English Composition 102 / Professor O'Shaughnessy  Tags: assignments composition  

ENGLISH 102-90
Research Paper
Fall 2009

I.    DEADLINES:

Thursday, Apr. 1st: TOPIC & THESIS STATEMENT (Eight- to ten-sentence paragraph describing your topic and explaining your argument)

Thursday, Apr. 15th: ANNOTATED BIBLIOGRAPHY (Informal list of sources including three- to four-sentence descriptions of each: what they are and how you plan to use them.  Be sure that you not only get the requisite number of sources, but also an appropriate variety of them: critical essays, historical accounts, biographies, reference books, magazine and newspaper articles, etc.  NOTE: Though you need FIVE sources OTHER THAN THE TEXT, OTHER works by your author or authors DO count.)

Thursday, Apr. 29th:    ROUGH DRAFT (5-7 pages, titled, double-spaced, with inch-wide margins, citations, and a Works Cited page)

Tuesday, May 11th:    FINAL DRAFT

II.    ASSIGNMENT:

    Choose any of the authors or selections on the syllabus and make an argument about them using not only the relevant texts themselves, but related scholarly research materials as well.  Though your paper will necessarily include background information germane to your chosen work’s CONTEXT, your argument should focus on the TEXT itself AS A PIECE OF WRITING – its composition/reception history, rhetorical strategies, cultural significance, immediate impact, future influence, etc. (i.e., no plot summaries, biographies, history lessons, or book reviews).

III.    GUIDELINES:

    You will need at least FIVE sources OTHER THAN THE TEXT, TWO of which MUST be BOOKS.  Both your citations and Works Cited page should follow MLA guidelines (to be described in further detail later).  When in doubt about procedural matters, refer to the handouts distributed in class.  When in doubt about research, consult me for general suggestions and any of the reference librarians for specific technical advice.   

IV.     SAMPLES:

King, “Letter from Birmingham Jail”:
research the real-life events that prompted the writing of the letter and analyze the effects of its publication.  Describe not only the history of the civil rights movement and its philosophy of non-violent protest, but also how King’s rhetoric exemplified them.  This would involve doing some biographical research (about King), some historical research (about his movement), and perhaps some critical research as well (about his use of rhetoric in speeches and print alike).  Then, you would make an argument about what role THIS PARTICULAR PIECE OF WRITING played in THAT PARTICULAR MOVEMENT -- in essence, put the TEXT in CONTEXT. 

Blake, “The Chimney Sweeper”: after looking at historical material and the analyses of other critics and literary biographers, as well as a handful of other poems, present an argument about how Blake’s views about his society are realized in his poetry. 
(Alternately, do the same thing with Bambara, Cisneros, or Cofer and their attitudes by analyzing some of their other work.  Finally, you could do some combination.)

Hughes, “Harlem”: by inquiring into the history of the Harlem Renaissance, his place in it, as well as criticism of his poems, situate the text of his works in the context of his period.  Or discuss how he handled being considered the voice of a race and/or the leader of a movement.

Dickinson, “She Rose to His Requirement”: use biography and criticism to argue for correspondences between the great poet’s life as a female recluse and the dominant themes of her work.  The same kind of life-art correlations could be drawn using Plath, Tan, Hemingway, or Joyce (in the first two cases, you would need to offer additional poems as sources, and in last three, additional stories).

Orwell, “Shooting an Elephant”: using background material about the British imperial presence in Burma, analyze Orwell’s views on the subject as he represents them through storytelling.  Alternately, compare how he realizes his political views here with how he does so in another of his famous works, such as the novels Animal Farm and 1984.

Hansberry, A Raisin in the Sun: describe the play as a literary, theatrical, and cultural phenomenon by presenting it in the larger context of its time and place.  This might involve not only critical interpretations and general historical materials, but perhaps even contemporary reviews and interviews with the author.

NOTE: YOU ARE NOT REQUIRED OR EVEN ENCOURAGED TO CHOOSE FROM AMONG THE ABOVE TOPICS, MERELY TO USE THEM AS MODELS FOR DESIGNING YOUR OWN.  IF YOU WOULD LIKE TO USE ONE, HOWEVER, BE MY GUEST.  OTHERWISE, PLEASE BE IN TOUCH WITH ME ABOUT WHAT YOU HAVE IN MIND, OR JUST FOR OTHER POSSIBLE SUGGESTIONS. 

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