Write an argumentative research paper (15-20 pages) about one of the books on
our syllabus. Use the primary text
and secondary sources to support your argument.
The essay should be an interpretive argument supported by textual
evidence and your own reasoning as you have written for other English classes,
but it should have a larger scope than those essays and be more fully developed with secondary
sources.
Formulating
a Topic
To begin the process, select a book that interests you from our syllabus. You
may choose the same book on which you made your presentation, but if you do,
consider connecting the presentation book to another work (on or off the
syllabus) so that you don't get bored. You don't have to select a book until
FEBRUARY 6 so take time to read through the books on the syllabus, talk to
classmates who are researching them for their presentations, or talk to me about
particular books/ideas.
Once you have selected a book, read it carefully.
Keep track of questions that arise as you read or problems or patterns
that recur. Connect the book to
other reading you've done for other classes.
You may see how a writer deals with an issue/theme in a similar way as an
author you have read before.
After a week or two of reading and annotating, begin
to isolate the questions that interest you most.
Make sure the questions are interpretive/argumentative and not
just questions that lead you to a fact-based, purely historical kind of paper
(i.e., not what geographical landmarks are present in Lyrical Ballads?
but how does Wordsworth transform geographical landmarks for a
particular political purpose?). Look
for connections among your questions, and begin to speculate about some possible
answers for your questions. Isolate
your questions into several clusters that could lead to full-fledged research
papers.
While you're annotating in this fashion or
after you've finished, begin to look at secondary materials.
Consider whether other critics have the same questions/concerns that you
have. How do you fit into the
critical conversation about the book? Do
critics have readings that fit with your readings?
Might you spin your reading in a different way or expand in a different
direction? Make sure that you do
not go in the exact direction that another critic does—there's no point in
trying to write a paper that has already been written.
Also keep careful track of which thoughts are yours and which ones belong to the
critics you're reading. I expect you to use the ideas of other
critics, but you must make sure to give them credit when you do.
After you've read and thought
about the book and the secondary articles carefully, you must take the most
difficult step: choose a preliminary topic.
Talk to me and your peers to help gauge how promising your topic might
be. You might consider writing a
discovery draft in which you write through your idea, noting gaps in your
argument as you go, but mostly just trying to see where the topic takes you.
Settling on a topic is generally the most difficult step.
Prospectus & Outline
Once you've settled on a topic, you will write a prospectus to explain your
project.
A prospectus is a proposal (around 750-1000 words in length) that narrows a
field of inquiry, selects a topic, a title, and a stance (audience, thesis,
critical approach to material) and conveys in concrete terms the importance of
the project in creating new knowledge out of your analysis and research.
You should include:
- A tentative title for your paper.
The title should define the topical area and imply a stance. You might take a look at titles of articles on your subject
as found in the MLAIB.
- Context and background.
This section of the prospectus gives the reader a relevant frame of
reference (context) within which to understand your project as meaningful
and important. Often this
involves describing the question or problem you have decided to address, and
if pertinent, summarizing criticism that has addressed or failed to
adequately address that question or problem.
Think of this as a way of explaining the place of your work, and the
importance of your point in the critical conversation about your author.
Ex. “While Wordsworth critics have often talked about Freudian
imagery in his poems, few have considered . . . and many have overlooked . .
. .”
- Key terms and definitions, leading
sources. The prospectus
should give evidence of your intentions to define important concept words
and texts necessary for discourse in the field of study (literary criticism
about your author).
- A sense of your thesis, your
strategies, methods. This
is the core of the paper and the prospectus.
What is your main idea, your tentative answer to the question or
solution to a self-posed problem? How
will you organize your paper? How
will you rhetorically argue your thesis?
What critical theories/perspectives will you use?
Submit a tentative outline with your prospectus.
The outline will be a map of where you expect the essay to go.
Know that your prospectus and outline make up a proposal
(not a binding contract) and as such they are flexible.
You may change your thesis completely as you complete further research,
think through your argument, or write through your paper.
Your prospectus gives you a starting point and direction, but you may
(and probably will) change your direction as you write the paper.
Drafting,
Revising, and Editing
After I have approved your prospectus, you will have a few weeks to put
together a rough draft of your project. I
(and your peers) will give you comments, and we will have conversations about
how to improve your drafts. After
we discuss the drafts, you will develop the final product further and spend time
editing and polishing your prose.
Annotated
Bibliography
This project requires you to submit an annotated bibliography with the final
paper. You only need to include
entries for works that you used (from which you've taken ideas or words) for the
paper and not everything you've consulted The
bibliography/works cited should be alphabetized by author.
Notes
As this description hopefully illustrates, writing your research paper will
be like writing other papers you've written in English classes except that it
will be longer and you will have done more research to produce your argument.
Here are some basic guidelines/warnings:
- You
should drive the essay, not your research.
You must formulate a preliminary thesis, preliminary outline, and
prospectus before
you begin drafting seriously. This
will help you focus the argument.
Sure you will change your argument some based on your reading, but if
you think about your essay a lot before you begin writing, you will be more
likely to stay in control. Use
evidence from other sources to support your views, but don’t let the views
of others dominate.
- Re-outlining the essay after you have written a draft is a useful strategy
to make sure you're on track and to see how your argument is shaping up.
Outlining after helps you spot gaps in your argument and places that
need to be more fully developed.
- As you draft, you may end up changing your thesis dramatically. This
is not a problem as long as you end up supporting your new thesis with your
essay.
- Talk to me and your peers throughout the process of choosing your topic
and drafting your essay--talking through your ideas is a great way to
synthesize your thoughts and relieve anxiety.
- Don’t expect to find a source (and don’t look for one) that makes your
case for you. Look
for information/examples that will help you make your own argument.
- MAKE COPIES OF
ALL
THE ARTICLES YOU
examine OR USE.
If there is a question about plagiarism, you want to be able to
access your sources. You also
might find an article that helps one of your peers, so having a copy handy
would facilitate sharing information.
- DO NOT USE WEB SOURCES THAT HAVE NOT BEEN REFEREED.
USE ONLY AUTHORITATIVE SOURCES THAT HAVE UNDERGONE A REVIEW PROCESS.
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