Essay Instructions: You will use one of the following novels to write a critical research paper. You will need at least five sources. The novel will be your primary source, and library books and Internet sites will be your secondary sources. www.AltaVista.com is a reliable literary search engine. See "Explanation of Critical Research Paper" following this section for more research help. After collecting information and taking notes, you are ready to write an outline and rough draft. If possible, please type. Remember to double space typed papers. Proofread the final copy, and also have someone else read it for mistakes. Then, review your work with the Lesson Seven Checklist (included in your Answer Sheet) and the Lesson Seven Comment Sheet. You will submit a title page, an outline, the critical research paper with in-text citations, and the works cited page. The critical research paper is worth 50 points.
If you write a critical research paper without primary and secondary sources, you will receive only half credit for this assignment.
The Three Musketeers, Alexandre Dumas
Topic one: chivalry among men in the novel
Topic two: individual perseverance in the novel
Explanation of Critical Research Paper
A critical research paper delves into a particular aspect of a literary work and uses evidence from other sources, including critical reviews.
When you write a critical research paper such as this, you will include both in-text citations and a works cited page. Use the MLA Style to cite the sources. You will cite the source for any direct quote, statistic, opinion, or fact not readily found in an encyclopedia (such as "He hated his father.")
Just as critics review movies that come out, critics also review books, plays, poems, and so forth. A critical paper, then, just uses critic's comments, along with the primary source, to support the ideas in the paper.
Your works cited page should include the primary source and critical reviews. It may also include other sources, such as a psychology textbook or an article about nineteenth century customs-anything that may support your topic. In essence, your research paper is just like a regular essay about a literary work except that in addition to using quotes from the literary work, you also use quotes from other sources, and you cite the sources.
On the Internet, you can go to a search engine, type the name of your literary work followed by the word criticism (for example, "Major Barbara criticism"), and see what comes up. Also, libraries have whole volumes of literary criticism, such as Twentieth Century Literary Criticism.
Also, here is something that we've had good luck with: Try using Google Scholar at http://scholar.google.com/. You can use the small option "Scholar Preferences" beside the Google Scholar search box to choose from which school (such as Texas Tech University) you want to search. If you click "Advanced Scholar Search," you may add criticism critical to the field "Find articles with at least one of the words." I find some excellent critical reviews this way, and they are quality articles rather than just summaries of the literary work.
