Length: A minimum of 1300 words, beginning with the first word in your paper’s title through the last word in your essay’s concluding paragraph. All other text required of this MLA-formatted paper–your name, my name, course title, headers, page numbers, and works cited page(s)–DO NOT COUNT toward the 1300 words.
Points Value: 100
I. GENERAL INFORMATION
The Drama Research Paper addresses Learning Objectives 1, 2, 3, 4, and 5 of the course syllabus, which I am pasting below with notes regarding this specific assignment:
1. Demonstrate an understanding of genre and literary forms or structures, specifically, drama.
2. Apply the techniques to analyze and interpret works of literature, specifically, the tools you learned in regard to analyzing and interpreting drama.
3. Define and use literary terms, those terms covered in Chapters 35 and 38.
4. Demonstrate an understanding of and an appreciation for diversity in literature, specifically, drama.
5. Demonstrate an appreciation for literature, specifically, drama, and the insight it lends into the human experience.
Remember my PLAGIARISM POLICY, and take great care to NOT PLAGIARIZE! See Section D. Academic Misconduct/Plagiarism Policy section under SPECIFIC MANAGEMENT REQUIREMENTS of my syllabus.
ANY AI Use in this course is strictly forbidden! Any use is academic misconduct and will earn a student a 0 for the respective assignment.
A. Preparation
To prepare for this major writing assignment, students may want to again read the Writing about Drama section on pp. 1455-1461 (Chapter 43) of your Bedford Introduction to Literature textbook.
In addition, students may need to again watch the video from Norton Publishing from the Week 1 Module.
B. Instructions
Select from the prompts (see below) for subjects on which to write your Drama Research Paper. Whichever prompt you choose, you must have read Arthur Miller’s Death of a Salesman and August Wilson’s Fences, both of which are required reading for Week 11. A link to Miller’s Death of a Salesman is provided in that module, and Wilson’s Fences is on pages 1329-1375 of The Bedford Introduction to Literature.
Select from the prompts (see below) for subjects on which to write your Drama Research Paper.
Your paper must demonstrate the critical skills and terminology you have learned about drama, which means you will be incorporating and applying terms, concepts, and ideas from your Bedford Introduction to Literature textbook.
An analysis is an argument; therefore, your paper’s thesis will make an arguable claim as to the literary work’s possible meaning. With that said, take time to think through your interpretation of the literary work, and then formulate your ideas about the literary work’s possible meaning into an explicit, focused, and arguable thesis statement.
In order to defend your thesis, you need good reasons as support. Each reason will serve as the topic sentence of a body paragraph. To support each topic sentence, you will supply examples and illustrations from the literary work. These examples will then be followed by your explanation or discussion of how the evidence from the literary work supports what you claim in your topic sentence. Likewise, you will incorporate quotes and paraphrases from your textbook and integrate and discuss your research, following that research with your relevant discussion, application, analysis, etc., of that research.
II. YOUR ESSAY’S STRUCTURE
Title– Your essay’s title should hint at your paper’s thesis. Your essay’s title should NOT be the literary work’s title only. In other words, a student’s (hypothetical) analytical paper’s title would not be: Young Goodman Brown. A more acceptable title, for example, might be: Of Forests and Fire: Setting and Symbolism in Hawthorne’s “Young Goodman Brown”
Introduction– Like any essay, your literary analysis should have a concise introduction. Include the title of the work(s) your paper will analyze, the author’s name or authors’ names. Place your analysis into context for your reader before segueing into your thesis. Your thesis statement, your paper’s central argument, will be the last sentence of your introduction. Construct a thesis that offers your interpretation of the literary work’s possible meaning and briefly assert how the formal components contribute to and shape that meaning. Your introductory paragraph should NOT exceed the first page of your essay.
Body Paragraphs– Each of your body paragraphs should follow expository structure. Each body paragraph, then, should begin with your original topic sentence, followed by evidence that supports your topic sentence, and your discussion, application, and explanation of that evidence. Therefore, EVIDENCE to support your topic sentence will come from the literary works themselves (in the form of exact quotes), your research, and your textbook (when you apply terms and concepts). After the evidence, you must discuss, apply, and explain how the evidence supports your topic sentence. Each body paragraph, therefore, should be a synthesis of evidence and your explanation. Construct each body paragraph so that it is logical, unified, and well-developed. When you incorporate quotes from your textbook, the literary works, and secondary sources, you must include a signal phrase before quoting or paraphrasing a source and end each use of the source with a correctly-formatted MLA in-text citation. Remember, too, that when using a secondary source’s analysis, you must discuss, analyze, or apply that source to the respective paragraph’s point. In other words, a writer cannot simply insert a source and walk away from it in his or her paper. Include page numbers in your in-text citations. This research paper should include a MINIMUM of 5 quotes from EACH literary work, at least 3 quotes from your Bedford Introduction to Literature textbook, and at least 4 quotes from your research, not lumped together, but rather, logically incorporated throughout your paper’s body paragraphs. NO long quotes (ones exceeding 4 typed lines).
