Description of final paper assignment

Important due dates:Sunday, Mar. 2 by 4 pm: send email message with an idea or a couple of ideas you’re your general topic. I will email you back before class on Tuesday. 
Friday, Mar. 7 by 4 pm: send list of research sources you plan to consult
Thursday, Mar. 13 (last day of class): turn in outline or one-paragraph description of final paper in class
Thursday, Mar. 20: final version of paper due BY NOON – hard copies preferred
[in the interim, you may submit rough drafts for comment if you wish; allow 48 hours for response]

General parameters of assignment:
This is a 6-7 page paper that, like the midterm paper, should elaborate an original critical argument. It should also cite at least two secondary sources of a scholarly nature (see handout on sources for definitions/guidance and research tips).  Your aim in this paper is to enter the scholarly conversation about a text/context, and show how your ideas either lean on or work against the ideas of previous critics writing about this topic. You may incorporate ideas from your reading logs if appropriate, but please do not write on the same topic as your midterm paper (you may discuss the same text in a comparative paper, but do not repeat the same ideas or quotes). If you wish to use one of the secondary readings we’ve done for this class (the ERes material), you may use one—btu I want you to do research and find at least one of the sources on your own. Use MLA style to provide your citations: guidelines for MLA style are easy to find (a link is provided on the course website). The papers can take different forms depending on your interest:

• an in-depth study on a single text, integrating either literary-critical or historical sources to provide background context;
• a comparative study of two novels we have read in this course;
• a theoretically oriented paper on some issue related to history and memory.

This page last modified {date}