ENC 1102 Research Paper: (due by the last day of class as scheduled on the syllabus)
Step One: choose Essay #1 or Essay #2 as the basis for your research paper
-Do NOT choose a topic that you have not already written an essay on
-Review the grading sheet/instructor feedback and make all necessary structural and
grammatical corrections
-Save typed and corrected version of the original essay assignment. You will use
everything you have written in the research paper.
Step Two: go through the MDC homepage library link to do research on your topic
1. What kind of research you are looking for:
a. Biographical information on one or both of your authors: be sure to include only details of their lives that helps the reader understand why they chose their topic and/or why they express the opinions that they do (this has to do with the theme of the selection).
b. Essays on the selections: professional literary critics have written on the reading selections and authors that you also wrote your essay on. Try to find authors of essays that either say something similar to the opinions you express, or at least that add something to your essay that logically follows from your thoughts and conclusions (definitely NOT anyone who disagrees with you)
c. General information on a related topic: for example, if your author practiced a certain religion and he writes about religious topics, tell the reader about what his religion teaches about his subject. If you wrote an essay on Hopkins, and you know he was a Jesuit, wo were the Jesuits and what did THEY believe about Gods relationship to Nature?
2. How to find research:
a. Go to the MDC home page
b. Look at the top of the screen for the tab labelled Academics and point mouse to it
c. Select Libraries from the drop down menu
d. Choose Databases under the search bar
-Databases are collections of articles
-You must use articles and not books because they are more timely
f. Choose the Literature database
g. The drop down menu of databases all have hundreds of articles on authors and selections. One good one to start with is Literature Resources from Gale
h. Whichever database(s) you use, put the name of the selection (for example, Gods Grandeur and the authors full name (in this case, Gerard Manley Hopkins) in the search box.
i. Browse through the articles that pop up to find AT LEAST THREE ARTICLES IN TOTAL .
j. Remember, you can find information about the authors, the selections, or a related topic. You can choose to focus on just biographical articles, just critical essays, just general related information or any combination of those three. You do not have to find research on both selections or even both authors; you may choose to focus all your research on one.
K Your grade depends on your including AT LEAST THREE ARTICLES in your research and you must QUOTE EACH ARTICLE AT LEAST TWO TIMES, for a total of at least six quotations.
L. How do you incorporate the quotations?
I want you to write a whole new, separate paragraph for each of your three articles. That means you will write three new paragraphs that each
-Have a topic sentence. For example: There is a very interesting article on Hopkins Gods Grandeur that discusses the relationship between God and Nature.
-Write a brief summary of the entire article and its main point(s). This must be two to three sentences in length
-Then, introduce your first quotation. For example, As the author of this article concludes, Hopkins sees Nature and God intimately entwined.
-Then, explain how the quotation you have chosen helps to prove the opinion you expressed in your thesis and have been arguing throughout your essay.
-Do the same with the next quotation
-introduce it (tell the reader who is saying it
-quote it (provide enough of the text so that the reader can
understand what the author is saying)
-explain it (in your own words, explain what the quotation says and how it backs up what you are arguing)
M. Last, place your three new paragraphs between the supporting paragraphs of the essay you already wrote
-If you found biographical material on an author, put the new paragraph BEFORE your paragraph explaining what the selection was about
-If you found a critical analysis of the selection, put the new paragraph AFTER your paragraph about what you thought the selection was about
-If you found related information, also put it AFTER your paragraph
N. Finally, list all the articles you quoted from or summarized information from at the end on a separate page entitle WORKS CITED, you can find the proper MLA format citation at the end of each article or by clicking on Cite (top right)
YOUR GRADE DEPENDS ON HOW WELL YOU FOLLOW THESE INSTRUCTIONS!
