LITR 4232 American Renaissance: Syllabus

Research Project

Students have a choice of two options for research projects.

  • Option 1 is a traditional 7-10 page analytic / research essay relevant to the course. 
     

  • Option 2 is a 10-15 page journal of research and reflections concerning a variety of materials relevant to the course.

Weight: approximately 30% of final grade

Due dates:

  • proposal due 16 October (or earlier)

  • project due 18 November

Lengths:

  • option 1 (analytic / research essay): 7-10 pages + "Works Cited"

  • option 2 (journal) 10-15 pages. (“Works Cited” often incorporated as parts of pages)

 

Description of Research Options:

Option 1 (analytic / research essay) requirements

  • This option involves a more or less "standard College English paper" in which the student analyzes a literary text or texts.
  • The topic is open to any type of literary analysis, but it must have some relevance to the course. That is, a member of the class reading your essay would be able to recognize the relevance of the text or its major themes.
  • Possible topics: tracing in one text, or comparing and contrasting in more than one text the development of a theme, image, symbol, usage of language, character type, plot pattern, or conflict.
  • In terms of primary texts, you may choose a text from beyond this course, but if you use more than one primary text, at least one should be from the course readings.
  • In terms of research, you must incorporate references to at least three secondary and background sources--that is, your research sources must include both secondary and background types of research; the distinction will be explained.
  • Follow MLA style for documentation and mechanics.
  • Length: 7-10 pages + Works Cited
  • Research Requirements: One or two primary sources; at least 3 secondary and background sources (distinction explained below). At least one source should be "print"--i. e., not from the internet. (see note below)

 

Option 2 (journal) requirements

If you choose the journal option, you are not choosing an option that involves less work than the traditional research paper option. You are expected to do just as much work and your writing will be judged by similar standards. However, the writing may be less centrally or consistently focused on one subject. Thus you may pursue several subjects, which may not perfectly cohere, but the journal must be “readable.” That is, your writing should lead the reader and connect from page to page. In brief, the journal I read should not be your first drafts, and it has to be going somewhere.

Possible topics: Transcendentalism; slave narratives; journalism and Manifest Destiny; the Utopian movement of the American Renaissance (Brook Farm, Fourierism, Fruitlands, the Shakers); the rise of popular women's writing; the Abolitionist writers; Southern pro-slavery writers (Simms, Fitzhugh, and others); Whitman and the New York demi-monde (bohemian underworld); the "Concord circle" of writers who gathered around Emerson. Many other topics are also possible, and you are encouraged to develop your own. Look at previous examples of journals for this and other courses online through my faculty website, or leaf through the table of contents and introductions of our anthology for inspiration.

Research journal—required & possible contents: (page suggestions are for double-spaced print)

(Except for the introduction and conclusion, all items and page numbers below are optional or variable according to your interests and findings. In no case should your journal be over 20 pages. Other options are always possible.)

·        Introduction (required): rationale: what you wanted to learn and how; preview contents, general themes, choices (1-1 & 1/2 pages)

(All the following “body” components are optional for inclusion or variable in length according to your topics and findings)

  • Essential general information about subject: 4-6 pages explaining general subject, drawn from background and secondary sources.
  • Review of 2 or 3 secondary sources (articles or books) about your subject. Summarize the content and usefulness of these sources. (1-2 pages each)
  • Literary biographies of one or more authors relevant to your subject. Review the lives and writings, summarize importance and contributions. (2-3 pages each)
  • Review of one or more websites relevant to your subject. Review contents, accuracy, usefulness. (1-2 pages each)
  • Many other possibilities that you will discover as you research. The journal is necessarily a "loose" form, so let your findings dictate your organization.
  • Conclusion (required): 1-2 pages summarizing what you have learned, what you would do next if you continued your research, how it might be applied.

Where to list or how to document your “works cited” or “bibliography’ for a journal: You may either fully document your research as you review it, or you may save full documentation for a “Works Cited” at the end of the journal. However, you need not do both; that is, there is no need to duplicate information at the end that you’ve already provided on the way through.

 

More on Research Requirements

Primary texts. In research writing for literature, primary texts are works of fiction, poetry, or drama. You may refer briefly to three or four primary texts total, but the danger of involving many texts is that the analysis is spread thin.

Background sources refer to handbooks, encyclopedias, and companions to literature that provide basic generic, biographical, or historical information.  For purposes of Literature, these books are generally shelved in the PR and PS sections of the Reference section of the library.

Secondary sources refer to critical articles about particular authors or texts.  (When you write your analytic / research paper, you are creating a secondary source.)  These may take the form of articles or books.  Articles may be found in journals or in bound collections of essays.  Secondary books may be found on the regular shelves of the library.  To find secondary sources, perform a database search on the MLA directory in the Reference section of the library--the reference librarians will help you.

Documentation style: MLA style (parenthetical documentation + Works Cited page, as described in the MLA Handbook for Writers of Research Papers, 4th or 5th edition.

Note on use of online or print sources: Most of the best projects use mostly print sources, while "slacker" projects tend to use the internet almost exclusively. I don't use this as a standard, but this is the way things tend to turn out. (Internet information tends to be a lot looser, more careless, sweeping, and second-hand in its assertions, and overall less deeply researched and edited; when you use print sources, you're generally using a superior text, and that tends to carry over. I grade your project on its merits, but the merits of your project may depend on the merits of your sources. Go to the library!