Length: 2,000 – 2,500 words
Overview: The analytical research essay is the preeminent genre in academic writing. Scholars use the researched essay, generally speaking, to articulate their questions, situate their work with the scholarly literature in their discipline, report the methods & findings of their study, and discuss implications for the field. Scholars conduct their research with and write their essays for specific disciplinary discourse communities, and the values of each community has bearing on the expectations of the generic (i.e. ‘of genre’) conventions of the essay.
Purpose: So far this term, you have: conducted generic research for rhetorical features and moves; written an essay using those conventional moves; conducted primary research of communications within a discourse community; and analyzed that discourse community using the framework of a frequently cited scholar. In this next project, you will take what you have learned from this prior work and apply it, meanwhile conducting secondary research of existing scholarship and incorporating that research into an academic essay. The analytical research essay explores a critical question with assistance from scholarly research. Its conventions include thesis (argument), main ideas, supporting evidence, citation, conclusion, implication.
The literature review is where you summarize and synthesize the general state of the topic you are researching. The goal is to give your reader the necessary context and/or constraints for understanding your analysis of your topic/research question, showing how your sources have brought the topic/research question to its current state. You might think of the literature review as a conversation among your sources: what brings them all together in THIS particular analytical research essay? Focus your summary and synthesis on the answer to that question.
The literature review should include all of the peer-reviewed sources you plan to use. Although you are writing this part separately right now, keep in mind that the literature review will be part of your overall Analytical Research Essay.
Organize your literature review according to some clear logical arrangement: chronologically, topically, etc. Keep in mind that each paragraph has one topic. If you have 3 sources on the same topic, summarize and synthesize them in a single paragraph, but if you have 5 sources on 5 subjects, you’ll need 5 distinct paragraphs.
Although you may see this in various samples online, avoid referring directly to yourself or to the writing process itself.
You may still add to your research after the literature review is due, or decide not to use an item in the literature review in the final draft. You do not need to prepare a literature review for any additional items.
The Task(s): Your analytical research essay will explore your particular area of interest connected with the discourse community you selected for Project #2. With the support of secondary, scholarly sources, you will analyze an aspect of a debate or point of tension within that discourse community. Those scholarly sources will nourish and strengthen your exploration of the debate/point of tension, but they will always remain subordinate to your analysis. Then, you will do the following things (each & all of which will be discussed and worked on together):
Compose an annotated bibliography featuring at least five peer-reviewed sources
from a particular discipline or set of disciplines
Write an abstract in which you provide an overview of your essay
Write a literature review section of your paper
Write an analysis of the debate in your community in light of the scholarship examined in the literature review
Discuss the implications of your analysis for future scholarship
Evaluation criteria:
A concisely written research essay addressing this multi-part question: “Who is this community, what is the debate, what does the scholarship say about this debate, and what are the implications of this essay?”
Structure according to this sequence: Introduction, Literature review, Analysis, Implications
Consistency of tone, style, and voice
MLA formatting (unless otherwise determined with Professor Donovan in advance)
Grammatical, syntactical, and spelling accuracy and appropriateness
As a reminder, here are the guidelines for structuring the overall Analytical Research Essay
-provide an overview of the essay
-brief background on community
-brief overview of scholarship
-statement on argument/perspective
-essentially an extended version of your abstract
Lit Review (~800-1,000 words)
-review of existing scholarship
-discussion of individual sources–e.g. terms, perspectives, implications
-synthesis: how they fit together/overlap/inform one another
-relevance/salience to essay
Analysis (~1000-1500 words)
-summary description of community
-with descriptive focus on issue/tension/debate
-analysis of issue/tension/debate with presentation of specific evidence from your observations of the community using terms, perspectives, & implications of previous scholarship, as introduced/defined in lit review
Implications/Conclusion (~250-400 words)
-review of argument/findings
-discussion of implications — i.e. answering the question, ‘so what?’
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