Research Writing

Choose interpret some aspect of the story that will be supplied

3-5 pages Proper MLA formatting in both the paper and the Works Cited page.

3 page minimum. This means 3 pages covered in 12-point Times New Roman doublespaced, not 2 full pages and a few lines on page 3.

1 academic, critical source that either supports your interpretation or is used to contrast with your interpretation.
An obvious thesis statement, organized paragraphs, clean grammar and punctuation, and no plot summary.

MLA formatting throughout, including in-text citations and a Works Cited page

Adequately interprets some element of a short story from Informal Writing 3 (theme, symbol, point of view, etc.)
Uses at least one critical, academic source as support for your interpretation.

.doc or .docx file.

a secondary source is an author writing about a work of literature. This is distinct from a primary source, which is the literary work itself (the story, poem, novel, or what have you).

Your secondary sources for this should be critical works from academic journals. That means essays about literature, written by and for an audience of academic professionals, published in journals which are run by academic professionals. You will generally get these from the University’s online databases. Go to the database called MLA International Bibliography has an amazing range of articles connected to literature, and will be a treasure trove for this class.

You can use Google to find intro-level summary and analysis for most of our course readings from sites like Shmoop, SparkNotes, GradeSaver, and ENotes. I can’t stop you from reading these, but I would advise that you first make an attempt to approach the text without assistance, and please understand that sites like SparkNotes and GradeSaver are not appropriate secondary sources for paper.

Your secondary sources must be literary criticism, and not drawn from other academic disciplines. So if, for instance, you were writing a paper about a story which deals with alcoholism, and you cited an academic piece about alcoholism — for instance, a piece from a medical journal about the health effects of drinking — you would not, for grading purposes, be including a secondary source.

Please don’t include citations in the form of “the dictionary defines this word as such-and-such.” They are intended for a less advanced audience than this paper.

EXAMPLES:
https://owl.purdue.edu/owl/purdue_owl.html