ENGL 512 Research Paper
Undergrad paper requirements: 9+ pages exclusive of Works Cited Page
Graduate paper requirements: 12+ pages exclusive of Works Cited Page
Your syllabus requires you to write a significant critical essay for this course (9+ pages for undergraduates, 12+ pages for graduate students) on a topic of your choosing. I am very open to a wide range of topics on a wide variety of works in medieval literature, so please pick something that interests you and that engages your attention and intellect. The following guidelines will help you plan that paper. These are formal scholarly essays that would be suitable for reading at a scholarly conference or publication in an appropriate journal. Conference papers are usually ten to twelve double-spaced pages (2500-3000 words) exclusive of documentation and should take about 20 minutes to read aloud, so this puts you right in that neighborhood. Your papers must have a critical (i.e. argumentative) slant, involve close analysis of the text(s) you work with, and show familiarity with the scholarly issues and discussion already published on the subject you have chosen. If you want to target a particular conference, you can check the listing on the University of Pennsylvania's English Department website, which tries to maintain an up-to-date list of calls for papers. Your finished paper must be accompanied by a descriptive abstract that you could send to a conference organizer.
There are many possible approaches to writing about medieval literature; what follows is an overview of several kinds of approaches that seem to work most successfully. You must discuss your paper topic with me by April 7**; the paper itself is due at the beginning of the final exam, though it is always welcome earlier. Wise students use the Writing Center (x-2138) to help them make these papers as excellent as they can be. I am always happy to discuss outlines and drafts of your papers with you. No paper will be graded until its final copy is submitted to www.turnitin.com. We will have draft conferences on these papers on April 25; these are not 100% required but the people who bring in thoughtful drafts have consistently made better grades on the final papers, so use that as guidance. I don't require a specific number of sources for the paper since each thesis will vary, but a rule of thumb is to have at least one outside source for each major point you make in support of your thesis. So if you make six points, you'd probably bring in five to six outside sources either to support your case or to provide arguments that you shoot down. Look at some critical articles on your topic and get a sense of how many sources the pros use to make similar points; that will help you estimate what constitutes "enough supporting evidence" for your own argument.
Whichever approach you choose, you should begin by carefully examining the headnotes and mini-bibliographies in your textbook for the work(s) you're writing about. Next, you need to make sure that you are actually writing a critical paper, and not a descriptive one or a summation of your source material. Your thesis should express your own argument--it can't just describe a situation or fact. Make sure all sources you use (whether quoted, paraphrased, or summarized) are properly documented in MLA style. I will be happy to answer any questions you have about MLA documentation. If you look at the English Majors' Handbook page on the department website, you'll find all sorts of "Tools for Writing About Literature" that may be helpful.
The MLA online bibliography is available through the Dacus library web page (http://www.winthrop.edu/dacus) and will help you find secondary sources. For medieval sources, especially anonymous texts, you may find it easier to search by the name of the work rather than the author. You may wish to use online sources such as the Labyrinth or Online Reference Book (ORB) or Voice of the Shuttle, all available through the "resources" button on the class web page, to supplement your research in journals and books. See the class resources page for more places to look.
1. CRITICIZE A CRITIC
Choose a critical controversy about a character or work, find a critic with whom you disagree, and attack his or her position using a close study of the individual text and any secondary reading you have conducted. For instance, do you think Margery Kempe is a religious hysteric? A political subversive? An early version of Tammie Fay? If you come across a critic who also disagrees with your adversary's opinions, you may borrow those counter-arguments to supplement your own (be sure to cite all borrowed ideas), but make sure you exercise your own judgment. This should not be a summary of two opposing critics' positions; rather, use their disagreement to set up your argument.
2. THEMATIC/INTERPRETATIVE QUESTION
Choose a single tale or work (or at most, compare two works) and ask a particular, pointed question about it: for instance, what is Langland’s attitude to working people in Piers Plowman? Or why does Julian of Norwich characterize Jesus as a mother figure? Then try to answer it, exploring the many possible answers that most good questions have. Use the sources you find to support your answer, as you would use witnesses when making a case in a court trial; don’t turn the paper into a collection of ‘Crane says...’ and ‘Shoaf says...’ and ‘Carruthers says...’ paragraphs that aren’t supporting some point you want to make. (Rule of thumb: you want the grade, you make the case.) Choose a thesis that lends itself to focused discussion. "The Woman Question in Malory" is a book; ‘The Roles of Damsels in Distress in the Lancelot books" is a paper topic. I will expect you to discuss some primary works of literature in detail; no papers without direct quotes from the works of literature you're discussing!
3. LANGUAGE/IMAGERY ANALYSIS
Do a close examination of a particular theme or issue in a work (or group of related works) by examining the language very closely. A model would be Meredith Reynolds' essay on advice and counsel in book I of Malory. While this is kind of an old-fashioned approach (very much New Criticism), it can be extremely productive in generating a suitable conference paper.
Remember, too, the distinction between a descriptive thesis "Women in the mystery and morality dramas play three kinds of roles" and a critical thesis: "The three kinds of roles assigned to female characters in the Middle English mystery and morality plays point to the ambiguous status of women in fifteenth century England." A critical thesis is generally necessary for a critical paper. Hint, hint!
**By this date I need to have a brief paragraph from you on your paper idea. This can be sent by e-mail and should contain, if not a thesis statement, the question at issue you are going to wrestle with. Something like "I want to write about Guinevere" is not specific enough--by this point you should be able to say something like "I want to write about how Guinevere is shown in the Alliterative and Stanzaic Mortes as opposed to how she is shown in Malory," though your final thesis will need to evolve to something more argumentative like "Malory's Guinevere is a far more sympathetic character than the Guinevere we meet in the Stanzaic Morte." Your preliminary bibliography may vary in length but I will expect at least half a dozen entries, with a brief (2-3 sentence) annotation of each. These items should be in 2009 MLA form and listed alphabetically as they would appear in a Works Cited list. You may attach the proposal and bibliography to your e-mail or simply cut and paste them into the body of the message.