Repeatable
You may complete two or more projects of this type, so long as they are all submitted on different collection days..
Deadlines
Papers may be submitted during any collection day except the last "Project Collection" day, April 26.
Length
Papers are three to five pages, double-spaced, with a one-inch margin all the way around, and must conform to the MLA stylebook requirements for formatting and parenthetical documentation.
Subject
The subject of your paper is entirely up to you, as long as you write on one of the works dealt with in class in a logical, developed paper with a clearly defined thesis and specific references to the text(s) you deal with. The main rule for choosing a paper topic is to push yourself beyond merely giving a plot summary.
Focus
Be sure to focus your paper on topics you can deal with in only three to five pages. It would be difficult to make grand statements about literature in such a short paper; it’s far better to focus on one or two works and really do a good job with just those.
No Sources Needed
Because I am more interested in what you think about the works you are writing about than in what “experts” think about those works, please do not bother going to the library and looking up secondary sources to use in your paper. Those of you who write papers for both interpretive projects may choose to incorporate sources into the second paper; you must, of course, cite those sources properly.
Textual Support
A good essay will be clearly written and properly focused, with a strong thesis and adequate support. Since the best support for a literary discussion is examples from the text in question, you will need to provide good examples for your paper, especially in the form of quotations. When quoting from a text, it’s best to work smaller quotations into the flow of your discussion than to place large chunks of quotes in the middle of your paper. If you have any questions about using quotations in your paper, please come to see me.
Paper Ideas
I have not given you a set of suggested topics for papers because I want you to discover your topics on your own, based on the readings, class discussions, or your group work. Feel free to write about anything that interests you (but check with me before you write on any topic, just to be sure). If you want to write a paper but you are really stuck on a topic, come see me; I have a hoard of paper ideas.
Just to get you thinking about finding a paper topic, however, here are some possible types of standard papers (in alphabetical order):
- Comparative Study: Relate a literary work to some other work in a different art form. Possible art forms include music (all types: popular, rap, rock, jazz, classical, etc.), visual art (all types: painting, drawing, etching, sculpture, architecture, etc.), performance art, cinema, drama, or anything else that you consider valid. In your paper, you should try to find some way to justify your comparison of the two works; in other words, you should have a thesis, not just a list of similarities and differences. I’ll be looking to see how well you use the works you have chosen to support your thesis, so be prepared to quote from a text or describe a painting or in some way utilize the works you’ll be dealing with as evidence.
- Deconstructionist Paper: Explore how the ambiguities of language prevent a work from holding together as a flawless, coherent whole. Often, these ambiguities are highlighted by looking at the ways the binary oppositions formalist critics find in works tend to cancel themselves out (deconstruct themselves).
- Formalist (New Critical) Paper: This is what most people think of when they think of an English paper, a close reading of a text as an isolated work of art. Look for how the piece of writing “works,” how it is structured and how it holds together as a coherent piece of art. Formalists spend lots of time analyzing metaphors, symbols, poetic metrical devices, etc. The vital thing to remember in writing such a paper is that it needs to pass the “So What?” test. It’s not enough just to describe a work of literature; you need to explain why an understanding of your description is helpful in understanding the work, itself.
- Historicist/Sociological Paper: Relate a literary work to its historical moment or to contemporary American culture. Two very popular approaches to this type of paper are Marxist criticism (which relates a work to the concept of class struggle) and feminist criticism (which relates a work to concept of gender conflict).
- Philosophical Paper: Treat a literary work as an expression of an abstract idea, which can then be related to the ideas of philosophers or other thinkers. Often this type of paper takes a single idea, such as love, looks at the way an author or poet treats that idea, and then relates that treatment to the ideas of other philosophical or religious traditions.
- Psychological Criticism Paper: Apply a psychological theory (Freudian, Jungian, Skinnerian, etc.) to a literary work as a way of explaining the symbolism, the structure, the actions of characters, and/or the workings of the plot in psychological terms
- Reader-Response Paper: Explore the relationship between a work and yourself as a reader. You could describe the process of reading and understanding a work, or you might discuss how a work relates to some aspect of your life. In either case, your main goal is to show us how the interaction between work and reader operates and why it is important.
- Archetypal or Genre Paper: Approach a work as a member in a set of like kinds of works. Archetypal critics look at similarities in characters, story lines, and oral, mythical, and religious traditions. Genre critics attempt to determine how a work fits within a genre category, such as poem or novel.
Academic Projects (You must choose at least one project from this category.)
Academic Seminar Paper (300 points)Oral Projects (You must choose at least one project from this category.)
Standard Academic Paper (200 points)
Biographical Context Essay (100 points)
Annotated Bibliography of Scholarly Sources (100 points)
Annotated Bibliography of Web Sites (100 points)
Historical Presentation (100 points)Examinations
Dramatic Interpretation (100 points)
Class Discussion (100 points)
Midterm Examination (100 points)Interpretive Projects
Final Examination (200 points)
Reading Journal (100 points, repeatable)
Electronic Discussion (100 points, repeatable)
Paper (100 points, repeatable)
Creative Interpretation (100 points, repeatable)
Multiperspective (200 points, may count as academic)
Copyright 2001 by David Kimmel. This page was created using Netscape Composer, Microsoft Paint, and Microsoft Photo Editor. Last updated January 5, 2002.