Guidelines for the Research Project:

PLEASE NOTE: Much of the explanation of the research paper and all things related to it are
found in the writing sub-modules I have assigned in this on-line course. Below is just a brief
overview of the assignment and its elements, along with brief explanations. Please make
sure to read the PDFs!
You will write your research paper on one of the following short stories of your choice:

Purpose:
The purpose of this research paper is to:
 argue an interpretation of ONE of the short stories below

o “Bartleby the Scrivener” by Herman Melville

o “A Rose for Emily” by William Faulkner
o “Sonny’s Blues” by James Baldwin

 Your interpretation should be a synthesis of what scholars have argued about the story
organized into your own interpretive position on the story.

In doing this assignment, you will learn how to use library resources in order to conduct research
about the topic you have selected. You will also learn how to engage in a discussion with other
researchers over the topic you have chosen. You will be modeling your research paper after the
scholarly articles and essays that you will be reading in order to prepare your research paper. By
the end of the research process you will have familiarized yourself with professional academic
writing, learned the library system and how to use various databases for getting important
information and ideas, recognized what makes a source credible and learned how to provide
proper documentation and citations for all the materials you use. The research paper will
therefore combine your writing skills, your skills at critical analysis and your research skills.

THE PROCESS:
The overall process of a literary analysis research paper is so:
 Read the short story you have selected ACTIVELY—underlining what you think are
important passages, putting an asterisk or sign next to important moments, writing
questions or comments in the margins, etc.
 Think about broad topics raised in the story that might interest you. For instance,
you may be interested in Faulkner’s jumbles up time line or how Baldwin uses jazz as a
major element of his story.
 Research the story by finding articles written by scholars in peer-reviewed
journals (explained below) to see what kind of conversations have been going on
concerning the story you selected.
 Write an annotated bibliography (explained below)
 Invent an interpretation of your own and phrase it in one thesis statement: a
debatable, interpretive claim that organizes your paper and declares your purpose.
 Draw and outline of your paper, where you give a schematic of how you will organize
your paper into sections dealing with different elements of your thesis.
  First draft (explained below)
 Final draft (explained below)
Part of the process of any research project is INVENTION: that is, constructing a sufficiently
debatable topic of your own based on the research you have done. You will eventually develop
this into a coherent argument and analysis. Therefore, keep in mind that your research project
should be an exploration of what interests YOU about a particular story. It is YOUR topic to
ultimately specify and YOUR investigations that will provide answers to what YOU are looking
for.

 THE ANNOTATED BIBLIOGRAPHY:

Prior to writing your first draft of the paper, you will be required to show how you are gathering
research material and how it is useful for your research. For a literary analysis, research sources
are called SECONDARY SOURCES and generally take the form of scholarly articles or books
(or chapters in books). A secondary source is a document that either directly or indirectly
analyzes the short story you are researching, the historical period surrounding the story, the
author’s life or any other material that might impact your understanding of the primary area of
your research.

Therefore, you will be required to supply an annotated bibliography. I have supplied reading
materials in the writing sub-modules that explain this in more detail in the course.

An annotated bibliography is an alphabetical list (by the author’s last name) of your secondary
sources with a short explanation of the content of that source and how it contributes a major idea
to your research project. So, the annotated bibliography is just like a regular bibliography except
you must attach a one paragraph summary (minimum 6-7 sentences) of the secondary sources
used and their relevance to your research. Your bibliography should include no less than 10
sources. You may only use Internet sources that are found through the Galileo system: that is,
they must be peer-reviewed articles found through a legitimate research database. Any other
sources must come from the library in hard copy form. Sources may include books, essays,
articles from periodicals or journals, book chapters, and scholarly introductions to books.
Sources cannot be a short encyclopedic entry such as those found in The Explicator, “About the
author” preface, fan website, Wikipedia, a review or any non-peer-reviewed source. In short,
sources must have academic/scholarly merit.

