The Research Essay
The Task and Method:
Choose from the below topics and compose in MLA format a research essay of at least 1000 words, using a minimum of three secondary sources that address some aspect of the text you choose to analyze. (While you are encouraged to use it, the OED is a primary, not a secondary, source, and does not count toward your minimum.) Source material must be drawn from books and articles in the GSU library or the Galileo databases. Material from non-GSU sources will not count toward the research requirement, and the use of it is discouraged.
The Caveats:
You are obliged to have familiarized yourself with proper MLA formatting and citation. This information is found easily online, at the OWL Purdue website, and has been covered in Course Content. YouTube has plenty of videos on how to do it, and you will notice that the Galileo databases can easily generate entries for the Works Cited page. Internal parenthetical citation is also required.
By now I expect students to submit professionally clean and error-free copy, with no typos or mechanical or grammatical errors. Papers not following these guidelines will be penalized accordingly. Failure to submit your essay in MLA format results in an automatic point deductions of up to twenty points. Failure to provide sufficient, relevant source material results in an automatic fifteen-point deduction for each missing source. Essays failing to acknowledge and cite sources cannot be graded and therefore cannot receive credit.
Wright:
Richard Wright’s work is regarded both as anticipatory and as part of the BAM, the Black Arts Movement. Discuss the relation of Wright and his work to the BAM, and perform a close reading of “The Man Who Was Almost a Man” within that context. Don’t neglect to explain the significance of the title, or to guide the reader through the meaning of the sale of the gun and ammunition to Dave.
Walker:
Alice Walker, a Georgia writer, is widely known as an advocate for civil rights and feminist causes. She is also bisexual and a member of the LGBTQ. Discuss “Am I Blue” as a work that encapsulates all of these concerns. Do not neglect to analyze the multiple meanings of the title, or to discuss the way Walker uses setting in the story’s opening paragraphs—much like Hemingway—to establish her themes.