Conclusion– Your final paragraph should bring your analysis to a close and restate your thesis. Do not introduce any new ideas in this final paragraph.
Works Cited – After your 1300-word paper, you should have a works cited page, which will include the complete works cited entry information for each literary work, your Bedford textbook (for the concepts and other relevant information Michael Meyer and D. Quentin Miller provide that you incorporate and apply in your paper), and your scholarly sources. Refer to the MLA Format page in the Resources Module.
III. YOUR RESEARCH AND SOURCES
Your paper should have at least 3 secondary academic sources, which are to be from published scholarly, peer-reviewed essays and books accessed via the SSCC and OhioLINK libraries’ databases (i.e. articles from peer-reviewed journals or books written by established academics that are published by university presses; graduate and post-graduate students’ theses or dissertations are NOT academic sources). NOTE: Google Scholar and Internet sources that purport to be peer-reviewed and scholarly DO NOT SATISFY THIS REQUIREMENT.
(Links to an external site.)A. To help you locate scholarly (peer-reviewed) sources in the SSCC and OhioLINK library databases, particularly the large database Academic Search Complete, refer to these helpful Library Guides, provided as both a PowerPoint presentation and a Word file:
Library Databases Search Tutorial.pptxDownload Library Databases Search Tutorial.pptx
Library Databases Search Tutorial Handout.docxDownload Library Databases Search Tutorial Handout.docx
B. Databases you might find helpful are the Literary Reference Center and Academic Search Complete. For step-by-step instructions on how to access this database and locate scholarly sources, click on this file: 1) Accessing Literary Reference Database.docx.pdf Download Accessing Literary Reference Database.docx.pdf Download Accessing Literary Reference Database.docx.Download Accessing Academic Search Complete.pdf
C. For instructions on how to find your Barcode by accessing MyRecords, follow the directions outlined in my Syllabus, which I am pasting below.
When off campus, students must use their Barcode to access library resources. Here is how to get your Barcode:
GETTING YOUR BARCODE
Go to www.sscc.eduLinks to an external site.
Select link to MySSCC from top-level menu
Select MyRecords link
At the MyRecords portal page, login to MyRecords with your SSCC username and password (do so in upper, right-hand corner of the webpage)
Select the blue “Login” button just to the right
Once you are at the Student page, go to the far right column on that page
Scroll down to the last option in that column, which reads: MyBarcode NEW!
Select the “View Results” link in that table to get your Barcode, which will come up as Bar Code ID
Dictionaries and encyclopedias are NOT scholarly sources
Do NOT consult or use ideas from websites such as Wikipedia, Shmoop, Sparknotes, Grade Saver, Bartleby, WordPress, or similar sites. Any paper using such sources will automatically have its earning potential reduced by 30%.
You MUST include the complete bibliographic reference of all your sources in your works cited list, and that includes your primary source—the literary work(s) you will analyze and any historical or other information you get from your textbook.
IV. OTHER CRITERIA
Remember that your analysis, discussion, and explanation should be as long, or longer, than your textual support and resources. For a researched literary analysis essay, your informed interpretation is to be the star. While textual evidence and secondary sources are important, they are not to be the majority of your paper.
This essay is to be written using formal, academic writing, which means NO USE OF FIRST- OR SECOND-PERSON. That means no use of “I,” “we,” “our,” “my,” or “myself,” and no use of “you,” “your,” or “yourself.” In addition, remember this paper is to be an analysis, which means how the literary work’s formal elements convey MEANING. Do not focus on the presumed effect a literary work might have on the reader.
Points will be deducted from essays that do not follow all of these instructions and criteria.
V. EVALUATION
Your paper will be evaluated based on
following the assignment’s directions and criteria
the quality of your argumentation
logic
synthesis and application of sources
MLA style
MUGS (mechanics, usage, grammar, syntax)
organization
DUE DATE AND SUBMISSION INSTRUCTIONS
Your literary analysis is due on Friday, April 12, by 11:30 p.m. EST.
Click on the “Submit Assignment” button in the upper-right hand corner. Your submission must be a Word document (.doc, .docx). Do NOT upload a PDF or Google Doc.
PROMPTS
Select ONE of the following prompts on which to focus your essay.
Compare and contrast Troy Maxson in Wilson’s Fences to Willy Loman in Miller’s Death of a Salesman. How do these protagonists relate to their sons? What is the significance of your comparison?
Research theories of tragedy and the tragic hero. Drawing on both these and evidence from Wilson’s Fences and Miller’s Death of a Salesman, explain whether and how these two plays might be considered tragedies or their protagonists tragic heroes.
Compare and contrast the two matriarchs of Wilson’s and Miller’s plays. That is, compare Rose Maxson in Fences to Linda Loman in Death of a Salesman. How are the women depicted as wives and mothers? If you wish, you may choose to analyze these characters by employing a feminist critical approach (see “Feminist Crit
