WMHS Library ResourcesBloom's Literary Reference Online
eLibrary
Twain's Author Series
Proquest Multiple Databases (NY Times, Academic Journals)
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. Begin with a school-sponsored site (e.g. Bloom or Gale Group). 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).
Some of the work on this assignment will be done in school, though obviously you will have to do drafting on your own time. Steps along the way will be graded.
Schedule.
______May 12 ___ Topic due
______May 24 ___Tentative thesis statement and Preliminary Works Cited due
______May 28___ Rough draft peer annotation
_____ June 4____ Paper due
