Purposes: To trace a characters’ heroic journey and make observations about how she is a
typical or non-typical hero; to analyze through reading, viewing and research; to use source
material correctly; to apply secondary sources to analyze a primary source and integrate other
people’s ideas into our own writing.
Goals: Analyze and describe a main characters’ “hero’s journey” from the work of your choice.
It could be from a movie, comic, computer or console game, tv series, Anime, novel, short story,
a work we’ve read about in class such as Sir Gawain, Hunger Games or Walking Dead (aside
from a Mr. Roger’s film), or someone’s real life biography. What is her call, threshold,
revelation, abyss, and other main parts of the journey? If you wrote about an anti-hero or villain,
you’d show how they didn’t meet the steps in the journey and why, such as for Anakin
Skywalker in Star Wars or Joel in Last of Us.
Requirements:
1. Five-Eight full pages (1250-2000+ words). Put word count on final—can’t include title
page info of author/date/class etc or works cited info. Max is 2250 words, including
works cited.
2. Need a total of least five secondary sources:
Required: Harris and Thompson’s The Hero’s Journey.
Required: Pearson’s The Hero Within.
Find three more sources, one of which must be specifically about your book,
movie, tv show, et al (the primary source).
Another source(s) could be additional hero’s journey material (could be Murdock
for female heroes from packet)—you want to search Hay Library and other
databases for more information about hero’s, hero’s journey, heroine’s journey,
and your specific hero or literary work.
Your primary source, the movie or book, is also counted, which brings the total to
6—and it too should be listed on the works cited page.
3. Need at least six uses of sources from secondary sources: quotes mostly, but at least one
summary or paraphrase. It is assumed that you’ll be summarizing many times as well
from your primary work. Summaries or paraphrases should be documented correctly, just
like a quotation. Include a Works Cited page.
4. You must organize around the hero’s or heroine’s journey—each topic sentence should
state what part of the journey that paragraph will be about, and you must use Harris and
Thompson or another source to define it, much like in the Mr. Rogers’ film paper.
Guidelines
1. If your primary source is a movie or tv show, take notes on your viewing—those notes
are the details you’ll use in your paper. It’s recommended that you begin viewing, re-
viewing, and taking those notes as soon as possible. Also, don’t choose a long series and
attempt to summarize it. Even summarizing a year of a series (usually around 13
episodes) would be difficult. If you choose such a longer work, perhaps choose 3 episode
from beginning, middle, or end of series. Also, you could just focus in on 1-3 episodes,
since each episode usually has its own call, threshold, and so forth, even while the
beginning of a whole series will present a lot of “separation” material, or the end of a
series year might present many “return” elements. If you choose episodes in that manner,
you can focus on the parts of the journey most evident.
2. Read your secondary material sources interactively to find material that you’ll use in your
paper. You can use much of the same material you used in your Mr. Rogers’ film paper
to define steps in the journey.
3. The second stage is to check out potential sources in the library or from the libraries web-
based databases. See if there’s a good amount of information on Ebsco, Films on
Demand, Opposing Viewpoints, Academic Search Premier, or Wyldcat. Gather this
information together—check it out, print it off, and annotate it. Please note: There are
many “hero” related books in the Hay library.
4. Create a formal proposal of your topic, including a scratch outline, what you already
know about it, reasons why you’re choosing it, and a list of several possible sources.
5. Create an annotated bibliography for several sources as another way to interact with
source material. See handbook.
6. Use research but allow your own ideas, experiences, and explanations to be the most
important part of the essay. Be a good “Talk Show Host”. Remember to have an opinion
about the character as a thesis and/or to make it either in the argumentative or a report
mode.
7. After you have a skeleton draft (a really rough draft), that’s the time to begin using your
notes and to begin responding to and reacting to your sources. Find some supporting
facts or opinions to help support the points you make in your paragraphs. Use Harris or
another hero’s journey source to define each of the steps in the journey early in each
body paragraph. Use some quotes and some summaries, but be sure to document all and
introduce them. See your handbook about synthesizing ideas/about integrating sources–
be sure you have your own ideas, then give a quotation or use of source, then your
interpretation or comment on that source.
