Laura T. Smith: Teaching

Paper Three: Research-Based Analysis

Due Dates:

April 17: Research Question Due
April 29: Annotated Bibliography Due
May 8: Final Paper Due

The purpose of this paper is to use scholarly research to advance your interpretation of a poem.

For this paper, you are welcome to use a poem or poet you've written about already, since you will be writing about that poem/poet in a different way as a result of your research. You may also start with a new writer.

Research Question: To begin, I'd suggest brainstorming some research questions or research interests, even if these are vague. You may be interested in a writer, a time period, a historical or cultural context, a political issue, or a literary problem, such as:

--how poets responded to the 1930s culture wars
--T.S. Eliot
--the Beats
--how Whitman represents Civil War-era America in Leaves of Grass
--how Hopkins innovated upon the sonnet form
--how Li Young Lee (or Julia Alvarez or Naomi Shihab Nye) use bi-linguality or bi-culturality in their poems
--how contemporary poets write (or how Whitman wrote) about immigration (or compare Whitman's approach with a contemporary poet...)

Your preliminary research interests can be somewhat vague. They provide you some starter keywords for searching.

Once you've done some preliminary poking around, formulate a Research Question.

April 17: Post your formal Research Question to the Research Question forum. This is a detailed statement that sums up your inquiry. Most of the major terms (keywords) for your topic should be included in your Research Question (e.g., writer, time period, political, historical, or cultural contexts/issues).

April 29: Turn in a hard copy of your annotated bibliography. Your annotated bibliography must include five secondary sources. An annotated bibliography lists all your sources in regular MLA Works Cited format, but includes, after each listing, a fairly detailed summary of the content or argument of the source (roughly one paragraph) and an additional sentence (or two, if needed) about how you are using the source or how it contributes to your thinking. (E.g.: "I will be using this source as evidence for basic background on the Harlem Renaissance." or "This source contains an interpretation of the Waste Land that I disagree with. I'm presenting it as a counterargument.") You may not entirely know, yet, if all sources are useful, and that's fine too. You can say, "I'm not sure if or how I'll use this one."

Sometime in mid-to-late April, you should develop a thesis. Based on what you've learned from research, what argument do you want to make about the poem(s)? The goal here is to build an interpretation of a poem (like you've been doing all semester) with the aid of extra background to deepen your thinking. Your thesis/focus may have veered a bit from your Research Question, and that's fine.

Peer Review Draft: Highly Recommended!! Please do this!! Find a partner in class or go to the UWC!!

May 8, 5 pm , PAR 406: Final Paper Due, 7-8 pp. Your final paper should principally present your argument/interpretation. You should rely heavily on close reading; many of the quotations in your paper will come from your primary source(s). Your research should aid, back up, advance, or enrich your interpretation. You are required to include a minimum of a four secondary sources in your final paper (meaning, you may not end up quoting every source you consulted and that's fine).

Requirements and Fine Print:
See Policy Statement for a review of MLA format and documentation information. See Mechanical Proficiencies and Stylistic Attributes for more style tips!