Final Four--Research

English 102: Proctor Essay Four: Research Paper Assignment (20%)

Writing about Movies: Arguing with Sources

Assignment: For our final project this semester, we will create an extended argument incorporating appropriate source materials in a formal collegiate format. This type of writing is what will be expected of you in your writing assignments in most other undergraduate classes: not only are you expected to be able to understand facts found in outside source materials, but you are expected to discuss what those facts mean and use them to support your own claims: you create an argument with a thesis statement for any college-level research paper.

You are to generate an essay that is both argumentative and expository in relation to a topic of your development and investigation. One key is to choose and develop a topic you are actually interested in writing about. In a nutshell, you must choose a film to analyze and write about—just as we’ve been doing all term—,but this time you get to select the film from a list (below) and use appropriate secondary sources to develop and support your argument.

Final essays must be submitted to Canvas by the posted due date. Because grades are due shortly after this due date, feedback will be very limited and late essays may not be accepted. Essays without a Works Cited page or without in-text citations are not research papers: they will receive a score of zero.

Length: 5 pages minimum; no more than 8 full pages (Works Cited page not included)

Sources: Minimum five (5) separate secondary sources:

· No more than one (1) internet source (Databases are okay)

· At least four (4) sources procured through our collegiate library resources: databases, the library catalogue, and Mobius.

· Secondary sources should be EXPLICITY about the primary source.

· Generally, sources should be academic and scholarly in nature. Examples of scholarly sources include:

· --scholarly/academic journals articles

· --books

· --major daily newspapers (Washington Post, L.A. Times, etc.)

Potential Primary Sources (Your primary source MUST come from this list: no exceptions. Select ONE film from this list for this project. All are available on Swank. Many contain EXPLICIT CONTENT per the course syllabus):

Alfred Hitchcock, Vertigo (1958)

Stanley Kubrick, The Shining (1980)

Jonathan Demme, The Silence of the Lambs (1991)

Quentin Tarantino, Pulp Fiction (1994)

Richard Linklater, Before Sunrise (1995)

Paul Thomas Anderson, Boogie Nights (1997)

Practicality is paramount: Can you find source material? My advice is to begin with a topic that you are interested in learning more about, but you must quickly determine if you can locate research materials on your chosen topic.

You must use a total of at least FIVE secondary sources: Be sure to meet the essay guidelines concerning the number and kind of sources required; papers incorporating information from fewer than five acceptable sources are not meeting minimum assignment requirements.

Remember: Do not to write a summary of your subject; rather, you are creating a researched argument. In other words, this is not the essay in which you should simply list your research; this is not an essay that summarizes the film; this is not an essay that tells the story of “the making of” a film; this is not an evaluation or a review. You can assume that your reader is generally familiar with the film but has not yet thought of it analytically. Remember: we want to gain an insight; this insight will form the basis of your thesis.

1. Use what you have learned about argumentation since the beginning of 102:

· make an arguable observation about the text

· make a claim as to how the text reflects upon our world;

· organize topics that support the thesis

· rely on strong and detailed evidence

2. Remember, too, that whenever you borrow information from an outside source—whether it is directly or indirectly quoted, paraphrased, or summarized—if the information is not general knowledge, then you must cite it fully in proper MLA format.

3. Again, keep the structure of your argument in mind: introduce your topic, make your claim (thesis), then build on your points in the body paragraphs; your research materials are to be used as supporting evidence for the ideas YOU have developed.

4. Most of this paper (two-thirds) should be your own thoughts, with the outside information (one-third) used to support your ideas.

The Process: Be sure to follow the schedule carefully and turn in all required work on time. Process assignments may not be accepted late; timely progress is key to the process.

Research Process Assignment Deadlines: submit all assignments to canvas.

Wednesday 4/21 Quiz and Initial Post to Proposal Discussion Board

Wednesday 4/28 Working Bibliography due

Wednesday 4/28 Initial Post to Extra Credit Primary Source Discussion Board

Wednesday 5/5 Annotated Bibliography due

Saturday 5/8 Half-Draft and Remaining Outline due (include a Works Cited)

Wednesday 5/12 Final Draft Research Paper Due ***ESSAY 4***

Participation on Proposal Discussion Board (20 points)

Submit an initial post that that answers the following questions in paragraph form (5 to 7 sentences): What do you want to write on, and why? What are you interested in here? That is, what do you think you might learn from this research? Or, what question(s) do you seek to answer? What sort of research sources have you found to this point? Specifically identify at least two secondary sources (by title, author, and location of source) that you found through our library resources (i.e. the library catalogue, the library databases, or Mobius). You should address these questions in sentence and paragraph form: you are trying to clearly explain to us why you want to do this particular project and why is might be interesting. Give us a sense that you know what you are doing and that you want to do it. After your initial post, comment, offering constructive feedback, on two of your classmates’ proposals within the next couple of days.

Working Bibliography (30 points)

Submit a bibliography that follows MLA format. 8 sources minimum—you will need to find more sources than you end up using. Include the primary source. See the sample Works Cited and the MLA Citation Format PowerPoint. Include all secondary and primary sources. Alphabetize; double-space; use hanging indents.

Annotated Bibliography (100 points)

First, READ YOUR SOURCES ; learning about your topic is absolutely essential: get started. Following each full MLA citation entry, write a one paragraph summary, evaluation, and assessment of five sources, providing samples of quotations and other information you plan to use in your essay OR provide an explanation of why the source will not be useful. 3 to 5 pages and 5 to 7 source entries. Basically, the annotated bibliography is a “normal” bibliography with writing on each entry; we will better define this assignment when we do our Annotation Workshop.

Half-Draft and Remaining Outline (50 points)

After READING YOUR SOURCES , compose the first three to five paragraphs of your paper (2½ or 3 pages). At the very least, you should complete a working introduction (including your clearly identifiable thesis statement) as well as the first body paragraphs. Follow these paragraphs with an informal outline—a plan—for the remainder of the essay.