A good goal is to have at least 1 quotation/use of source in every body paragraph to help
develop support. In any given paragraph, you may have up to 2-3 quotations for a good
density of evidence/support, followed by interpretations/comments. Do use some quotes
from the movie as well (documenting them with the movie title. However, don’t get
source happy. Having interpretations, your own ideas, comments and conclusions about
sources keeps the paper from just being a “source dump”—you want to get beyond the
kind of research paper you might have written in 6th grade when you just pulled
information from the encyclopedia, a webpage, and a book on the life of Thomas Edison
and just dumped quotations and borrowed information together into one big stinky pile.
8. Work on this skeleton draft. Edit it for grammar and content—see your handbook page
to edit sentences for punctuation/mechanics. Double check how you’ve used your
sources. Make sure that it’s as interesting as you can make it. Think about your
audience—would a reader find your information and opinions entertaining and fresh? Is
it well organized, or do you have little paragraphs just floating around with no purpose?
After you’ve done this, you’ll have a good rough draft.
9. Revise your essay, especially after peer or teacher editing, and Net Tutor comments.
Rubric for Researched Essay ENGL 1020 Spring 2023
Basics
Formatting in MLA style, double spaced, paginated ____/15 points
Paper is at least 5 pages or 1250 words (include word count) _____/25 points (Maximum is
2250 word pages—if it goes over -5 pts per 100)
Paper has a title, interesting first line and lead-in/background in introduction, with a clear thesis
at the end of first paragraph ____/30 points
Paper is clearly organized around hero’s or heroine’s journey steps____ 40 points
Topic is interesting and well developed with specific detail and examples from primary and
secondary sources _____100 points
Basic subtotal: _____/210
Grammar/mechanics _____/40 points
Use of Source MLA style
Paper has 6 sources (5 secondary and at least 1 primary). +2 for each over that #, with +6
maximum for bonus _____/ 25 points (0 points if under the required #).
Sources are used to illustrate or for examples, offering support for points/claims _____/15 points
Each step in hero’s or heroine’s journey is defined with a use of source ____/ 25 points
Paper has good balance between writer’s own ideas and that of source material
______/15 points
Sources are well used, using quotation marks for direct quotes, integrated or introduced with no
floating quotes, and are well documented ______/ 55 points
Works cited page is alphabetized, reverse indented, and in proper format ____/15 points
Use of source subtotal ___ 150
Total _____/400Purposes: To trace a characters’ heroic journey and make observations about how she is a
typical or non-typical hero; to analyze through reading, viewing and research; to use source
material correctly; to apply secondary sources to analyze a primary source and integrate other
people’s ideas into our own writing.
Goals: Analyze and describe a main characters’ “hero’s journey” from the work of your choice.
It could be from a movie, comic, computer or console game, tv series, Anime, novel, short story,
a work we’ve read about in class such as Sir Gawain, Hunger Games or Walking Dead (aside
from a Mr. Roger’s film), or someone’s real life biography. What is her call, threshold,
revelation, abyss, and other main parts of the journey? If you wrote about an anti-hero or villain,
you’d show how they didn’t meet the steps in the journey and why, such as for Anakin
Skywalker in Star Wars or Joel in Last of Us.
Requirements:
1. Five-Eight full pages (1250-2000+ words). Put word count on final—can’t include title
page info of author/date/class etc or works cited info. Max is 2250 words, including
works cited.
2. Need a total of least five secondary sources:
Required: Harris and Thompson’s The Hero’s Journey.
Required: Pearson’s The Hero Within.
Find three more sources, one of which must be specifically about your book,
movie, tv show, et al (the primary source).
Another source(s) could be additional hero’s journey material (could be Murdock
for female heroes from packet)—you want to search Hay Library and other
databases for more information about hero’s, hero’s journey, heroine’s journey,
and your specific hero or literary work.
Your primary source, the movie or book, is also counted, which brings the total to
6—and it too should be listed on the works cited page.
3. Need at least six uses of sources from secondary sources: quotes mostly, but at least one
summary or paraphrase. It is assumed that you’ll be summarizing many times as well
from your primary work. Summaries or paraphrases should be documented correctly, just
like a quotation. Include a Works Cited page.
4. You must organize around the hero’s or heroine’s journey—each topic sentence should
state what part of the journey that paragraph will be about, and you must use Harris and
Thompson or another source to define it, much like in the Mr. Rogers’ film paper.
