Major British Authors

English 203
Analytical Research Paper

Due Date: Monday, December 2, 5:00, via turnitin.com

Assignment:

Building upon the writing we’ve been working on all semester, your final “Argumentative Paper” will make use of the skills you used to develop your 3 Passage Papers.  Now, you will be building these in-depth analyses into a broader thesis.  For this longer assignment (6-8pages), you will analyze primary texts, review and examine research, in order to build an argument about a work of literature.  To accomplish this, you may choose one of three possible options:

•     Option 1: Build upon earlier work.  Choosing one of the three papers you've already written, you may build that draft into a FAR DIFFERENT paper.  Your thesis may be completely different than what you started with, but beginning with some thoughts you've already had could be very helpful.
  

•     Option 2: Choose any work we've examined (or will examine) through the course of the semester, and build an analytical argument in which your thesis addresses the work (or pair of works in some cases) as a whole, using your analysis of individual sections of the work as you evidence. You may, for example, choose to oppose the argument of work of scholarship you've researched.                 

•     Option 3: Choose a work we’ve not examined in class by an author we have studied, and build an analytical argument in which your thesis addresses the work (or pair of works in some cases) as a whole, using your analysis of individual sections of the work as you evidence. You may, for example, choose to oppose the argument of work of scholarship you've researched.

Remember, this IS YOUR PAPER.  Make your argument.  Although you are incorporating research, that does NOT mean this is mean to be a book report--where you simply document others' points of view.

Research requirement:

In English 203, each student is required to have written a paper that incorporates secondary research.  Therefore, for this paper, go to JSTOR, INFO TRAC ONEFile, or any of the other databases through the Dacus Library Webpage, and incorporate at least three articles that directly or indirectly address your text.

***Be sure to use proper MLA documentation (we will go over that in class).

Building a paper

As we've discussed in class, our approach to this paper is to give you important skills in using "writing" for discovery--as opposed to thinking "Writing" is something you do once you've figured everything else out and are now ready to produce a brilliant paper all at once (yeah, right!).   To do this, you will turn in your paper in "Phases" (not drafts!), as you build and build your material over time, eventually taking what you've built and forming it into a coherent piece.  By Phase 3 (see below), you should easily have 12 pages of text to work with (at least!) in order to trim, rearrange, and organize into a solid argument.

Phase 1 (Due Monday, October 28, 5:00 Turnitin.com)
For this part of the assignment, you are simply responding to passages.  Writing is tough, but only when we make it tough.  You've chosen this particular work to analyze for a reason---right?  Now, simply type in some quotes and respond to the quotes--what's going on? What are the characters thinking?  The speaker? writer?  Using the skills you developed in your Passage Papers, what are some specific lines that catch your eye? 

THIS IS NOT a formal phase at all.  DO NOT edit yet.  Just put some ideas out there.  When you run out, simply type another quote and keep responding.  What will naturally happen, is you'll start to make connections between the quotes.  When we write for discovery, we allow our brain the opportunity to simply relax and connect--without the pressure of turning in the brilliant essay.

Phase 2 (Due Friday, November 14, Turnitin.com)

Like Phase 1, this should not be formal.  Keep building quotes, but now begin to add quotes from the research you've found and examined.  Go ahead and type the title of the research in MLA format (as a subheading) and then simply copy some more quotes.  The beauty of this is, you're not researching and writing at two different times--who has time for that?!  Instead, you're bringing your research right into your paper, right into your discovery.  No index cards, not different parts, include it all at the same time.  You'll make it pretty later.  Remember--NO EDITING!

Phase 3 (Due Friday, November 21, Turnitin.com)

Ok, you've built a lot of material.  You may still add some more, especially as you begin to think about introductions, transitions, language you need to bring ideas together.  But, now it's time to start moving some stuff around---have an idea for your thesis?  Main ideas?  OK--maybe now you arrange your material into 3,4, or 5 sections.  You're begging to synthesize here.  You don't need to be writing perfectly yet, but you are writing a little more intentionally--you're starting to fill in some gaps now, draw connections.  Write some intro sentences perhaps.  Or, if you're not ready for your intro, but you know exactly what you want to say in part 3, ok, then write part 3.  Who said paper-writing has to start at the beginning?

Final: Due Monday, December 8, 5:00, Turnitin.com.

You've got it together now.  You've cut easily 4 pages from your original material--probably saved that stuff in another file.  That's what good students/writers do.  They're willing to make the tough decisions: "This is cool stuff, but it doesn't fit what I'm doing in this paper." 

Because you've been "building" all along, these last steps are simply making the argument work---you are not facing the daunting task of creating, writing, editing all at the same time!