American Literature

Research Paper Guidelines

Here is a summary of this assignment:

This is a culminating research paper based on your work for the entire semester. Each student will choose either a poem to analyze or a literary movement to discuss. (Topics MUST be different than PowerPoint Presentation topics.) If a poem is chosen, make sure to include a critical approach (which you should have learned about in ENGL 102) and at least three literary devices that fit the poem. If a literary movement is chosen, it needs to be more than just a boring history. You still need an original thesis that looks at the topic in an interesting way and has at least three main points that are discussed. Papers should be 1800-2200 words. The word count does not include the title page or the bibliography. All papers must be submitted to the assignment link AND the Dropbox folder no later than noon on Sunday, August 1, 2021.

Guidelines:
• Topic: Choose either a literary movement studied in class or a poem studied in class. As stated above, if you choose a poem, you need to analyze it using a critical approach and at least 3 literary devices (you should have learned about these in ENGL 102). If you choose a movement, you cannot just talk about people who wrote in that style. A couple of authors can be included in your paper, but you need to show how they helped expand the movement; they cannot be the focus of the paper.
• Thesis: Regardless of your topic, you must have a good thesis statement that introduces your topic and lists your main points. (You should have learned how to do this in both ENGL 101 and 102.)
• Sources: You need to have at least 5 reputable sources. No Wikipedia. Reputable sources means the information is fact-checked and published by someone who knows what they are talking about. Using sites that end in .gov and .edu are always good choices. Journal articles that can be found on the school library’s website are better to use than websites. Books are more than fine to use as sources as well.
• Citation: Because this is an English class, you must do in-text citations and a bibliography that follow MLA standards. There are many places to find how to do this online. I would suggest the OWL at Purdue University’s website.
• Quotes: If you borrow any information from another source, you must cite it. If you don’t cite your sources both in-text and in a bibliography, you will fail the paper.
• General Things: Papers should be 1800-2200 words long. You must have a cover page that includes your name, the class name, the assignment title, the due date, and an original, creative title. If you do or don’t add page numbers and headers, you won’t be penalized either way. You must include a bibliography of all your sources at the end of the paper. The cover page and bibliography do not count toward the word count.
• If you have any questions about things not covered here, please send me an email.
LITR 226
Evaluation Form
Research Paper
Name:

Criteria 0-10 Comments
Argument/Analysis
You have written a clear thesis that is based on a critical approach and that answers the readers’ natural question of why your topic matters.
You outline the points of your support in the introduction.
You support your claims about the story by presenting evidence from the text.
The paper is documented appropriately: MLA format, in-text citation, Works Cited page, adequate information, quoted sources do not make up more than about 10% of the paper.
Coherence/Unity
The paper includes the following: an effective title; a clear, interesting, and persuasive introduction; a full body, with ample textual support; and a satisfying conclusion.
Each paragraph presents a controlling idea with supporting details.
Transitions connect the ideas across paragraphs.
The analysis is stylistically appropriate: tone is appropriate for the audience, references are in present tense, quotation marks are used (except for block quotation), punctuation helps readers with interpretation of ideas, all sources are cited, etc.
Mechanics
The paper is in Standard Written English.
12-point Times New Roman Font is used. 1-inch margins on all fours sides of the page.
Paper is 1800-2200 words long, not including cover page and bibliography.