online to access databases. Your best bet is to access CTC’s library from your portal page. Once in the library’s site, go to Off Campus Computer/Online Databases to access useful search engines like EBSCO and Literature Online. Gale Databases are also useful, as are Masterfile and Academic Search Premier.
***Gale is a database that focuses on literary research and allows you to choose just critical analysis essays, as well. This is very useful in separating biographical/summary information from the useful stuff.
- All research must be literary criticism, the kind of writing that comments upon your novel. Sources that give author biography or summary of the novel will not work for this assignment. You may also go to a traditional library and review collections of essays regarding the novel or reference material (journals like Contemporary Literary Criticism, for example). Any sources gathered from databases such as these will count toward the number of print sources, as they originally appeared in print; citing, however, will still need to reflect how they were found online as databases.
- Book reviews are not the same as critical sources; while some reviewers can be critical, their comments usually address the popularity of the work. Avoid using book reviews as critical sources.
- **Encyclopedias, Cliffs Notes, Monarch Notes, Magill’s Surveys, Schmoop, Barron’s Notes, Pink Monkey, Spark Notes, GradeSaver, eNotes, PREZIs, Novel Guides, WIKIPEDIA and any other sources whose primary intent is to summarize information for the reader are not appropriate for this type of paper. Papermills like 123helpme, antiessays, echeat, and the like are also unacceptable sources of information. If you are unsure of your source’s value, please check with the instructor. Be advised that reliable internet sources for literary papers often end in .edu, not .com.
- Blogs are not appropriate sources, as their authors’ backgrounds are unknown.
- The novel WILL NOT be annotated (we are all familiar with that source), but you should include it on the Annotated Bibliography so that you remember to include it with the submission of your final draft’s Works Cited page.
- Definitions of, examples of, and formatting for the MLA Annotated Bibliography can be found at the following website. Following the specific format instructions of the MLA8th edition for each entry, submit your annotated bibliography (including all 5 critical sources AND your novel—no annotation needed for this—as an attachment to your instructor).
Note that this website uses 8th edition of MLA format, as required by this course. You must include the highlighted information in each annotation:
- Brief description/summary of the work cited
- Comments about the work’s usefulness or quality, usually including attention to one or more of the following features:
- the scope or relevance of the work
- the intended audience
- the author’s credibility or expertise
- the work’s relationship to other works in the area of study
Review this video to see how to basically format an annotated bibliography.
- Once your sources have been approved and actually used in your research paper, the Annotated Bibliography will be edited and submitted as the Works Cited page for your final draft. The final Works Cited page will contain a minimum of FIVE sources derived from appropriate books, periodicals, the internet, etc. Each of these sources must be used at least once in the paper to be included in the final Works Cited page. Do not forget to include your primary source (the novel you are researching) on your works cited page, although it does not count as one of the five required critical sources.
In order to maintain proper MLA format, this assignment will need to be saved as yourlastnameBIB and submitted as an attachment in messages.
E. The Draft
Do not consider the draft a rough draft. Submit the draft as though it is the last copy I will see, even though you will have the chance to make corrections after I return the annotated draft to you. Submitting a complete, thorough draft gives me plenty of material to work with and provides you with solid feedback for making revisions. The draft should be submitted with all its components in a single file—outline, essay, Works Cited page. Name the draft yourlastnameResDraft and Save As Rich Text Format before submitting.
Drafts will include your own analysis, as well as cited material from the text AND your critical sources in support of the argument. Do not cite summary from a critical source. As the reader, you are capable of summarizing the primary source’s plot or an event on your own. Critical sources should ANALYZE your primary source; therefore, you should be citing analytical material, not summary. Also, do not run quotations back to back or use large chunks of quoted material, as that limits your voice in the discussion. If you must use a quotation that covers four or more lines of text in your paper, be sure to properly block it according to MLA format.
F. The Final Copy
Review ALL guidelines before submitting and complete the ENGL 1302 Revision checklist.docx
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