Introduction to English Studies

Research Project and Term Paper

In the final half of the semester, you will each build a research essay on a topic of your choice. This project includes many separate assignments designed to give you the chance to practice the various research and writing tasks that lead to successful essays in English studies. The project culminates in an 8-10 page essay that will integrate analysis of primary and secondary sources.

Choosing a topic

      The possibilities for topics are as varied as English studies. One of the objectives of this course is to stretch your understanding of the discipline itself, so you should feel free to conceptualize a non-traditional project. On the other hand, you should not feel obligated to do so. My only requirement is that your research attends to the complexities of written or spoken English. If you can point to an English professor who does the kind of work that you want to do (in his or her professional capacity), then you should feel justified.

      You might have a topic or two already floating around in your head. You might have especially liked a particular author or text that you have encountered in a previous class. You might use this class as an opportunity to study a favorite author or type of literature that you have not encountered in class. If you are minoring or majoring in another discipline, you might think about integrating your two primary fields of study. Think about when, in or out of class, you have been most excited about reading. Since you will be spending a lot of time thinking and writing about your topic, you should be absolutely certain that you find it intriguing at the very least.

      You should of course think about the length of the assignment that you are researching and writing toward. It would probably be a tad ambitious to envision an argument that encompasses all the plays of Shakespeare or all the films of Hitchcock. That said, there’s nothing wrong beginning with a particular idea or set of ideas that you expect could take you through many texts as long as you know that you will ultimately have to make choices that will reasonably limit your research. You might think about limiting your argument to one text unless you have a strong reason for working with more.

Assignments

      The term paper represents the culminating project of the semester, but you will build toward it by completing a series of separately graded assignments, each of which is described below. (The percentages below reflect portions of the course grade.)

      Assume that all of the writing you do for this project will be shared with other members of the class. All assignments must conform to MLA citation standards.

Topic Selection Statement (5%)

      For the draft, devote one full typed page to declaring what topic you intend to study, what you already know about it, and why you want to find out more about it. I would like you to do some basic research – looking into web sites and encyclopedia articles – so that you have an initial sense of its possibilities. Your statement must include a Works Consulted page in which you show the sources you have read. You do not have to quote any sources, but I would like to see that you have made an effort to do some initial research. After submitting your draft topic statement, you may define your topic more specifically but you may not change it.

      For the revised topic statement, you must include a provisional thesis statement that will provide the basis for an interesting, specific, and unified argument. The revised topic statement should reflect the work you complete on the annotated bibliography.

Annotated Bibliography (10%)

      The annotated bibliography should be 4-5 pages, split into two sections, one listing primary sources and other listing secondary sources. The primary source section must list at least one text that you intend to analyze. The secondary source section must list 8-10 recently published essays or books that provide critical or theoretical ideas that you intend to use in some way to advance your argument (by providing support, or contrasting idea with which you disagree, etc.). I also encourage you to use available web resources and to include them in your bibliography if you find them to be especially informative and reliable.

      The most important part of this assignment will be the annotations of the secondary sources. Primary sources do not need to be annotated. Your annotations should each consist of a solid paragraph of 8-10 sentences. After explaining the central thesis of the source and providing a brief overview of the way it is developed, clarify how it will be useful to your project.

Extended Introduction or “Framing Exercise” (10%)

      Provide a 2-3 page draft of the introductory section of your essay, the part in which you present your thesis and explain how it represents a meaningful contribution to what has already been said about your topic.

      It is important to realize that this is probably something new for you. This assignment asks you to use secondary criticism in the way that professional writers use it: to capture a specific conversation or dialog about your topic and then position your idea as a contribution that others who have been listening to this conversation will want to hear.

      Think of this material as an extended introduction, the first four or five paragraphs. The trick is to articulate not only what you want to argue, but also how your argument makes an interesting contribution to an ongoing critical and perhaps theoretical conversation. Why is it, in short, that people interested in your topic need to read your essay? How does your perspective add to our collective understanding of a text or author? How does it carry forward or apply in an interesting way a particular theoretical approach?

      The way that you thus “frame” your argument should emerge from and reflect your research of secondary sources. You should show that you can make general claims about trends that various critics fit into, about the strengths and weaknesses of this or that approach, about aspects of the topic that have not been adequately appreciated or even noticed.

Body Paragraph (10%)

      This assignment gives you the opportunity to develop a body paragraph – one primarily devoted to the analysis of primary evidence – that will appear in your essay at some point after your introduction.

      Begin this assignment by typing your provisional thesis statement at the top of the page. Skip several lines in between your provisional thesis and the body paragraph that advances it in some particular way. The body paragraph should have a sentence that clearly functions as a “topic sentence,” an assertion, probably near the beginning, that the paragraph develops or proves. Your paragraph should present a rich fund of selectively chosen and carefully interpreted quotations from the primary text.

Term Paper (20%)

      Your research project will culminate in an 8-10 page term paper that advances a specific argument that would (or should?) feel at home in English studies. Successful essays will construct an extended introduction that presents the thesis and positions it among other critical comments, effectively present and analyze a rich fund of primary evidence, and demonstrate a strong general knowledge of the topic and criticism on it.

      The essay must include at least 1 primary source and at least 8 secondary sources. The 8 secondary sources must be published books or articles; you may additionally refer to web sites or other online resources, but they may not take the place of books and articles.  

      The first draft of the term paper will be due a couple weeks before the end of the semester. I will have a conference with each of you based on this draft to give you further suggestions for revision. The draft and revision process is a crucial aspect of the final project, and I will not accept any essays that circumvent the process.

      Plagiarism on any aspect of this assignment constitutes grounds for failing the course.