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Section I
Research Paper A.P. Literature and Composition
Assignment. Choose a major work or an author we have studied this year, a novelist, playwright, or short story writer. Or choose a poem or poet we have studied. Write a 5-7 page research paper about this subject using a minimum of three legitimate outside sources. Your paper must follow MLA guidelines for manuscript format and citation conventions.
Getting Started. The subject should be one that you are interested in. It may be one that you have already thought about (e.g., the role of female characters in Hamlet), or it may be a question you have not yet considered (e.g., How much did Dylan Thomas use “closed form” in his poetry?)
Read pages 2179-2184 in your textbook. This will give you an overview of what this kind of paper entails. It also addresses important issues like internet reliability and plagiarism.
Review the hand out, “Sample Research Topics.” This will give you some idea of suitable topics for this assignment. It may also stimulate ideas of your own. Whatever topic you choose must be related directly to this course; it should not derive from a class you took previously (e.g., A.P. Language, 11 H, or 10H).
Much of the work on this assignment will be done in school, though obviously you will have to do some drafting on your own time. Steps along the way will be graded.
Schedule.
_______________ Topic due
_______________ Tentative thesis statement and Preliminary Works Cited due
_______________ Rough draft peer annotation
_______________ Paper due
Section II
Choosing a Topic Name
Consider a few (3-5) subjects that you find interesting (see “Sample Research Topics” for ideas). You may want to consider multiple works relating to an idea (fate), or literary technique (point of view).
For each subject construct a difficult question suitable for an assignment of this length and type. A difficult question suggests complexity; the answer is not simple or self evident. For example, what influence did Thomas Hardy’s beliefs about marriage have on his work? Or what do Oedipus Rex, Hamlet, and The Plague say about disease?
For each question provide a hunch or hypothesis, a tentative answer that is subject to further investigation.
Begin testing your hypotheses. Consider what you know based on what you have read. Then consider what you need to find out and where you then need to look.
Section III
Sample Research Topics
This is not a comprehensive list. It is intended to provide a sense of what kind of topics are appropriate. You must have teacher approval for whatever topic you choose.
Novels and Plays
The relationship between a writer’s life and work: Jane Eyre/Charlotte Bronte; Joseph Conrad/Heart of Darkness; Tim O’Brien/The Things They Carried.
Translation in literature: Oedipus; The Plague; (The Aeneid; The Divine Comedy; Beowulf).
Literature and Politics: Heart of Darkness; The Things They Carried.
Literature and the Absurd: Camus, Stoppard, Becket.
Changes in perspective on a classic: Hamlet (e.g. 18th century excisions; 20th century Freudian readings).
Race in American literature: Song of Solomon.
A feminist perspective on mostly male-centered stories: The Plague; The Mayor of Casterbridge; Heart of Darkness; The Things They Carried.
A new historicist perspective on literature: Stephen Greenblatt on Shakespeare.
Poetry
Explore a verse form or metrical pattern: The sonnet, sestina, villanelle, haiku, free verse.
Read more of the work of a poet we have studied: Shakespeare, Donne, Marvell, Blake, Wordsworth, Hardy, Dylan Thomas, Elizabeth Bishop, Mark Doty, Robert Creeley, Billy Collins.
Explore a poet who influenced or was influenced by one of the poets we studied.
Research a category of poetry: Romantic, Naturalist, Pastoral, Symbolist.
Research a prize winner: U.S. Poet Laureate; Nobel Prize; Pulitzer Prize.
Section IV
I. Progress Note
What is your topic?
How did you find your sources?
How reliable are your sources? How do you know? (See pp. 31-2 in Writing Research Papers.)
What do your sources have in common? Do they address a common idea?
Do you think you now have enough information or do you need to do more research?
II. Construct a statement of controlling purpose (see pp 26-9 in WRP).
III. Preliminary Works Cited
For each source record essential bibliographic information (author, title, periodical or web site, date, page #s, web address, etc.). Do this by hand on back of this sheet or print out a separate page. Use MLA format (see pp. 68-70 in WRP) or use NoodleTools.
