The goal of the Research Assignment is to find evidence that supports your analysis of short stories, poems, and plays. This essay will allow you to express your analytical thoughts about a piece of literature (a short story, poem, or play) from your textbook. You may not use the same short story or poem for the research essay you used for the short story assignment and poetry explication. If the same work is used, you will receive a zero for the research essay.
You will pull evidence from your primary text (Literature: An Introduction to Reading and Writing 6th compact edition) as well as secondary sources. You may choose to explore a literary term or technique. You are required to have 5 secondary sources, and they must be credible sources (for each missing secondary source, you will receive a 10-point deduction). I encourage you to use certain research sites, such as the GSU librarys electronic database. If MLA is done incorrectly, I will take off several points. Remember that this is an academic research paper (no first or second person and no contractions). This paper is 25% of your final grade.
Your essay needs to show evidence of literary elements/ threads, essay organization, formal tone, and MLA format (proper heading, in-text citations, works cited, and no block or lengthy quotations). Your paper must be 5 pages in length, excluding the Works Cited page. Essays that have fewer than five pages (of text) will not be graded. The Works Cited is an additional page. Essays that do not include both in-text citations and a Works Cited page will not be graded. If plagiarism is present, you will receive a zero for the Research Essay. Your paper must be double-spaced, typed in a 12-point Times New Roman font with 1-inch margins. I will take off for grammatical errors, so make sure you have as few errors as possible.
If you need additional help, please email me or use GSUs online tutoring services. I will add the link to the content section of iCollege. Also, there are research sections in your textbook that may be helpful. The short story research section begins on p. 500 (sample essay pp. 524-529), the poetry research section begins on p. 951 (sample essay pp. 952-956), and the drama research section begins on p.1550 (sample essay pp. 1552-1561). * Please view the Literature Research video for assistance with secondary sources; the video is in the content section (Research Information) of iCollege.
