Research project

ENGL 101 Winter 2015-16

Research Project

Assignment: Write a 3-5 page (approximately 800-1000 word) essay about Alice Walker’s short story “Everyday Use” that makes some argument or point about the story (see below for examples and hints). Refer to at least two (2) outside critical articles in this essay, quoting, paraphrasing, and/or summarizing the material appropriately and citing it in MLA format. You may use the articles by Nancy Tuten and Susan Farrell that you have previously read and summarized. Take another look at those articles (I will post PDFs) and see how Tuten and Farrell cite sources in their essays both internally and in a works cited list—both articles are documented in MLA format (although you will need to place your works cited list on a separate page). You will, of course, want to cite the story “Everyday Use,” but you might find it difficult to cite the online copies we read in week 2. Use the citation for the original print source:

Walker, Alice. “Everyday Use.” In Love and Trouble. New York: Harcourt, 1973. 47-59. Print. Some possible prompts: These may help you form your thesis, but don’t feel trapped by them—you can come up with your own if you wish.

1. Who do you see as more in touch with her heritage in the story: Dee/Wangero, Maggie, or the Mother? Why?

2. Most of us see the story as setting up an opposition between Dee/Wangero, the daughter who has beauty and brains, and Maggie, who seems to have little except what she has learned at the hands of her grandmother and mother. Is that really what the story is about? Is it possible that the story is about different visions of how African Americans can view, appreciate, and preserve their heritage—a philosophical argument portrayed through characters in a story?

3. Alice Walker grew up the daughter of a sharecropper in very poor circumstances, but she went on to go to college and become very successful as a writer. In a sense, she grew up feeling a little like Maggie, but went on to become a little more like Dee. Who do you think she sympathizes with more in the story? Why?

4. In what way or ways does Susan Farrell seem to disagree with Nancy Tuten? How does each one interpret “Everyday Use”? Which one do you agree with more and why?

Format:

· The essay should follow MLA style in both manuscript formatting and in citation formatting (see the example paper by Anna Orlov, “Online Monitoring: A threat to Employee Privacy in the Wired Marketplace”)

· Essay should be typed, double spaced, with no extra spaces between heading, title, and body, or between paragraphs

· Essay should be 12 point font, preferably in Times New Roman or Arial

· Essay should have one inch margins at top, bottom, and both sides

· Essay should contain internal (parenthetical) citations and a works cited page at the end of the essay.

Due Date: Upload a rough draft—or notes if you have nothing else—on Tuesday, January 5 by 11:59 p.m. Please upload your final draft by 11:59 p.m. on Thursday, January 7. Note on citation: I realize that we have VERY limited time to learn much about how to cite using MLA format, but please do the best that you can given the materials that I have made available to you in the Course Documents/Resources section. Basically, you should cite the source of information, whether it is in the outside authors own original words (quotes) or restated in your own words (paraphrased or summarized). Any information that you use from one of the articles we are using as source material should be cited. Citation has two parts (if you read the guide by Andy Spinks, you will see that he refers to three parts, counting the actual quoting or paraphrasing as the first part). There is internal citation, sometimes called parenthetical citation. That basically means that you refer to the author in the sentence (for example: According to Stephen King, horror movies help us to exorcise our crazy internal thoughts.), or, if you can't work their name in the sentence, you place the author's name (and page number if you have one, but as we are using online sources, there are no page numbers) in parentheses at the end of the sentence, looking something like this: (Lawrence). The second part is the list of works cited that makes up the last page of your essay (unfortunately, you don't get to count it in your 3-5 pages!). It is an alphabetical listing of the sources that you have cited internally in the paper, along with the publication information. They will look something like this:

Cowart, David. "Heritage And Deracination In Walker's `Everyday Use.'." Studies In Short Fiction 33.2 (1996): 171. Literary Reference Center. Web. 24 June 2015.

Farrell, Susan. "Fight Vs. Flight: A Re-Evaluation Of Dee In Alice Walker's “Everyday Use”." Studies In Short Fiction 35.2 (1998): 179. Literary Reference Center. Web. 24 June 2015.

Tuten, Nancy. "Alice Walker's Everyday Use." Explicator 51.2 (1993): 125. Literary Reference Center. Web. 24 December 2015.

Walker, Alice. “Everyday Use.” In Love and Trouble. New York: Harcourt, 1973. 47-59. Print.