General Instructions: in the research essay, you must demonstrate the ability to evaluate the literary merits of fiction and back up your analysis with details and quotations from the fiction, as well as quotation from literary critics. You must use at least five sources BESIDES YOUR TEXT.Although you are free to quote dictionaries, they do not count as part of your five sources. You must have at least four indirect quotes(paraphrases), three direct short quotes, and one direct long quote?all from your required five sources. Moreover, your essay must not be a mere summary of criticism in your research sources. Instead, you must take a thesis position that offers your own interpretation of the fiction and then support that interpretation with your own analysis aided by quotations from the author?s short fiction and from literary critics. Your essay should have an approximate length of 1800 words and must scrupulously adhere to MLA citation style for the documentation of all quotations, both direct and indirect; however, your works cited page does not count as part of your 1800 words. Additionally, you must write an abstract of 150-200 wordssummarizing your essay. Your essay must address the following specific topic:
Evaluation of a Story within an Author’s Overall Works
You must analyze whether a story from our text is typical of the author’s short stories as a whole in style, theme, technique or subject matter; or whether this story marks a departure or new direction for the author. Furthermore, you must evaluate whether this typical or atypical story marks a decline or improvement for the author when compared to his/her other works. Your five research sources should combine quotations from some of the author’s most representative works (primary sources) and criticism about the author by literary experts (secondary sources). The following is an example of a good thesis statement for this assignment:
Ex. In one of her most highly acclaimed stories, “The Storm,” Mrs. Chopin employs a much more provocative and liberal narrative voice than her other writings to illustrate her views on woman’s true sexual nature.
ex: Note that this thesis states clearly that ?The Storm? is a departure from Kate Chopin?s other short fiction because of its ?much more provocative and liberal narrative voice?; furthermore, the thesis declares ?The Storm? is an improvement because it is ?one of her most highly acclaimed stories.?
An annotated bibliography is a self-evaluation of possible research sources. Its purpose is help a scholar determine whether his or her research is of sufficient scope and quality to begin the writing stage of a research project.
Your annotated bibliography should follow the example in your e-text Little Brown Compact Handbook, eighth edition, pages 365-367. You should have at least six entries on your bibliography. Put your entries in alphabetical order as you would a Works Cited page. Each entry should have at least a 150 word paragraph describing the source and its appropriateness for your research topic. Three of your entries should describe short stories by your author that you will draw upon to compare to that author?s short story in our textbook. Three of your entries should evaluate critical articles by scholars about your chosen author?s short fiction. At least two of your critical articles should come from peer-reviewed scholarly sources. You may use Wikipedia, Smoop.com, Sparknotes or similar non-peer reviewed website for your third source but make sure to rely primarily upon your peer-reviewed sources for most of your critical support.
Put the normal heading as you would for an essay at the top of the first page. Then center the words Annotated Bibliography followed by a colon and then the title of your chosen short story from our text book as the title of your bibliography.
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