Aim: How do we approach the Senior Research Paper?

Do Now: Which work has been the most interesting to you in your high

school career?

Research Question & Annotated Bibliography• 3 Sources: 1 Primary, 2 Secondary, 1 Must be a book.

Oral Presentation & Thesis Statement• The presentation should run between 5-8 minutes.

Oral Presentation Quizzes• You will pay attention and take notes on the

presentations and be quizzed on the information given.

Final Written Paper • 1,000 Words = 5 Pages Including a Works Cited Page,

No Cover Page

4Parts

TopicsChoose a Text• “The Yellow Wallpaper”• One Flew Over the

Cuckoo’s Nest• Hamlet• As I Lay Dying• I will allow you to choose

a text that you’ve read in another English class.

Choose a Theme• Existential Crisis• The Depiction of Women• Freudian Reading• Social Structure• Madness• Characters Trapped by

Fate• The Tragic Hero• Individual vs. Society• Freedom vs. Confinement

Let’s Begin…• After choosing your topic of interest, you are ready to begin the

research.• Your research must begin with a question.• https://owl.english.purdue.edu/owl/resource/658/2/

According to the Purdue University Online Writing Lab,“The analytical research paper often begins with the student asking a question (a.k.a. a research question) on which he has taken no stance. Such a paper is often an exercise in exploration and evaluation. For example, perhaps one is interested in the Old English poem Beowulf. He has read the poem intently and desires to offer a fresh reading of the poem to the academic community. His question may be as follows. How should one interpret the poem Beowulf?”

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Research Question Due

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24 25 26Annotated Bibliographies Due

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MARCH

APRIL

FINAL PAPER DUE: MONDAY, MAY 5TH. NO EXTENSIONS!

What is an Annotated Bibliography?An annotative bibliography contains a brief summary of each of your sources along with the citation of your source. You are to cite the reference as you would for a Works Cited list and include a paragraph explaining your source and what type of information it provides.

One of the sources must be a book. Odds are you won’t need the contents of an entire book for your paper but simply a chapter or two. You are to cite these chapters or pages as specifically as possible.

You might want to use Google search engines or Wikipedia and the like as a way to familiarize yourself with the kind of information out there on your particular topic, but you cannot use these sites as credible sources. Databases such as JSTOR and Project Muse would be good.

A good place to start is the school library.

It will be given a copy of your assignment.

Mandel, Jerome. "The Grotesque Rose: Medieval Romance and The Great Gatsby." Modern Fiction Studies 34(1988): 541-558.

Mandel argues that Gatsby follows many of the conventions of medieval romance, and analyzes East and West Egg as competing courts, Buchanan as a prince/Lord with Daisy as unattainable queen/fair lady. Gatsby and Nick are both construed as knights; Jordan is only mentioned in passing as a sort of attendant figure on Queen Daisy. This whole analysis seems somewhat farfetched.

Here are some examples of what your Annotated Bibliography should look like.

Fryer, Sarah Beebe. "Beneath the Mask: The Plight of Daisy Buchanan." Critical Essays on F. Scott Fitzgerald's The Great Gatsby. Ed. Scott Donaldson. Boston: G.K. Hall, 1984. 153-166.

This is a feminist essay that argues that Daisy is trapped in cultural constructions of Rich Wife and Pretty Girl - she chooses the "unsatisfactory stability" of her marriage because of those constructions. Fryer's only mention of Jordan is a foil to Daisy - - "Like Jordan, Daisy is affected" (156).