Essay Instructions: English 201
English Literature I
Fall 2005
Critical Research
Description: The research paper is an integral part of English 201. As a matter of fact, it accounts fro 20% of your final grade for the class. Thus, it is imperative that all students submit a research paper and equally imperative that you do well on this assignment. This project is designed to give you, the student, an opportunity to study a topic or literary work beyond the scope of what takes place in class. You have the privilege of reviewing others opinions and then using those views to support your thesis about the subject.
Choose a poem (sonnets, dream allegory, elegy, ode, dramatic monologue), play, essay, satire, or any genre that may be representative of the works of the Anglo-Saxon Period to the Restoration and Eighteenth Century.
Write an eight to ten page research paper that analyzes some aspect of your chosen work.
Your analysis can focus on one of the various aspects of literature (character, plot, setting, tone, symbolism, language usage and devices, imagery, satire, Etc,) as it is depicted in the work or on the specific features of the genre. You may also choose a comparative approach for your analysis. For example, you may consider how the theme ?fall of man? is developed in Dr. Faustus and Paradise lost. Or you may compare Medieval and Renaissance drama using Everyman and Faustus, Utopia and The Rape of the Lock as satires. Another consideration is the epic form as used in Paradise lost and The Rape of the Lock.
Formulate a clear thesis statement, that makes an assertion about the work(s) or an aspect on the total development of the work.
Then write a well-developed and documented argument on the topic.
Follow MLA Guidelines for citations and documentation. You should include at least five secondary sources in support for the argument. (You may also refer to the booklet given in class for help with documentation.) In case of electronic sources, those too must be properly documented in text and at the end of the text.
Your paper should be double spaced and include a title page. The title of you paper should appear on the title page and on the first page of the text.
Due: November 28, 2005
English 201
English Literature
Selected Reading List
Assignment: Choose one of the selections listed as the focus of your analysis of a literary selection.
Sir Gawain and the Green Knight
Utopia
Astrophil and Stella
Amoretti
King Lear
The duchess of Malfi
Gulliver?s Travels
A Modest Proposal
Paradise Lost
Pamela
Joseph Andrews
Evelina
Robinson Crusoe
Moll Flanders
Tom Jones
Pilgrims Progress
Troilus and Criseyde
Dr. Faustus
The way of the World
Roxana
Clarissa
The Beggar?s Opera
She Stoops to Conquer
Hudibras
A tale of a Tub
The Rape of the Lock
Tamberlaine the Great
Paradigm for Analysis of Literary Works
The following model is designed to provide the student with a guide for writing an analysis of poetry, fiction, or drama.
Introduction: Identification of the work by title of genre
Brief summary in twon to three sentences
Relevant background information
Relevant facts about the author that have direct bearing on the work
Relevant quotations and / or paraphrases from authorities that establish the literary tradition.
Thesis sentence that establishes your critical appraisal of the work
(1-2 paragraphs)
Body: An analysis of elements such as imagery, symbolish, theme, character development, structure, style, language, point of view, in relation to the thesis. You may also analyze the work from the aspect of a critical approach such as feminism, reader response, etc. The thesis should serve as the unifying element for exploration of these or other elements
Note: an analysis is certainly enhanced in effectiveness and scholarship when it contains examples from the work itself, references, allusions to similar works, and quotations (used sparingly) with all properly documented. (The most detailed and developed part of the paper)
Conclusion: There a re numerous effective ways to conclude and analysis. In additon to providing an overall impression of the work, you may comment upon how effectively the author has employed the particular element in the work. IN particular, the conclusion explores the contribution to the writer in accordance with the thesis. But in whatever way you close your analysis, make it sensible, original, relevant and interesting.
I have choosen the book: Pilgrims Progress
8 pages
