paper

English

This week, we will discuss the differences between an essay without credible outside sources and an essay in which you incorporate quotes from outside sources that have been properly vetted.

For many students, the Internet is their primary research tool, and too often there is only cursory evaluation of the source of the accessed material. The textbook gives specific examples of reliable websites and why those sites can be regarded as trustworthy. For example, 123helpme.com, Spark notes, Cliff notes, and many other sites are not credible sources. Why? because they have not been properly vetted which means we do not know who wrote the summary (this matters). When developing your research paper assignment, determine the number and type of Internet sources that you will allow students to use. Students should understand that they need to use printed as well as electronic sources. Obviously, search engines such as Google have transformed the landscape of research and the Internet should never be banned out of hand as a place to find research material, yet much valuable scholarship is still not available online. To reduce the chance of plagiarism

(unintended or blatant) from the web, and to ensure that Internet-referenced material is from a reliable source, you might require students to turn in a printed copy of the Internet source material with their final papers. The Reference Librarian (Mrs. Felder Johnson) will conduct a class session via zoom on March 11th at 11 am devoted to doing literary research. Many students do not know how to use all the resources available in their college library which is why Mrs. Felder Johnson will be conducting a zoom session on credible versus non credible sources and introducting students to the online databases.

Documenting sources, especially Internet sources, is challenging for most students. For your last paper in E151, you need to learn how to choose a credible source and integrate that source seamlessly in your essay. The book for this class provides detailed information for citing print and Internet sources, a sample Works Cited list, and a comprehensive guide to the types of citations that students will likely use in their papers. I encourage students to allow sufficient time to prepare their Works Cited page, and review their papers for scrupulous documentation. Your last essay is not a 10 page research paper which I would ideally give for this course. Instead, the essay is going to be four pages in length exclusing the Works Cited page and you'll need to demonstrate that you know how to integrate a source into your essay as well as prepare a proper Works Cited page. Because we humans procrastinate, it is advisable to break the task of generating a research essay into dated steps. This week in addition to a zoom session with Mrs. Felder Johnson, I am going to ask you to think about a topic for the zoom session on Thursday. For example, suppose you want to write a short 4 page paper on one of Flannery O'Connor's works, then you should find the theme such as redemption in a Good Man is Hard to Find, then begin to think about what your working thesis will be and finally, by Thursday have some tentative idea so that you can ask Mrs. Felder Johnson questions. The goal should be to have students engage in the real writing process—that process by which writing, thinking, rewriting, and rethinking lead to real re-vision. We want our students to realize the depths of meaning present in the literature that they read and the depths of their own responses and ideas through continued exploration.

Tasks to Complete:

Think about a topic you would like to write on for a 4 page critical literary analysis that includes one outside credible source. For example, one topic could be what the Chrysanthemums in John Steinbeck's The Chrysanthemums symbolizes in terms of her marriage? If we read the short story, then you can't write on it with the exception of Jack London's "To Build a Fire" in which you could analyze the man's motivations for ignoring the old timer's advice about walking in the blizzard and how his stubborness proves fatal. You could write how the grandmother's hypocrisy in Flannery O'Connor's "A Good Man is Hard to Find", redemption in Flannery O'Connor's "Revelations", Zora Neale Hurston's "Sweat", Katherine Mansfield's "Miss Brill", Zz Packer's "Brownies" and if you need a short story please email me. Please note with the exception of "To Build a Fire" and "A Good Man is Hard to Find", the other short stories are not posted. This time, you'll need to find the actual story.

Once you have a tentative thesis, email me that so I can decide whether or not it should be stronger.

Mrs. Felder Johnson will be given us a library orientation on Zoom on Thursday at 11, make sure you have questions to ask her about finding credible sources for your paper.

Complete the Integrating Source exercise for extra credit.

Watch the youtube video on sources and literary analysis papers.

Read everything in this unit including the overview.

https://owl.purdue.edu/owl/research_and_citation/mla_style/mla_formatting_and_style_guide/mla_works_cited_electronic_sources.html