Essay Instructions: This request is for a 4-6 page MLA formated research paper, using Standard American English, over Thomas Paine's "Common Sense".
*Also needed to go along with this paper: An annotated bibliography MLA formatted listing 3 academically viable resources and a 4-6 sentence summary of each resource.
Below you will find the specific assignment requirements for both the research paper and the annotated bibliography.
ASSIGNMENT - for research paper listing main criteria:
Objectives: As noted in the course syllabus, all students must complete a formal research project, comprising a significant portion of the final grade for the course. Written in MLA format, this text seeks to answer a specific and focused "research question" requiring information beyond a writer's own interpretations of an assigned reading. Generally, writers enlist the insights of literary critics, psychologists, biographers, historians, sociologists or other"published experts" in order to gather the information/authority needed to submit a plausible "answer" to a skeptical reader.
In planning and drafting an appropriate response to this prompt, please consider/enlist any of the following strategies:
* Compare or contrast critics' interpretations of a particular literary text in order to clarify its major theme(s), goal(s), method(s), etc.
* Explain a specific psychological, social or political theory that helps account for an author's/character's motive(s), claim(s), downfall(s), etc.
* Select and detail specific events or conditions from an author's life story that seem clearly influential upon particular elements of his or her text(s).
* Survey the most powerful social or historical forces surrounding an author in order to identify his or her primary motivation(s) for writing a particular text/work.
* Enlist the help of critics/scholars in order to trace the influence of one author/text evident within the writing, styles or philosophies of a subsequent author/text.
* Analyze one--or compare two--text(s) in order to provide a fuller explanation of a major literary topic, theme, literary symbol, style or genre.
Primarily, a consistent and thorough focus upon a particular research question/purpose will be the most fundamental criterion for evaluation of the project. In addition, more successful drafts will closely paraphrase, quote and/or summarize three or more primary resources relevant to the draft's established goals. Of course, the formal draft should also be carefully edited for proper and appropriate SAE (Standard American English), and exhibit a working familiarity of MLA format and MLA documentation of sources.
NOTE: There is not a specific number of quotations, parenthetical citations, footnotes, etc. required for this paper - although it would be benifical to include a few - especially quotations - these can be kept to a minimum.
ASSIGNMENT SPECIFICS FOR THE ACCOMPANYING ANNOTATED BIBLIOGRAPHY:
Objectives: In order to provide continued practice in both literary analysis and academic inquiry, draft an annotated bibliography summarizing the essential claims of at least three (3) academically viable resources.
Evaluation: Put simply, an annotated bibliography is a "list of resources" pertaining to one common topic--accompanied by brief (4-6 sentence) summaries of each resource. Thus, for this course, your annotated bib should meet the following criteria:
1) All resources listed and summarized must be academically viable. In other words, they must represent the views/ideas of authorized, reputable authors/minds/organizations.
2. All resources must focus upon--or in some meaningful way pertain to--a common topic. In other words, all texts must relate to one particular author, text or literary topic.
*The one requested needs to be on Thomas Paine's "Common Sense" to go along with the above research paper.
3. All summaries must accurately and clearly reflect the essential claims, methods and/or goals of selected texts.
4. The bibliography itself and all selected resources must be listed/presented in correct/current MLA style.
