Explain what you discover is significant or important this author or this work.

English 2332
Research Assignment

Due Date: Monday, November 29, by 11:30 pm
Reminder—Late assignments
are not accepted.

Assignment:
1.
Select—one author from the following list.
Note: Some of these authors may be
found in volume 1 of the Norton Anthology
of World Literature, shorter 4th ed.—page number indicated
in parenthesis after the author’s name.
Others are linked in through the
website, Project Gutenberg. Use only the works indicated and use only
links from Project Gutenberg.
–Christine de Pizan (1161), The Book
of the City of Ladies (1162+), (Norton, select one chapter)
–Murasaki Shikibu (1231), The Tale
of Genji (1237+), (Norton, select one chapter)
–Sunjata: A West African Epic of the
Mande Peoples (1424), (Norton, select one story)
–Niccolo Machiavelli (1487), The
Prince (Norton, select one chapter)
–Lope de Vega, Fuente
Ovejuna, (This is a play. Select a specific scene. Be sure to
indicate which scene you are writing about in your essay.)

2. Research—be
sure to give yourself time to do academic research on the author. This research
may include using the headnotes or overview materials from the textbook, print
or eBooks from the library, or database articles. (See guidelines for research
given on page 2 of this assignment sheet.)

3. Write—an essay that does the following two things:
a—Provides a brief biography for an author
or a brief overview for a work without an author listed. NOTE: This section
MUST have MLA documentation for all research used in the essay. Document the
resource in a list of Works Cited and cite the resource parenthetically (no
announcing authors or titles of resources) in the text. Essays without this
documentation will receive an immediate zero/F for plagiarism.
b—Analyzes some aspect of one work or
section written by the chosen author or in the work.
* The
literary work may be a brief work or an excerpt from a longer work by this author
(e.g., a single poem or a chapter or part of a longer work, and so forth)
* The
study or analysis of the work means that you will consider something about the
work. For example, you may wish to analyze the writer’s use of literary devices
like metaphors and how these elements enhance or create meaning in the work.
(See below for more ideas.)

Essay Content Guidelines:
See the document “Required Layout of Research Paper” for instructions on how to
organize and present this essay.
For the introduction to the author and the analysis of the
literary work, include the following in the essay:
¨ Who
is this author or what is the work? Give
a brief biography about this author or overview of the work. Be careful—do
not copy and paste or copy directly from a source. Paraphrase, quote, or
summarize and document the source for this information. You may use the
headnotes and overview materials from the Norton,
but you will still need to document and cite the editors [e.g., (Puchner et al.
1234)].
NOTE: If you
use materials from a source and do not document the source, the essay WILL
RECEIVE a zero/F for plagiarism.
¨
Why study this author or this work? Explain what you discover is significant or
important this author or this work. For example, does the work have historical
significance, does it represent something about a culture, or does it
demonstrate a style or particular genre popular during its time period?.
¨
Select one brief work or an excerpt from a
longer work by this author. Analyze this work. Here are some ways you might
wish to accomplish this:
–
Explore a special meaning the work conveys and
examine how the author accomplishes this meaning through imagery, symbolism,
word choice, and the like.
–
Investigate the structure of the work and
explain how the structure helps convey ideas and/or meaning.
–
Explore the development of a theme, a symbol, a
character, or a literary device.
–
Study how the author’s private life may have
impacted or affected his or her subject matter, approach, or signification in
the particular work you are analyzing.

NOTE: Do not simply summarize the
work. Give a full analysis of the idea you are exploring. Balance the
presentation of the ideas so that the analysis is not simply a paragraph or two
at the end of the essay.

Length: Write an
original essay that is four to five pages or approximately 1500 words

Research: Use at
least two but no more than five academic resources to assist you with your
biographical facts or to help you develop your analysis. All sources MUST be
appropriately documented in the Works Cited AND cited in the essay. Simply
listing sources is not enough. Also, do not simply list the URL for a source. Doing
his will not be considered as documentation. (See instructions below.)

Specific guidelines for types
of sources that may be used:
–
Academic research means scholarly books,
references, or websites. However, limit your use of websites, and do not use any
“.com” sites.
–
You may use the databases in the Eastfield
College Library website. A link to the EFC library is available in the Course
Library menu folder in eCampus.
–
You may use some websites. The following sites
exemplify the types of materials on the Internet that are acceptable for an
academic research paper:
o
“Shakespeare’s Life and Times” from the Royal
Shakespeare Company: https://www.rsc.org.uk/shakespeares-life-and-times
o
“Michel de Montaigne” from Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy: http://www.iep.utm.edu/montaign/

Please note that both of these
sources are well researched and are not commercial (“.com”) sites.
–
Be cautious when using online materials. Be sure
that they are not student websites.
–
DO NOT use Wikipedia.org. This is not a
credible website for academic research.

Essay Style Guidelines:

1.
Write the paper in an essay
structure. For this assignment, do
not use headings. However, do use transitional words, phrases, or sentences to help you link ideas smoothly so that they maintain a clear
unity and coherence.

2. Use MLA manuscript formatting. The following URL link to the MLA
Style Center provides detailed instructions for all aspects of this type of
formatting. Follow these instructions precisely: https://style.mla.org/formatting-papers/

3. Document all sources in the essay in two ways:
* in a Works Cited list that is located at the back
of the essay.
* in parenthetical in text
citations that appear immediately after any quotations or paraphrased
information included in your essay. Use the MLA
Handbook, 8th edition
(2016), book or
website only.

Also, the following websites provides good directions on MLA documentation of outside sources:
Works Cited Quick Guide
(official MLA
website that includes guidelines AND sample essays)

Some additional helpful information may be found
at the Online Writing Lab at Purdue University (OWL): MLA Guidelines at OWL/

4. DO NOT PLAGIARIZE. I will immediately give a
zero/F for any essay I discover has plagiarism, in part or in whole. Students
MAY NOT rewrite if they have plagiarized.

The following URL link provides a definition of plagiarism
and how to avoid it. Read it, and follow these guidelines carefully: Plagiarism
and Academic Honesty

5. Quotations—handle
quotations accurately. Be sure to quote EXACTLY as the words, lines, or passage
appears in the original.

*
use quotations wisely and rarely. Do not rely on
quotations to write the paper for you. Use quotations to support your ideas and
to demonstrate points you are making about the piece of literature
*
do not begin or end a paragraph with a quotation.
Instead, lead readers into an idea before presenting quoted materials.
*
once a quotation has been presented, always
discuss the significance, value, or purpose
of the quotation. Think about these questions: Why has the quotation
been added, how does it support your assertions, or what unique insight does
the quoted material provide
readers?

6. Point of View—write only
in third person—the essay needs
to focus on the author’s life and work not on the student writer. So do not use first or second person pronouns in the essay. The following
URL link provides information on how to remain in third person.
Write-in-Third-Person

7. Edit your writing—This is an
English class! Students must apply what they have learned in English 1301 and
1302. Ideas must be presented in clear, grammatically
correct prose:

–
watch grammatical
elements—subject/verb agreement,
noun/pronoun agreement, sentence structure
(no fragments, comma splices, or run on structures)
–
watch usage, diction, and word choice (use a
dictionary)
–
watch spelling—be sure to run spell check before
submitting your final draft
–
no contractions—write
all words out completely (this is a formal essay not a note
to a friend)

Please let Dr. Huston
know immediately if you need help with
any aspect of this assignment. If you do not tell me you are having
trouble, I do not know and cannot help you.

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