Literary ResearchProject

Independent Reading• Tuesday’s log: Think of a book you’ve read

whose character you have identified with on some level. Write about that connection.

• Wednesday’s log: Who is the most interesting/disturbing/confusing character you’ve encountered in a book? Write about that character.

• Thursday’s log: Insert yourself as a new character in the novel you are reading now or one you have read this year. Explain what role that character would play in the plot and in relation to the other characters.

Literary ResearchLearning Targets

I can:• evaluate the validity of sources• collect scholarly research and incorporate

it into original analysis• develop a complex and debatable thesis• create an outline of claims, supporting

evidence and analysis• follow MLA format to write a literary

analysis• cite sources correctly using MLA format• think deeply and critically about a specific

topic of interest in a work of literary merit

Select a Work of Literature

List of Major Works Studied

in High School

1984 Odyssey

Frankenstein Night

Invisible Man Huck Finn

OthelloWomanWarrior

Hamlet

Persepolis

Great Gatsby

Candide

Eyes Were Watching God

Romeo and Juliet

Twelve Angry Men

Possible Topics of Interest From the Texts We’ve

Studied• Use of black/dark humor in Grendel• Motif of invisibility in Invisible Man• Decay of the Southern family in The

Sound and the Fury

How to Find a Topic • Look for a text you have connected

with

• Look for a topic that interests you and think of a text that focuses on that topic (i.e. supernatural = Hamlet; existentialism = Grendel; ethics in science/medicine = Frankenstein; interracial relationships= Othello)

• Look for a setting that interests you (Deep South = The Sound and the Fury; the 1920’s = The Great Gatsby)

Read What the Critics Say

The secondary sources you will use must come from academic search engines. (These cannot be found by googling the book title.)

Academic search engines include:• Infotrac (http://opac.libraryworld.com)

• EBSCO Host, Student Research Center and Grolier Online which can all be accessed through KY Virtual Library (see handout in your packet to access these sites)