ENGL 1102 Research Paper Assignment Sheet
Length: Minimum of 1200 Words
Format: 10-12 point font, Times New Roman, Double-Spaced.
Assignment: For this essay, you will need to select a playwright and write a research paper which offers some insight into the playwright’s background and/or career AND ALSO analyzes one of his or her plays. You should include the background information about the playwright in the first part of your paper. In the second part, you should analyze a particular piece of work from the playwright. Your thesis should clear, focused, and clearly identifiable in the first or second paragraph of the paper. It can be explanatory, interpretative, or evaluative, but it should include literary techniques such as theme, symbolism, point of view, setting, character, etc. Textual support in the form of concrete, specific examples should be provided in the body of your paper in order to support your claim.
Remember, a thesis is comprised of the following components:
TOPIC + CLAIM + POINTS OF SUPPORT
The topic would be the play, the claim is whatever specific conclusion you’ve come to about the playwright and the work, and for points of support you must use two to three of the story elements listed above.
About the paper’s content:
Like your other papers, you are simply trying to explain to the reader a way of understanding or interpreting the play. To a degree, you are arguing that your way of seeing the work is a more reasonable way than some other.
For Trifles, there are many options. You could examine how the play reflects stereotypes of gender, and how Ms. Glaspell works against those stereotypes. Or, you could look at feminism and the play, suggesting how the husband (and the other men) dominate and denigrate the women and how the women bond together to struggle against that mistreatment.
Must Haves: In any good research paper, you must pull from reliable, creditable sources in order to support your thesis. You should use at least four references from appropriate print sources. The play you are analyzing will count as one of these print sources—the other three should be from appropriate academic secondary sources. The main place you should use to find print sources online is our library’s database, Galileo. There are plenty of sources available online at http://www.galileo.usg.edu. Always click full text to access complete sources. The databases you want are under the letter “L.” Both “LION” and the “Literary Reference Center” will give you plenty of sources. Type in the author’s last name for a number of sources. You can also type in the author’s last name and a critical perspective as well. For instance, “Glaspell” and “Feminism.”
However, you can also use any other reputable database (ex. Google Scholar). You should cite these sources using MLA style. If you need help, Pellissippi State Library has a great webpage about how to cite a play: https://lib.pstcc.edu/c.php?g=106731&p=693753. Though this is a research paper, quotes from other sources should not outweigh your own writing and analysis.
Whatever approach you take, remember that the research should be used to provide additional authoritative support for your ideas/thesis to provide a context or background for your ideas/thesis.
Also, make sure to work in your quotations smoothly, rather than dropping them into the text without any introductory material. For instance, use transitional phrases, such as “In Emily Dickinson, Harold Bloom argues that….” and “Unlike other critics, Bloom in Emily Dickinson suggests….” Remember to help your reader see where someone else’s ideas begin by using these transitional phrases and where someone else’s ideas end by including a page number or other indicator at the end. Here’s a complete sentence quoted and cited: “Literary critic Harold Bloom asserts, ‘The image here of a woman and her escort, Death, meditating on the prospect of eternity, is neither one of despair nor loss nor outrage, but of resignation’ (37).” Then always make sure to follow a quote by discussing, or reiterating, its relevance to your claim or what you’re discussing.
