final essay

Final Paper—Literature of the Asian Diaspora

Parameters

Here are some basic parameters for your Final Paper:

· This paper is worth 30% of your grade. (5% will be for the peer review which I will grade; 25% for the paper grade)

· The draft is due Thursday December 14th, midnight, and must be a minimum of 5 pages. If you write a draft that is less than 5 pages, you cannot get higher than a C+ on the final paper grade, and you cannot participate in the peer review which is worth 5% of the paper grade. No exceptions. Hand in the peer review through Blackboard/Assignments/Turnitin (this is so that you can check if there is a plagiarism problem at the drafting stage. This is your responsibility. You check this by clicking on the colored box in the originality column.)

· The final paper is due Wednesday December 20, midnight, and will be 6-7 pages in length, typed, and double spaced. Hand in the final paper through Blackboard/Assignments/Turnitin. Please make sure that your paper is at least 6 full pages, or your grade will reflect that you have not met page requirements. You cannot get higher than a C+ if your paper is not at least 6 pages. If you go over 7 pages, that is fine. Just make sure the paper is very well revised, organized, and concise.

· 12 point font, Times New Roman or Garamond

· 1” margins

· You must properly use MLA format for this formal paper. That means proper use of quotations, a Works Cited page, and proper citation throughout the work. You are welcome to use footnotes or endnotes as long as you follow MLA guidelines for doing so.

· You are required to write the paper on one of the following books: Norwegian Wood, Monkey Bridge or China Men. This book will be your primary source. Work out a thesis statement that will enable you to do a penetrating analysis of the book as a whole.

· You are also required to use two critical sources. These can be a database/scholarly article, an ebook, or a hard copy book or journal (chapter or article). Wikipedia does not count as one of these two sources, and you are not permitted to use personal Web sites. Remember, that there is a Blackboard Discussion Board Group: Research Questions Forum with Sarah Burns-Feyl. She is a research librarian, willing to help you with research!

· The final paper is due December 20th by midnight. Any papers received after this date will receive a zero. There are no exceptions.

· I have posted various helpful documents in the Papers folder to help you, such as the correct way to do citations (Citations and MLA) as well as general information on theses, claims, and evidence (Weaving Claims and Evidence).

· If you’d like comments from Dr. Young on your draft, please schedule an appointment with me for a phone or Skype conference.

Research Guidance Research librarian Sarah Burns-Feyl has generously offered to assist with research questions. I have set up a Discussion Board forum for any research questions you might have for her. Feel free to query me, but that Discussion Board forum is a resource for you too. Any questions around research for your topic are appropriate for the research librarian and for this Discussion Board forum.

“Writing about Literature” chapter found in the Paper file

This chapter will be very helpful in aiding you with the fundamentals of writing about literature, ways to approach the material of the text that will open up an effective analytical point for you. In this chapter you will also find sample papers as well as guidelines for MLA citations.

Topic Please write about something that interests you. It makes such a big difference in how the words come to the page when you are actually interested in your topic. For example, if you have not been interested in setting during the last four weeks, don’t write about the importance of setting as it relates to the theme of displacement in Lan Cao’s Monkey Bridge.

Avoid thesis statements that invite you to summarize the text. Work out a focus that provokes you to probe analytically into the text.

I have set up a Discussion Board Forum (Final Paper Topics and Final Paper Discussion). You can use this to discuss your paper topics with your fellow students. If you are having trouble coming up with a topic, please do not hesitate to email me. I can help you and am happy to do so.

I have placed summaries of our DB interaction in the paper files to help you with reviewing the text you are interested in writing about.

Audience and summary The audience you should probably have in mind while writing is: you, me, and the rest of the people in the class. As this is an analytical paper, summary should be kept to providing necessary context so as to make your points clear to the reader.

The thesis of your paper

In the introduction, you should set up what your central point or thesis is clearly and concisely. Keep in mind this central point is the heart of the matter that will run throughout the paper. In other words, you not only present a central point in your introduction. You present evidence and analysis about that central point throughout the paper. And the central point should penetrate into the meat of the book, not focus on a peripheral point.

Please make sure your thesis is focused with a topic + a major claim. Your thesis is the main idea of your paper. To make your thesis statement effective, however, requires you to have two basic parts. The first is the topic, the subject that you are discussing. The second part is the claim, the assertion that you, the writer, are trying to make about the topic.

Body of your paper

Make sure there are at least two sources integrated into the body of your paper beyond your primary source (the book we’ve read or books). Please make sure there is context for your quotes and references—don’t simply drop your quotes in and expect your reader to know what they mean.

You want to work on being as specific as possible in the body of your paper, weaving claims and evidence. There is a ppt about this in the Papers file.

Reviewing the page on thesis and topic sentences will be helpful in understanding the crucial stage of working out an outline. The best time to do this is after working out your initial draft. At this point you have your initial ideas formulated and are in a stronger position to work out thesis and topic sentence outline:

Thesis:

--Topic sentence 1 in support of the thesis: (make it a full sentence that clearly sets you up to develop the thesis.)

-- Topic sentence 2 in support of the thesis: (make it a full sentence that clearly sets you up to develop the thesis.)

-- Topic sentence 3 in support of the thesis: (make it a full sentence that clearly sets you up to develop the thesis.)

Etc.

The evidence should present examples, descriptions, or quotations from the book(s). The analysis should explain why your evidence supports your central point or thesis. You will weave evidence and analysis throughout your Paper. Make certain that you are showing how the evidence supports your claim by showing your thinking that connects the evidence to the claim.

Conclusion

You should have a concluding paragraph. Conclusions (whether it is one, two or even more paragraphs) can be roughly divided into these areas:

· It wraps up the essay.

· It recapitulates, or restates, your working thesis. We should understand this main thought with fresh eyes, a shifted understanding.

Your conclusion should reflect what we have learned. Don’t simply restate your working thesis from the introduction. Some things you are not obligated to do but that might be beneficial for a conclusion:

· Provide a brief summary of the paper's main points.

· use a quotation.

· evoke a vivid image.

· Call for some sort of action

Other tips about writing your final paper

· Your writing should be clear; use "correct" usage. Grammar and overall clarity will be part of your evaluation. I do not give out A grades to papers with spelling or grammar errors.

· You should be conscious of syntax and diction. Make every word count, and cut or revise any words or phrases that aren't doing important work for what is at the heart of the matter for you. However, this kind of revision for conciseness should take place only after you have fully explored your ideas, the best ways of communicating them, and the best means of persuading your audience that they are true/plausible. First get your ideas down, then put them as effectively as possible, and only then revise for length, precision, and conciseness.