Midterm Paper Assignment, 2/25/16-3/5/16 (15% of course grade)

English 217. American Literature 1865-present

Dr. Filas

This is the only required research paper for this semester, and we are using class time to develop your idea and refine it before turning in the final draft on Thursday, March 5. The paper must be 5-7 pages, 1250-2100 words, and presented in MLA format. No late papers will be accepted, nor will late development work be accepted for credit. Specific requirements are described below. The most important thing is your thoughtful, original argument. You must have something you are trying to prove, to say about the books or poems we’ve read. That argument must be specific, original, impassioned, and well defended.

Due Tuesday, 3/1:

¨ Completely read White Noise

¨ Thesis ideas (3), typed

Due Thursday 3/3:

¨ Refined 1-3 sentence description of thesis, including a more precise scope

¨ 3-4 contextualized quotes from primary sources

¨ a list of 3 secondary source(s) with your quotes (5) typed out, including a few sentences for each quote explaining how it informs your argument(s)

Due Tuesday, 3/8:

¨ 2 each, stapled copies of your revised paper for peer review (guidelines to be provided)

Due Tuesday, 3/3:

¨ 2 each, copies of your typed peer review; one copy for me, one stapled to peer text for writer (5% of course grade)

Due Thursday, 3/24: Final draft of paper. No late papers.

Required Reading for all options:

¨ Literature: Sister Carrie, The Waste Land, White Noise, and excerpts from How I Found America.

You must have a thesis statement, an original argument or observation you are making about at least one of the literary texts included in the above list. You have a better chance of succeeding if you seek depth over breadth when forming your argument. We have discussed the principles of SOID as a measure for assessing theses. A research paper requires broader reading in any number of areas, including but not limited to American history, critical theory, philosophy, popular culture (including film, TV, art, and music), and literary criticism.

Requirements:

¨ 5-7 pages (1,250-2,100 words), double-spaced, not counting a title page and a “Works Cited” page;

¨ Discuss at least one primary text listed above, you can discuss more;

¨ Must cite at least 3 additional sources beyond the primary text:

§ Historical sources, i.e. read a chapter from a historical text by Howard Zinn (A People’s History of the United States, The Twentieth Century), or William H. Chafe (The Unfinished Journey), or Allan Trachtenberg (The Guilded Age);

§ Contextual materials, such as an article on World War One, Chicago or NYC at the turn of the century (1900); or materials about Europe post WWI.

§ AT LEAST ONE MUST BE: Secondary materials: literary criticism, biographies, or letters: specific materials for each of the writers studied are available in Ely Library; the longer critical essays in the Norton edition of Sister Carrie are also available for this requirement. If you use Gale resources from the library, you need to delve into the critical articles and not just rely on the summary and overview materials found there.

§ OR: Theoretical sources, i.e. read a section of a philosophy, sociology, political or critical theory text and apply it to primary material. A good source of many essays on literary theory is:

Lenricchia, Frank and Thomas McLaughlin, eds. Critical Terms for Literary Study. Chicago: U of Chicago P, 1990. Call Number PN81.C84 1990.

¨ You may cite additional source(s) [above and beyond the required three] from cultural contexts such as media, film (including adaptations), song lyrics, television shows, news items, visual art, and additional fiction or poetry by a particular author.

¨ MLA format required—this applies to everything from formatting quotes, to underlining the name of books in line, and putting article names in quotes, to headers with page numbers, and how you format your name, date and other identifying info on the paper. Execution counts for 3 of the possible 15 points for this paper, and this includes proofreading for grammar, spelling, and proper format. Please include Word Count with header information, and follow MLA guidelines for paper format without separate title-page.