Assihgnment
Research paper: Your final paper should be 10-12 pages-2500 to 3000 words-on some aspect of our reading in Romantic literature. This research paper is worth 40% of your grade. You will choose the topic, but I will be making suggestions throughout the semester on researchable projects. Due on or before midnight, Dec. 15.
Guide for the papers.
I. Content
* The idea development should be clear, well organized, coherent, logical and persuasive. You must work with the topic, refine it, impose your own ideas on it.
* The paper should be rich in content--with ideas, argument, evidence.
* You should have a strong grasp of the details of the text you're discussing. Summarize and refer to details; use some quotations of important words and phrases, perhaps a few sentences if necessary, but avoid lengthy quotations. Make sure that your key terms are clearly explained.
* Your intended audience is someone who has read the text under consideration and who is also interested in understanding its meaning. Accordingly, extensive plot summary is not appropriate.
* How to get content? You have to think hard about the topic, review key passages in the text, anticipate objections, pursue ideas to their logical conclusions, and work through contradictions and difficulties. Make connections between the parts and the whole.
II. Form
* Content development is by far the most important aspect of the paper, but you cannot present your content effectively unless the form of the paper is adequate. Accordingly, here is a checklist to assist you:
* Paragraphing: does each paragraph have a topic idea? Is each idea developed adequately? Is the sequence of paragraphs logically coherent?
* Phrasing: be concise, direct, and precise; proofread for wordiness, vagueness, and awkwardness.
* Mechanics: proofread for typos, misspellings, incorrect punctuation, and grammatical errors.
*References to the text (or texts): When you use critical commentary for your paper, use MLA Style of documentation. When quoting poetry, be sure to quote exactly, retaining line breaks: "Mary had a little lamb, / Its fleece as white as snow." Four or more lines of poetry should be block quoted-again, exactly reproduced.
*Proofreading: it is quite apparent whether you have proofread your paper carefully or not. A paper with numerous mechanical errors will not receive a high grade; if the errors are too numerous, the paper will not receive a passing grade.
TOPIC: JANE AUSTEN'S EMMA. THEME OF EMMA JUDGING ON THE BACKGROUND OF JANE AUSTEN'S DAY.