Term Paper Process: For this assignment—which is really an interwoven set of assignments—you will immerse yourself in a critical writing process that will lead to a four-to-six page term paper (double-spaced, standard font) springing from course readings and discussions as well as your own intellectual interests. This framework is intended to be broad and flexible, enabling you to approach this task through any specific avenue you might develop. You are encouraged to push your analysis as far as it will go in whatever direction you feel makes for the most intriguing project. We write in order to think critically about issues that literary study confronts us with and in order to further cultivate critical thinking about these issues in our own readers. With these goals in mind, you are writing these papers for an audience that includes yourself, your classmates, and other scholars interested in the issues at hand.
Near the middle of the term, you will submit a 200-300 word topic proposal accompanied by an annotated bibliography. This is your opportunity to formally begin your term paper writing process and to receive feedback on your approach. Your topic proposal should articulate the central theme that you anticipate exploring in your paper and it should identify which one of our major course texts your paper will place at the center of its exploration. (So you will write a paper about Tracks, or you will write a paper about one or more of Heid Erdrich’s video poems, or you will write a paper about Stories for a Lost Child, or you will write a paper about The Lesser Blessed.) Your accompanying annotated bibliography will consist of four entries. Each entry will include a full citation (in MLA style, whichever edition you prefer) of a peer-reviewed secondary source relevant to your project and a 100 word explanation of what the source is and why it is relevant to your project. (Secondary sources are texts you will use to set up your analytical framework and to support your analysis of your primary source. Your primary source is the major course text you have selected to write your paper about.) None of the sources used in your annotated bibliography should be a course reading. Proposals and annotated bibliographies submitted on time and in full accordance with the expectations stated here will earn 16 points.
Three page (double-spaced, standard font) workshop drafts will be peer reviewed. Drafts submitted at length and on time will earn 20 points. The peer review offers an opportunity for you to critically engage with the work of your classmates and to join them in a productive exchange of advice and insights that will be useful as you all continue working on your papers. You will be required to post workshop feedback for each draft in your course team. Detailed instructions for doing so will be provided on our course website. Workshop feedback submitted on time and in full accordance with the expectations stated here and on our course website will earn 30 points.
Four-to-six page (double-spaced, standard font) polished papers are due near the conclusion of the term. These will be assessed on how well they meet the following three interlocking criteria:
Content: The paper should reflect a clear understanding of the assignment and of the primary text being considered. The thesis should be clearly articulated and well supported, illustrated, and developed with direct citations and summaries of relevant material from the primary text.
Clarity: The paper should clearly express, illustrate, and develop its ideas and insights. Terms should be effectively established and deployed, and the paper’s ideas should be expressed clearly and comprehensibly. The paper’s prose should be “clean” (no typos or misspellings) and clear (grammatically sound, in the active voice as appropriate). The paper’s thesis should be clearly advanced, developed, and sustained. Connections between the various parts of the paper should be made explicit. The paper’s focus should be clearly articulated and maintained. Primary and secondary source citations should be clear and complete both within the paper and on a list of works cited.
Insight: The paper should advance a complex and specific thesis that is well articulated. The paper should go beyond conventional wisdom to explore and articulate the significance of the ideas being considered. The paper should address potential objections to its thesis and associated ideas. The paper should “think through” (develop and explore) the full range of implications of the ideas or insights brought up.
Polished term papers that fully satisfy these criteria will earn 40 points.
I ONLY NEED YOU TO WRITE THE DRAFT PAPER I HAVE GIVEN YOU THE PROPOSAL AND ANNOTATED BIBLIOGRAPHY! The paper is on the book called Stories for a lost child by Carter Meland
