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530 Paper Prospectus

Page history last edited by Eric Leonidas 8 years, 5 months ago

Research Paper Prospectus

 

On Tuesday Nov. 17 a "draft" of your long paper is due.  Typically, before I write out a draft I put together what I call a prospectus.  I find it useful and you might as well.  If you prefer, you may submit a prospectus (modeled along the lines of what I describe below) in place of a conventional draft.  The prospectus should include an opening paragraph—edited and revised after your receive your initial version back from me. 

 

After your thesis paragraph will come the following:

 

  • Some kind of outline.  Some people work in I and II’s, A’s and B’s, 1.s and 2.s, etc.  Not me.  I like to describe sections:  “In this section I’ll show etc., etc., with paragraphs on topic, topic, and topic.”  I don’t care how you do it, but you do have to show some kind of principle of organization.  Be as elaborate and detailed as you can.  Include secondary criticism (just by critic's name and page number) where possible.
  • One “paradigmatic” reading of each text that will play a significant role in your paper (if you are using a long text, you might include multiple readings from the same text that illustrate transition or conflict or some other case of multiple perspectives).  In these readings you should spend a few paragraphs closely analyzing a poem or a textual passage.  I’d like these readings to be critical to your paper, a moment that’s really going to persuade your reader of your point (whether within a section of the paper, or the larger point the paper makes as a whole).  The reading should be close, pulling out words and phrases from the quoted passage(s) and discussing these in as much detail as you can muster.  Finally, you should indicate on your outline where these readings fall.
  • Some kind of description of your overall method.  Are you responding to an argument made by another critic, or otherwise entering an ongoing critical conversation?  Are you taking a literary historical or otherwise culturally historical approach to the reception of your value in early modern England?  Are you pointing out some kind of ideological function for your literary text(s)?  Just recall that whatever you're doing, you are reading from some kind of perspective or with some assumptions.  You do not have to label your method--gender studies, cultural materialism, etc.--though you certainly can if you like.  I'm simply asking you to be self-conscious.  This part may or may not make it into your actual paper.

 

 

 

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