Guidelines
1. If your primary source is a movie or tv show, take notes on your viewing—those notes
are the details you’ll use in your paper. It’s recommended that you begin viewing, re-
viewing, and taking those notes as soon as possible. Also, don’t choose a long series and
attempt to summarize it. Even summarizing a year of a series (usually around 13
episodes) would be difficult. If you choose such a longer work, perhaps choose 3 episode
from beginning, middle, or end of series. Also, you could just focus in on 1-3 episodes,
since each episode usually has its own call, threshold, and so forth, even while the
beginning of a whole series will present a lot of “separation” material, or the end of a
series year might present many “return” elements. If you choose episodes in that manner,
you can focus on the parts of the journey most evident.
2. Read your secondary material sources interactively to find material that you’ll use in your
paper. You can use much of the same material you used in your Mr. Rogers’ film paper
to define steps in the journey.
3. The second stage is to check out potential sources in the library or from the libraries web-
based databases. See if there’s a good amount of information on Ebsco, Films on
Demand, Opposing Viewpoints, Academic Search Premier, or Wyldcat. Gather this
information together—check it out, print it off, and annotate it. Please note: There are
many “hero” related books in the Hay library.
4. Create a formal proposal of your topic, including a scratch outline, what you already
know about it, reasons why you’re choosing it, and a list of several possible sources.
5. Create an annotated bibliography for several sources as another way to interact with
source material. See handbook.
6. Use research but allow your own ideas, experiences, and explanations to be the most
important part of the essay. Be a good “Talk Show Host”. Remember to have an opinion
about the character as a thesis and/or to make it either in the argumentative or a report
mode.
7. After you have a skeleton draft (a really rough draft), that’s the time to begin using your
notes and to begin responding to and reacting to your sources. Find some supporting
facts or opinions to help support the points you make in your paragraphs. Use Harris or
another hero’s journey source to define each of the steps in the journey early in each
body paragraph. Use some quotes and some summaries, but be sure to document all and
introduce them. See your handbook about synthesizing ideas/about integrating sources–
be sure you have your own ideas, then give a quotation or use of source, then your
interpretation or comment on that source.
A good goal is to have at least 1 quotation/use of source in every body paragraph to help
develop support. In any given paragraph, you may have up to 2-3 quotations for a good
density of evidence/support, followed by interpretations/comments. Do use some quotes
from the movie as well (documenting them with the movie title. However, don’t get
source happy. Having interpretations, your own ideas, comments and conclusions about
sources keeps the paper from just being a “source dump”—you want to get beyond the
kind of research paper you might have written in 6th grade when you just pulled
information from the encyclopedia, a webpage, and a book on the life of Thomas Edison
and just dumped quotations and borrowed information together into one big stinky pile.
8. Work on this skeleton draft. Edit it for grammar and content—see your handbook page
to edit sentences for punctuation/mechanics. Double check how you’ve used your
sources. Make sure that it’s as interesting as you can make it. Think about your
audience—would a reader find your information and opinions entertaining and fresh? Is
it well organized, or do you have little paragraphs just floating around with no purpose?
After you’ve done this, you’ll have a good rough draft.
9. Revise your essay, especially after peer or teacher editing, and Net Tutor comments.
Rubric for Researched Essay ENGL 1020 Spring 2023
Basics
Formatting in MLA style, double spaced, paginated ____/15 points
Paper is at least 5 pages or 1250 words (include word count) _____/25 points (Maximum is
2250 word pages—if it goes over -5 pts per 100)
Paper has a title, interesting first line and lead-in/background in introduction, with a clear thesis
at the end of first paragraph ____/30 points
Paper is clearly organized around hero’s or heroine’s journey steps____ 40 points
Topic is interesting and well developed with specific detail and examples from primary and
secondary sources _____100 points
Basic subtotal: _____/210
Grammar/mechanics _____/40 points
Use of Source MLA style
Paper has 6 sources (5 secondary and at least 1 primary). +2 for each over that #, with +6
maximum for bonus _____/ 25 points (0 points if under the required #).
Sources are used to illustrate or for examples, offering support for points/claims _____/15 points
Each step in hero’s or heroine’s journey is defined with a use of source ____/ 25 points
Paper has good balance between writer’s own ideas and that of source material
______/15 points
Sources are well used, using quotation marks for direct quotes, integrated or introduced with no
floating quotes, and are well documented ______/ 55 points
Works cited page is alphabetized, reverse indented, and in proper format ____/15 points
Use of source subtotal ___ 150
Total _____/400
