American Literature
Order Description
Writing Assignment 2: Research
Topics and Requirements
This assignment is a continuation of the Writing Assignment 1; you are to revise and rebuild. Consider your topic question in relation to all the authors studied so far. You may keep the authors your already discussed or not; you may choose to keep one or two and delete others, but you are to improve your content and add at least one, new primary source. The research component means that you will research the works by your authors and incorporate ideas or words (citations) from three or more literary critics who are commenting on your selections in relation to your topic. As a final result, you should be covering an assigned selection from at least three different authors (one of which you did not cover in the first assignment), and you will include citations from a minimum of three literary critics.
Requirements:
1. MLA format and documentation (See Information in virtual classroom for link to Purdue OWL with information on MLA.)
2. Standard theme structure: Introduction with thesis, body paragraphs, conclusion with restated thesis; five paragraph minimum. Your introduction should make clear which literary works you are analyzing; include the titles and the authors. Thesis should be in blueprint format. If you need a refresher, see Lesson 4.
3. Remember that the literary works about which you are writing are your primary sources or most important sources for your evidence. You may keep one or more of your original selections from the first assignment, but you are to add at least one selection from an author assigned since the first assignment (assigned selections from Robinson, Frost, Eliot, Faulkner, and/or Hughes). As such, there should be two to three citations from the literary work(s) used as evidence to prove your thesis in each body paragraph in your paper. Failure to do so will lower the content.
4. Three to five different critics (which must be obtained through a library, online or traditional) should be cited in addition to the primary sources. Note also that if your critics are not obtained from a library, this will impact your ratings because sources not obtained through a library will not be counted towards the three-critic minimum. The Jefferson State online library and the Alabama Virtual Library may be used to obtain your sources. Also, while such sources as Sparknotes, Grade Saver, Cliff Notes, and Monarch Notes can be very helpful in understanding the literature, they do not replace reading the works, and they are not acceptable as one of your three minimum sources. Neither is Wikipedia.
5. Citations within the paper are handled differently, depending on whether your source is online or print. The works cited entry you include for each source indicates whether the source is print or Web. What your works cited entry indicates should determine correct format within the paper. The MLA link in Information, as well as material in Lesson 8 will provide guidance. Citations should be included for all sources. Online sources can be cited by either page (if the source is printed out) or paragraph, if the paragraphs are numbered, or by page if the pages are numbered, as in a pdf file. If there are no numbered pages or paragraphs, and you are not working from a printed copy, then you will credit the source by including his or her full name either in your sentence or paragraph or his or her last name in parentheses at the end of the material to be cited.
9. Works cited page with an entry for each primary source; each critic cited should have a bibliographical entry. Note that with sources obtained through Jefferson State’s online library, the correct bibliographical entry is often included at the end of the article so that you can copy and paste this entry into your works cited page.
10. 500-800 words
11. Style should be formal: Avoid first and second person, contractions, and slang.
12. Use present tense consistently.
Topics:
1. Consider how would you define an “unlived life.” Then answer the following question: Based on your reading of the assigned selections, what obstacles are there to living a full life? Keep in mind that obstacles don’t have to be just physical, but can be mental, emotional, etc.
2. Based on ideas the stories suggest, how can a person truly live life to the fullest?