Literary criticism is a conversation. The larger conversation is often hidden from
view, and the mode of conversation can be elaborate and sometimes convoluted
beyond comprehension. Good researchers are not daunted by the challenge of
investigating, decoding, and entering into the conversation, however. As such, this
paper requires digging and persistence. You will find a current academic, peer-reviewed
article about one of our current or future texts to use a starting point for your
bibliographic journey. Read this article to get a general sense of the argument, and
keep an eye out for quotations, references, footnotes, and citations to previous articles
or books. Write down author names and article titles that seem to be in conversation
with the main argument of the first article. Begin tracing the conversations between the
first article and previous works. This will require you to dig into the Works Cited (or
Bibliography) of the first article to find the journal titles and publication information of the
cited material. Once you find the citation information you need from the first article,
begin looking for the next article in the library databases. Once you find the second
article, repeat the process until you have three peer-reviewed academic articles that are
in conversation with each other.
When you have three relevant articles, begin organizing the ideas for your essay.
The task is not to merely summarize each article but to trace the conversation between
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them. In other words, focus on the concepts they all discuss, and give special attention
to voices that disagree or that take slightly different stances on the subject. Once you
have a general sense of how to characterize each author and article, begin writing your
essay. Keep in mind that this is still an essay; it is not merely a book report. You’re
creating a narrative about the research that will distill the conversation for your reader.
Your essay will reveal the hidden conversation that readers often miss when doing
literary research. The introduction should do two things: present a striking quotation
from one (or more) of the articles and briefly summarize the conversation. Arrange the
rest of the essay based on an organizational principle of your choice (chronological,
reverse-chronological, or conceptual). The conclusion should also include a striking
quotation, but it should also give your reader a sense of where you stand in the
conversation and what future research needs to be done.
A full draft of this paper (900-1200 words or about 3-4 pages) must be uploaded
to Canvas by the designated day at 11:59 p.m. You must then comment on three
other student papers in Turnitin by the deadline. Set aside about 1.5 hours for this
(allowing at least 20 minutes per paper). After your read other student comments on
your paper, make changes and upload your final draft to Canvas by the designated
day at 11:59 p.m. (See the course calendar under “Syllabus” in Canvas.) Remember to
use MLA format and include a Works Cited with your three articles and the book from
class that you are researching.
