Research Project Assignments Overview and Basic Requirements

N.B. Successful completion of this project is a course requirement!

 

Here are the assignments related to our research project:

  • The Pitch. N.B. Once your topic is approved, you cannot change it.
  • In-class Work Days
  • Outline/Concept Map/Draft/Infographic.
  • Progress Assignment.
  • Claim/Angle Assignment
  • Final Paper.

 

The final product must meet these standards (papers that do not receive some kind of F grade):

  • Advance a claim (i.e. an argument) related to world literature.
  • Be 10-12 pages (not counting works cited) double-space, size twelve, Times New Roman text.
    • Digital components (e.g. infographic, time-line, etc.) that you create can substitute 1 or 2 pages.
  • Be in MLA 8 format and observe all MLA 8 citation protocols.
  • No plagiarism—at all. Substantial plagiarism may result in a grade of zero and semester failure.
  • Make use of at least five scholarly (analytical) sources. 
    • You may not use any non-scholarly sources. (e.g. Wikipedia, Encyclopedia Britannica, Time, most newspapers, etc.)
    • How to Tell if a Source Is Scholarly Links to an external site.
      • The best place to find scholarly sources are in databases that catalog them. (e.g. Ebsco's Academic Search Elite, UMSL's or SLU's library databases, Project Muse, SLPL databases, etc.)
  • Make use of at least one primary sources (you may use your anthologies for this purpose if you wish).
    • For our purposes, a primary source is a novel, a play, a short story or collection of stories, a poem or collection of poems.
  • Provide regular documentation of progress made and/or challenges faced, especially for any work done during class time.

 

Better scores will go to final products that:

  • Remain focused on literature, especially primary sources.
  • Are synthesis essays of reports: MAKE A CLAIM AND ADVANCE IT!
    • One of the things this means is that your thinking should be on display far more frequently than anything else.
  • Demonstrate masterful use of MLA 8.

 

What you may not do:

  • If you are American, you may not write on any:
    • American or UK topic/writer (this includes Ireland).
  • If you are from another country, you may not write on any:
    • Topic/writer from your native tradition and/or language
      • g. If you’re from Vietnam, you can’t do anything having to do with Vietnam.
  • Anything related to WWI, WWII, the Vietnam War, the Cold War as a primary focus.
  • Any writer who does not write literature. (e.g. Karl Marx, Adolf Hitler, historians, theologians, etc.)
  • Anything having to do with Naguib Mahfouz.

 

Grading criteria.