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English 1110.01

Spring Semester 2016

Elizabeth Nixon

STEP 5: The Analytical Research Paper

According to Writing Analytically, writing the Analytical Research Paper is a process that is best conceived of in steps (see Chs. 4-8). The Analytical Research Paper, then, is the culmination of The Analytical Research Project.

For the Analytical Research Paper, you have analyzed a primary source relevant to the course topic, and now are ready to formulate a thesis claim about this evidence. Because this assignment emphasizes research undertaken for and communicated to an academic audience, you will integrate your secondary evidence into your analysis.

This assignment should be 7-8 pages, double-spaced, typed in 12-point font, and set to 1” margins.

Objectives:

· Analyze primary sources, what messages they convey in written, visual, and/or audio media.

· Explore and make claims about how the messages are conveyed.

· Discuss to whom the messages are conveyed and speculate about the effectiveness of this message for a specific audience.

· Develop a complex thesis that makes a claim about how a primary source communicates a message to a specific audience.

· Introduce complicating evidence and include what Writing Analytically terms an “evolving thesis.”

· Demonstrate awareness about your role in the conversation about your research question and thesis by acknowledging what is at stake in your analysis. In other words, explain why your analysis matters.

· Integrate secondary sources in a way that accounts for aspects of the academic conversation that are relevant to the paper’s thesis.

· Include a title on the first page that reflects the complexity of the paper’s general purposes.

· Include proper in-text citations of each source consulted or referred to, including the primary source which you’re analyzing, and an appropriately formatted Works Cited page following MLA guidelines.

· Observe the standards of academic writing discussed in class and avoid sentence-level errors and lapses in tone. Produce fluid and precise prose with appropriate transitions throughout.

Getting Started:

In order to complete a sound Analytical Research Paper, you must engage with sources that will yield complex and compelling thesis claims when analyzed. You might consider these steps in order to get started on this assignment:

· Revisit your Secondary Source Analysis and your notes from our conference to determine how to begin your revisions toward a final ARP.

· If necessary, do additional research to find primary or secondary evidence to further support and/or complicate your analytical claims.

· Be sure that you have a complex thesis and that you are able to support it with evidence.

Completing the Assignment:

In the previous steps, you have developed analytical claims about the primary evidence, formulated research questions, found appropriate sources, and revised your analysis to integrate secondary evidence. Now you are ready to complete the Analytical Research Paper. You will want to focus on complicating and evolving your thesis, organizing your essay in a clear and logical fashion, and polishing your writing by paying attention to tone, style, and the mechanics of grammar. As you complete the assignment, consider these questions:

1. Have I explored the primary evidence thoroughly and developed complex and compelling analytical claims?

2. Have I explained the connection between my analytical claims and the primary and secondary evidence thoroughly and clearly?

3. Am I making compelling arguments that reflect serious enquiry throughout the research process?

4. Have I composed and arranged my paper in a way that progresses logically and makes my meaning clear?

5. Have I appropriately cited the sources that I reference, both in my text and in my Works Cited?

6. Have I observed the conventions of grammar and style expected in academic writing?

This assignment is due in the Carmen dropbox named Final Analytical Research Paper by 11:59 p.m. 4/22

Possible Topics:

Keep in mind that you will be analyzing a primary source (like Mulholland Drive) and using your literature review sources (secondary sources) to analyze it. Your primary source should be something you can crawl inside and analyze inside and out, but also something you can find good secondary sources on. The secondary sources don’t have to refer directly to the source you’re analyzing (i.e., you could use Wendy Hesford’s work on human rights rhetoric to talk about an article on refugees that came out this month by seeing whether or not the way Hesford describes how newspapers depict refugees with what you see in your own source). With that in mind, I’d suggest working on:

Human rights rhetoric, which can include everything from the Universal Declaration of Human Rights to the way refugees are portrayed in the news

Representation of children, teens, minorities, women, men in a film, comic book, cartoon, t.v. show, or play. Questions include—are we supposed to see the characters representing ideas, as possible people where we care about their emotions/personal lives? Are we actually supposed to see them as people at all, or do they call attention to how they’re made in order to prove a point? (see Apple exercise). When and why does that matter? Are some characters seen as more human than others? In what ways do they encourage or discourage identification? And what type of identification are we talking about? Emotional? Intellectual? Why does this matter? Possible sources for this go back to The Iliad and the 18th c. to now and could cover everything from concerns over whether boys can identify with female characters to romance novels to how African Americans are portrayed in early cinema (i.e., the character Sam in Casablanca).

Blurring boundaries of what counts as human in science fiction/horror (possible sources include The Returned, The Terminator, etc.)