LI 256:  Paper Two                                   

 

Remember that  you must complete the "Avoiding Plagiarism" tutorial linked on the course web site by March 5 

 

This paper will be based on one of the following stories:

 

William Faulkner, “That Evening Sun”

Nathaniel Hawthorne, “The Minister’s Black Veil”

Richard Wright, “The Man Who Was Almost a Man” (Sometimes called “Almost a Man” or “Almos’ a Man”)

Bobbie Ann Mason, “Shiloh”

John Steinbeck, “The Leader of the People”

 

You will not necessarily find any of these stories by doing a title search in a library catalogue because they are short stories and  library catalogues include names of books--not of short stories.  To find one of the stories, do an author search and look for a collection of short stories by that author.  In some cases you will be able to check the Table of Contents in the catalogue entry to see if the story is listed.  Look for titles like The Complete Stories of.....

Note:  You may also find the story on the web if you enter the author’s last name and the story title in your internet browser Search box.

 

After selecting and reading a story, write an analysis of it which discusses the following elements:

 

Plot-- Do not merely retell the story.  Assume your reader has read the story and refer only to incidents which help develop conflict, character, or theme, for example--explaining how.

 

Point of View--Identify the point of view.  That’s the narrative point of view (how the story is told or who tells it) not the theme.  Explain the importance of that point of view.  Perhaps the best way to understand that importance is to imagine the story told by another type of narrator.  How, for example, would “The Lesson” be different if told by Sugar, or by Miss Moore, or by an omniscient “author narrator”?  The difference, what’s lost and what’s gained, probably suggests why the author selected the point of view which is used.

 

Setting--Identify the physical and chronological settings of the story and explain their significance.  Are the settings vague and  or fairly specific?  Why?

 

 Character--Describe the most important character(s).  I don’t mean physically (unless that’s significant) but explain what type of person he or she is and demonstrate how you know that.  Specific quotations or references to specific scenes and actions from the story are in order here.

 

Conflict--Identify the main conflict(s).  Explain whether they are external or internal, how they are resolved or not, and why they are or are not.  This probably will be related to character or theme.

 

Symbol--Identify important symbols and discuss their contribution to the development of theme (or anything else they might contribute to).

 

Theme--State a major theme of the story and explain how that theme is developed (probably by the use of some or all of the elements above).  Remember that a theme is a statement about a topic.  In other words, do not write, “The theme of the story is love.”  Love is a topic, but it is not a theme.  Write instead, “The theme of the story is that love is more important than money.”  Although that is probably a cliché, it is at least a theme.

 

Biographical material about the author is probably irrelevant and has no place in the paper.

 

About the paper----

 

Form--Write the paper in essay form.  That is, do not divide it into sections with headers the way this outline has been arranged.  The organization or order of your paper is your choice and will in part be dependent on the story you select.  Setting, for example, may be very important in one story and almost irrelevant in another; the importance should affect the length of coverage and the placement of that coverage.  While one element may be more important in one story than in another, you do need to discuss all these elements in your paper (and feel free to discuss anything else you think important).

 

Length--3 to 8, double spaced, pages, “normal” margins; font size--10 to 12.  That’s pages of text.  Include a Title Page and a Works Cited page.  Bring a hard copy to class on the due date and upload a copy to Drop Box.

 

Research Requirement:  Your paper must use and cite at least three secondary sources (that is, articles, chapters, books about  the story and it must have a total of at least four citations from such sources (that’s a minimum total of four citations, not twelve).  You may use web sources but at least one of your cited sources must be from a "hard copy source" ( books or articles found in a library).   A source which originally appeared in "hard copy" but is now available on the web can count as a hard copy source.

 

Use your research to help you understand the story better, to find discussions of theme, for example.  If a secondary source quotes a passage from the story, using the passage and citing the secondary source as the source is not really satisfying research requirements.

 

If you use sources that are not in Kent Library, it would be to your advantage to have copies of that material.  I will routinely check some of your sources and if the item is not in Kent, you will have to provide me with the material.  Xerox copies are easier and cheaper than driving to the “other library.”

 

Encyclopedias, print or electronic, are not appropriate sources for University research.  Wikipedia can even be unreliable because anyone can post an article to it and/or edit most articles.  Recently pranksters or "dirty tricks" artists have begun "editing" the "blurbs" of  political figures.

 

How to find secondary sources:  While there will probably not be books about your story, use a keyword or subject search to find books about the author of your story; such books will almost surely include discussion of “your story.”  

 

Use the Subject search to find bibliographies about your author.   A book in that category will at least include a page or two of references to books or articles about your author.  Some bibliographies are book length, and thus could include several pages of references to your story.  You would want to use a bibliography that covered the largest span of years.  One covering 40 years of criticism would obviously offer more choices than one covering 10 years.  

 

The online MLA Bibliography, which you used in Paper One, could be quite helpful.  It lists all books and articles published on your author or story in the last 40 years. 

 

Documentation Form:   Use the MLA format shown on the “Notes and Bibliography Style Sheet” available on the  the Course Web Page.  That format uses what is called the “in-text” citation (“footnote”).  Include a Works Cited page, listing the secondary works you used in writing your paper,

 

Quotations from the story--If you quote from the story (and you probably should), simply make it clear in your paper and use quotation marks.  Something like--- Early in the story, as he approaches the Usher castle, the narrator says “a sense of insufferable gloom    pervaded my spirit.”  Do not, in other words, worry about using the author’s name or a page number when you quote from the story itself.  Quotations from the story do not satisfy the requirement for secondary material.

 

DOCUMENTATION AND PLAGIARISM

Remember that if you use the words of a source, you must place quotation marks around those words, use the exact words, and cite the source. 

 

If you get an idea from a source and paraphrase the words (really paraphrase, not just change every fifth or sixth word a little), you obviously do not need quotation marks but you still must cite the source of the idea. 

 

Violation of these rules is plagiarism and usually results in a failing grade for the paper if not the course.

 

 

 

Start early enough that you will have time to ask questions if you have problems.  After you’ve completed a draft of the paper,

and would like my comments or suggestions, upload it to "Paper Two Draft" in Drop Box and send me an e-message that you've done so.