Instruction
You should begin your initial research about your chosen literature with some biographical information about the author then begin to read as much analysis of your particular selection as possible. When you are ready to begin writing your research paper, the biographical information should be very brief as an introduction to your literature. Keep in mind that the purpose of your paper is to critically analyze your chosen work, focusing on some aspect of the overall work that helps to define and unify a central argument. Possible research questions might include:
• What is unique about the work that makes it worthwhile?
• What technique(s) does the author use?
• What argument(s) are central to this piece?
• How effective are these argument(s)?
• What is unique about the way the writer presents this argument(s)?
• How do the writer’s techniques help define this piece as literature of importance?
These questions are not all-inclusive but should serve as a guide as you are researching and reading.
These are the readings you can choose from
Nathaniel Hawthorne, "Young Goodman Brown"
Flannery O'Connor, "A Good Man is Hard to Find"
Etheridge Knight, "Hard Rock Returns to Prison"
Edward Abbey, "Eco-Defense"
Ernesto Quiñonez, from Bodega Dreams
T. S. Eliot, "The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock
Claude Mckay "Outcast"
John Hope Franklin, "The Train from Hate"
Martin Luther King, Jr., "Letter from Birmingham Jail"
Jonathan Swift, "A Modest Proposal"
Requirements **
2000-word scope
One primary source (the chosen piece of literature)
No less than three credible, academic secondary sources (research)
Correct use of in-text documentation and Works Cited page (MLA format)
Wikipedia and other WWW sources are not always reliable. You should be able to find biographical
information and some critical sources from the online library databases. Critical sources that you find
online should be from previously published articles in a reputable magazine, journal, or newspaper, and
can be found in an academic database.