Courses:

This section features instructions for the two papers, the final research paper, and the oral presentation. General guidelines are also featured immediately below.

General Paper Writing Guidelines (PDF)
(Courtesy of Alisa K. Braithwaite and Laura Thiemann Scales, used with permission.)

Close Reading (PDF)
(Courtesy of Alisa K. Braithwaite and Andrea Zemgulys, used with permission.)

The paper assignments for this course will focus on close reading (please see handout above, under Guidelines). For each paper, pick a passage from any of the following texts listed below.

• Paper 1
  • The Diario of Christopher Columbus's First Voyage to America 1492-1493
  • "In History," A Small Place
  • "Caliban," Things Fall Apart

• Paper 2
  • The Buddha of Suburbia
  • The Pagoda
  • Season of Migration to the North

For each paper, develop an argument from the close reading analysis that you perform on that passage.

The argument should address the text as a whole, but the passage that you choose will be the central source of evidence for your argument.

Although you may make references to other quotations from the text, your chosen passage should be the clear focus of your essay.

• Place your chosen passage at the beginning of your essay. Your passage should not be longer than one typed page, double-spaced with 12-point font.
• The essay itself, not including the passage at the beginning, must be 5 pages long. You are allowed ½ page leeway (e.g. your paper can be between 4½ pages and 5½ pages).
• Include your name, course, date, and title on the first page. Be sure to double-space, use a normal (Times New Roman, Garamond, etc.) 12-point font, and 1 inch margins.
• Number your pages.
• Cite quotations correctly. Consult the MLA Handbook for Writers of Research Papers or The Chicago Manual. These are the industry standards. Parenthetical quotations are fine for a short paper like this.
• Do not use secondary material for this paper. There will be opportunities for research in the future.
• Remember to consult the handout on close reading and the paper writing guidelines (given above).

For your final paper you will be using secondary sources to enhance your arguments. Your argument will still come from you, but secondary sources can help to support your argument, make it more complex, and situate it in an intellectual conversation. The most important thing to avoid when using secondary sources is letting the sources take over your paper. Remember that this is still your paper and your argument. Devoting too much time to quotations and arguments from other critics will weaken the strength of your paper, not enhance it. In other words, think of secondary sources as side dishes as opposed to the main entrée - they add to and complement your ideas, but they can't stand in for them.

Your research paper should include at least 3 and no more than 5 sources. These sources may be of different types. They can be essays or books written by literary critics, they can be historical texts, interviews, theory, etc. They should not be encyclopedia entries, dictionaries, random Web sites or hearsay.

Your first draft for the research paper, due in Ses #20, should include the following:

1. an annotated bibliography of your 3-5 sources
2. a topic and/or thesis for your essay
3. an outline of your argument's progression including 2-3 possible scenes that you will examine
4. questions that you have for me

If the above is shorter than 5 pages, as indicated on the syllabus, that is fine. If you want to submit already written material, that is fine, too, but you must also submit the above.

The last few days of class will consist of oral presentations based on your final essay. Each student will present on his or her final essay for 8-10 minutes. Your presentation should include:

• the reason you chose the text(s)
• the argument of the paper; an explanation of at least one example of close reading that supports your point
• a brief discussion of at least one of the secondary sources you chose
• your concluding thoughts about the text(s) and how it relates to the class

To help your listeners along, you can create a handout with information that relates to your presentation. The handout is not required, but if you do decide to create one, email it to me by 9am on the day you are presenting and I will make copies for the class.

In Ses #24, we will have an in-class preparation day. Please bring in all the materials you will need to put your presentation together.