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Due
Dates:
Monday,
October 29
Term essay proposals and preliminary,
annotated bibliographies due.
Wednesday, November 14 Term essay proposal rewrites due.
Wednesday, December 12 Term essay (with annotated bibliography) due.
Requirements:
Length,
format and sources: The
term essay should be a minimum of 9 pages, 12 pages maximum. While
I do not require a certain number of secondary sources, in a paper of
this length it would be unusual to refer to fewer than 3
secondary sources (in addition, of course, to one primary source).
One of these sources may be from the required secondary readings.
Follow MLA format.
Topic:
Part of your task, as an upper-division literature major, is to
craft an engaging, interesting, provocative research topic.
Many students quail at the thought of choosing their own topic,
and I will not leave you completely on your own.
I am happy to consult with you on an individual basis; we will be
reviewing strong and not so strong proposals together as a class on
November 5 so that you have a sense of what works and what doesn’t; and
we will discuss and review your progress on the essays as the due date
approaches. In choosing a
topic, I suggest you follow these guidelines:
stay with the works and authors that interest you most.
Nothing dooms a paper more surely than writing on a topic or
writer you dislike. Think
about class discussions, questions you still have that we did not
explore together, issues you began to consider in your response essays,
and ideas presented in the required secondary reading.
Next, develop a research question (something like “Why was Anne
Bradstreet not condemned for writing poetry, given Puritan attitudes
toward poetry and writing women?”
“Which English writers most influenced Edward Taylor?
How?”). Then begin
writing, from your own knowledge and your reading of the text, your
response to your question. Finally,
explore the secondary literature on your subject for new directions,
ideas and evidence.
Use
of sources:
You are part of a scholarly community—this is why we engage
with other scholars in our own writing.
You do not write in a vacuum, but for an audience that includes
me, your peers, and (at least in theory) other scholars in the field.
We use secondary literature in our essays as a way to broaden,
complicate, add authority to or clarify your ideas.
Therefore, when you quote another scholar, it should serve a
purpose.
Recommended
secondary sources: In addition to the recommended secondary
sources, use the college's electronic databases (MLA
Bibliography). I discourage use of the journal The Explicator, which
seems directed primarily toward dim high school students, but all
peer-reviewed, scholarly journals are acceptable, as well as book-length
studies from university (and some trade) presses. The most important journal in
Early American literature is named, conveniently, Early American
Literature (EAL). There are few topics or authors in the field
that haven't been covered at some point by scholarly essays in EAL.
You may also use the electronic links I have provided on the on-line
syllabus; otherwise, I would discourage you from using web sources
unless you are certain of their scholarly integrity. See
below for recommended resources.
Miscellaneous:
I
encourage you to meet with me, visit the Writing Studio, and work with
your peers at all stages in the writing process.
Share sources and ideas; get to work early (particularly if you
need to order books via Document Delivery).
Do not hesitate to share questions and ideas with me and the rest
of the class.
Proposal
and Annotated Bibliography Assignment:
The term essay
proposal just that: a proposal. You are not bound by your proposal,
though I encourage you to put together something thoughtful. The
proposal should be no more than two paragraphs long. Discuss the
subject most of interest to you and construct a tentative thesis. You
may choose from any of the works on the syllabus. Proposals will be
shared and discussed in class.
When you hand in
your proposal, you will also submit an annotated bibliography. This is
simply a list of sources (in MLA format) that contains descriptive or
evaluative comments on the sources. This is a sample entry of an
annotated bibliography from the MLA Handbook, 6th edition:
Thompson, Stith.
The Folktale. New York
: Dryden, 1946. A comprehensive survey of the most popular folktales,
including their histories and their uses in literary works.
This is the format
you should follow, but the annotation itself is too brief. Yours
must be at least 3 sentences long:
- one
sentence on the contents (as above in the sample entry);
- one
evaluative sentence (which could be an elaboration on a comment like
one of these: "hard to follow," "theory-heavy and very
complicated"; "simplistic analysis" etc.);
- one
sentence on the usefulness of the text for your project.
Your final essay
must have a final, annotated
bibliography that includes every source you examined in the writing of
the essay.
Resources:
Books! Use books! If our library does
not have the books you want, order them through the exceptional Document
Delivery Service offered by our library.
Electronic
Databases (available on-line via the Maxwell
Library
database
home
page
):
-
Academic
Search Premier (automatically searches The MLA International
Bibliography and other indices)
-
JSTOR
On-line Journals
-
The
A-Z Journal and Newspaper List (tells you all about Maxwell's
journal and newspaper holdings -- very handy).
Periodicals:
This
is not an exhaustive list, but it's pretty close. All journals are
available either in bound volumes in the library (usually pre-1990), via
electronic databases, or through Maxwell Library's excellent Document
Delivery Service.
American
Literature
African American Review
American Literary Realism
American Literary History
ANQ:
A Quarterly Journal of short Articles, Notes, and Reviews
American Quarterly
Arizona Quarterly
ATA/American Transcendental Quarterly
College English
College Language Association Journal
CLIO
College Literature
Cambridge Quarterly
Critical Review
Critical Inquiry
Criticism:
A Quarterly for Literature and the Arts
Early American Literature
ELN/English Language Notes
English Studies
ESQ:
A Journal of the American Renaissance
Explicator (use this sparingly if at all; it’s geared toward a less
sophisticated audience)
Journal of American Culture
Journal of American Studies
Legacy:
A Journal of Nineteenth-Century American Women Writers
N & Q (Notes and Queries)
Modern Language Studies
Nineteenth-Century Literature
Nineteenth-Century Studies
New England Quarterly
PMLA:
Publications of the Modern Language Association
Studies in American Fiction
SEL:
Studies in English Literature, 1500-1900
Studies in Short Fiction
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