Essay 7-8 pages

EAST 290/CMLIT 229

Korean Women’s Writing

Guidelines for Final Paper

1. Select your topic:

Choose a theme, concept, or any subject matter from one (or more) primary texts that we have covered in class. Primary texts include short stories, novels, and films. Articles and book chapters are not primary texts—they can be secondary sources for your paper.

You can select your topic by re-reading the text(s) you liked most. Start from several points you find interesting or worth noticing in the text. Repeated reading helps you find a good topic for paper and write a close analysis of the text.

2. Write a tentative thesis:

Make a sentence or two to explain what you are trying to demonstrate through your paper. Do not try to argue something too big or broad to prove in your 6~8-page paper. A thesis statement should be clear, succinct, and specific. For what reasons and what effects are always important to ask when you formulate your thesis.

3. Make an outline:

Logical organization is important.

· Introduction: Clearly state the topic of your paper, why you were interested in it and why it is important, introduce the structure of your paper. It is very important to let readers know about the direction where your writing goes.

· Main Body: Focus on the topic and demonstrate your thesis by closely analyzing the texts. You can refer to secondary sources to discuss historical, political, and social backgrounds. Divide the main body into two to four small sections (It is up to you, but one or more than five sections do not seem to be effective for 6~8 page writing).

· Conclusion: A nice summary of your paper and reiteration of your main thesis would be good. Don’t start a new argument or new discussion when you should conclude your writing.

4. Footnotes and bibliography:

You should properly cite your primary and secondary sources with in-text citations or footnotes, and make a list of cited works on the last page. You can choose either MLA or Chicago Style. Keep consistency.

MLA (https://owl.english.purdue.edu/owl/resource/747/01/)

Chicago Style (http://www.chicagomanualofstyle.org/tools_citationguide/citation-guide-1.html)

5. Revision and proofreading:

Read through your paper and check if paragraphs and sections flow logically. Make corrections of spelling and grammatical errors. You can revise your thesis statements and the ending part of the introduction—one of the most crucial parts in your paper.

--Papers should be around 6–8 pages (1 inch margins; double-spaced; 12-point).

--Proposal submission due (including a tentative thesis, outline, primary and secondary sources) by Sunday, December 3

--Student presentation of final paper in progress on December 11 (class meeting)

--Final papers are due by noon on Monday, December 18.