Final Research Project for English 203Topic Proposal: due by 11:59 PM Saturday, March 23Rough Draft Due: due by 11:59 PM Thursday, April 4Final Draft Due: due by 11:59 PM Saturday, April 13Assignment Overview: For this assignment, you have two options: 1) atraditional research essay, or 2) a creative project accompanied by anartist’s statement and a research-based annotated bibliography. Whicheveroption you take, you will conduct an equivalent amount of academicresearch and writing, and you will engage with several peer-reviewedscholarly sources in the final product. Note: “scholarly sources” means apeer-reviewed academic article or book chapter. If you need help findingscholarly sources on your topic, meet with me ASAP or make anappointment with a member of CSU’s research librarian team. An extracredit point will be available for students who meet with the CSU researchlibrarians and write a reflection on their experiences finding scholarlysources.Assignment Goals: 1) to gain a greater appreciation of British literary art;2) to grow as areader; 3) to thoughtfully engage in the larger critical conversation about aspecific text’s meaning; 4) to creatively respond to a specific work (whetherin a traditional research essay or a creative project).Assignment Objectives: to successfully complete this assignment, youwill: 1) Demonstrate your ability to form an arguable thesis or a focusedcreative interpretation involving a work of art; 2) Support your argument ordevelop your interpretation through researching secondary sources(academic books and articles); 3) Support your argument or interpretationwith specific evidence from the text you are responding to; 4) Synthesizesome of the broader themes of the course into your work and make it clearwhy your topic and project matter—i.e., show what is at stake for readers(and humans, more broadly) in your consideration of the issues in the text;and 5) show your continuing development of the intellectual virtuesassociated with careful reading and writing.Option 1: Research PaperIf you take this option, you will write a 6-page research paper on anarguable thesis that focuses particularly on at least one text or author weread during the semester. You must be specific in your focus, with aclear, specific, and arguable thesis. When generating a topic, consider aquestion that you would like to answer, rather than just a broad theme forwhich you catalog examples. You may wish to use our course theme (quests,journeys, and the search for wisdom) or your own disciplinary interests toguide your topic generation—or just write about any topic or question
related to a specific text that interests you. Your essay should ultimatelyanswer your research question, using your sources as evidence andsupport, and referring back to the primary text as textual support foryour claims.Your paper should be at least 6 full pages in length, not including the WorksCited page; you should use at least 5 secondary sources, and of those 5sources, at least 4 should be peer-reviewed scholarly journal articlesor book chapters. To clarify, the literary text(s) you are writing about areyour primary source(s), and do not count as a secondary scholarly source.Both the paper and the Works Cited should be formatted in MLA style, with12 pt Times New Roman font, double spacing, and 1” margins all around (-5points deduction for anything else). Your essay will primarily be graded onthe quality of the ideas & thesis, the organization & structure, and quality &use of research; effective style & mechanics are assumed. I encourage youto take this assignment as an opportunity to explore a topic, author,or text from our readings this semester that interests you, inparticular
