Major Essays: The majority of your grade in this course comes from a sequence of papers based on the assigned literature. This assignment should use at least 7 sources. Six sources (SECONDARY) should be scholarly books or articles published within the last ten years. One source (PRIMARY) will be your textbook (or it can be from another book, but a primary source is the original text, play, poem, book, etc being analyzed). Use quotes from the sources to support your thesis. This means your Works Cited page should have at least 7 sources altogether. Note: you may not use online sources such as Wikipedia, Gradesaver, Shmoop, eNotes, 123helpme, and etc.
Assignment:
Below is a list of possible topics for you to choose from. Choose ONE topic. Alternatively, you may come up with your own topic, but you must obtain my approval no later than Week 6 of the term. If you do this, I highly recommend you complete all Week 7 assignments as I will let you know if your thesis is strong (or flawed) and your topic sufficiently narrowed before you’ve gone too far. NOTE: If you choose your own topic, it must be related to literature- either something we’ve discussed this term or some other literature (play, poem, short story, novel, etc.) that has caught your interest.
Regardless of which topic you choose, make sure that you analyze the piece of literature in detail as you make your argument. You may discuss more than one piece of literature and/or combine the topics.
The research essay should be at least 1,500 words. The essay should use at least 6 secondary sources, none of which may come from the Internet unless it is a journal article from Troy University’s online databases or other scholarly source. Then you will need to use your primary source for a total of 7 sources.
Format. Follow proper MLA format in producing your texts, particularly as you cite your sources. Failure to do so will lower your grade. Failure to do so will lower your grade. See the document in the Modules areas for specific instructions on formatting your paper and citing sources.