Requirements:
1) proper MLA style of bibliographic sources
2) One paragraph annotation: what information does this secondary source
provide? How is it useful to your research?

What is peer-review?
Peer-review is a term to show that the journal that an article is found in has been
vetted by an editorial staff made up of scholars. This insures that the scholarship is new,
not copied from someone else and conforms to the expectations of academic expertise.
HOW IS A BIBLIOGRAPHY DIFFERENT FROM A WORKS CITED?

A works cited is the last page of your research paper. It is a listing of

all the sources you actually cited from in the paper you wrote and should be
listed in MLA style. A bibliography is a list of all the works you read in
your research process but not all of them necessarily make it into your final
paper.

 You will be required to have an annotated bibliography as an

assignment that will have a minimum of 10 secondary sources.
 You will be required to have a minimum of 5 secondary sources cited
in your final draft of the paper, as well as quotations from your
primary source (that is, the short story itself). Therefore, you will
have a minimum of 6 cited works in your works cited page.

 FIRST DRAFT RESEARCH PAPER REQUIREMENTS

While your first draft is not a polished, final copy of your research paper, you should still
be sure to proof read your paper. I will not be correcting grammar or spelling errors
beyond the first page of your draft in order to concentrate on providing commentary on
the structure, organization and coherence of your draft. The extent to which you see
corrections of grammar and spelling on that first page will give you an idea of the extent
to which you need to revise grammar and spelling throughout the paper. I recommend
the Writing Center for help in this area or visits to my office hours if you have lots of
mistakes.

o A minimum of five pages.

o An underlined thesis statement.
o Five secondary source paraphrases and/or quotations from at least two
sources.
o Five primary source quotations
o You will have no more than two block quotations in your paper which
should not exceed half a page
o You should have proper MLA documentation and formatting
o Your paper should be in 12 point Times New Roman and it should be
stapled.

 I will give you a mock grade— that is, a grade that I would have given you if
this were your final draft in order to give you an idea of where you stand.
 Any drafts not conforming to these minimum requirements will not be read.
  If you do not turn in a first draft, you will be deducted a letter grade on the
final draft.

 FINAL DRAFT RESEARCH PAPER: Critical textual analysis.

o This is the polished, revised and completed form of your first draft and the
final graded document.
o Based on your outline, you will write a coherent and organized 8-10 page
essay. By 8 pages I mean that you need to have 7 full pages and writing
that extends onto the eighth page. If you do not meet this minimum
requirement, you cannot pass the research paper. In the essay you will be
providing arguments for your topic through close reading of the primary
text and by using secondary sources—all of which should already be
detailed to some degree in your outline.

Here are the requirements for the final draft:

 You will be required to have a minimum of ten secondary source references

(paraphrases and/or quotations), but a minimum of five different
secondary source quotations.
 You will be required to have a minimum of ten primary source quotations.
 You will have no more than two block quotations in your paper which should not
exceed half a page.
 You will include a works cited page at the end of the paper.
 You should have proper MLA documentation and formatting.
 Your paper should be in 12 point Times New Roman and it should be stapled.

GLOSSARY OF TERMS:

Annotation: Explanatory notes on what makes a source useful for your research and how
it will contribute to your research.

Bibliography: A list of secondary sources used for your research project.

Invention: Process of choosing a topic appropriate to the subject, audience and occasion.

MLA: Modern Language Association; a standardized format for documenting and citing

your sources and formatting your paper.

Peer-reviewed: Indicates that the secondary source you have used in your research has

been read, evaluated, edited, and accepted by experts in the field.

Primary source: The novel you are researching.

Secondary source: A document that either directly or indirectly analyzes the novel you
are researching, the historical period surrounding the novel, the author’s life or any other material
that might impact your understanding of the primary area of your research.

Thesis: A debatable claim that elaborates the central idea and argument of your paper.

Works Cited: A list of all sources referenced or quoted in the paper.