• AP Literature - Research Paper Assignment
     
     

    Assignment:  Write a 5-page minimum argumentative essay based on researching an aspect of something that you find interesting. You may not research something that is not appropriate for school or try to prove a conspiracy theory correct as the sources will not be reliable.

    Example of Literary Essay 

    The information explained below can be seen in the above example. There are other examples of research papers all over the internet, but the example above is specifically what your paper should look like.

     
    Requirements:
    5 pages, double-spaced, typed in size 12 Times New Roman, 1" margins 
    4 sources cited minimum and listed on a works cited page using MLA format and given credit within the body of the paper through parenthetical citations
     
    Deadlines: (you will receive a grade for completing each of these on time)
     
    By Wednesday, April 9 you should have turned in a working thesis statement. .
     
    By Friday, April 11  you should be able to turn in at least two sources you will use in your paper written in mla format. 
     
    By Wednesday, April 16 you will need to have shared with me some of your written paper so that I can give you feedback, and you can work on finishing the final paper during the week.
     
    By  Friday, April 25 you will turn in your completed paper with a Works Cited page through Google Classroom.
     
     
    Useful Information:
     
    Research
     
    You should NOT use Wikipedia or one of the websites set up to help students generate papers such as ChaptGPT. You also cannot just use any source you find anywhere on the internet. A random person's website or videos about a subject are not academically strong. Your best bet is to use the databases that Ms. Meyer showed you.. Instructions for using the database is on the school's website here:  https://www.lakes.k12.in.us/cms/lib/IN01001338/Centricity/Domain/276/Literary%20Criticism%20Williams%20Spring20.pdf 
     
    Your sources should have an author, and the author should be someone who can be proven to be some kind of expert in the field they are writing about. So, if you look up something about the apartheid in South Africa, the author should be someone who is an expert, a professor, or someone who experienced apartheid. If you are having problems finding sources, let me know, and I can try to help. I encourage you to really try on your own before asking for help though because the more you can do on your own, the better off you'll be in the future with assignments like this, but I will gladly help if you get stuck.
     
    Your sources should be listed alphabetically on your Works Cited page at the end of your paper. Many of the sources on the database will have a citation link so that all you will have to do is copy the citation into your paper. You can also use a citation machine if a link is not available. Be sure to note below how to use parenthetical citations within the body of your paper so that you do not commit plagiarism when you use one of your sources.
     
    I must be able to access your sources and see how they are used in your paper. If I cannot access your sources, I will have to assume that you used AI to write your paper.
     
    Heading
    ****Your paper should begin with each of the following on the LEFT side of your paper each listed on a separate line, double-spaced: your name, your teacher's name, the name of the class, and the date written in the European format (day month year = no punctuation). The title should follow on the next double-spaced line centered.            
     
    Example:                               
     
    Sally Student
     
    Ms. Williams
     
    AP Literature and Composition 
     
    16 April 2024
     
                                                                                 This Will Be Your Title
     
    *You will put your last name followed by the page number in the upper right corner of the header.
     
     
     
     
     
    Introduction and Thesis Statement
     
           ****Your thesis statement is one sentence that explains what your entire paper is arguing. You are not making a simple statement of fact. You are presenting what your paper is setting out to prove or analyze. It is generally placed as the last sentence of your introductory paragraph. Your introduction should begin with a hook to draw in the reader. Start your paper by speaking very generally about your subject and your novel and gradually lead into your very specific thesis statement which will be a guide for the rest of your paper. If you didn't mention you were going to discuss or prove something in your thesis statement, don't write about it in your paper. You are in charge of this paper, so you can change your thesis statement as you go if you need to.
     

    Examples of some thesis statements I wrote in high school and college: *notice these all are trying to prove or analyze, not just state factual information

     
    The Irish potato famine caused the loss of millions of people in Ireland by both starvation and emigration, and when it finally ended, it left Ireland changed in traditions and attitude.
     
    By using two plots based on father-child relationships, Shakespeare in King Lear creates a play wherein relationships in a family are strained by unnatural behaviors.
     
    In Pride and Prejudice, those characters who follow the traditional etiquette in finding a husband cannot have the same personal fulfillment in their married lives as Elizabeth will have in her relationship with Darcy.
     
    Dorothy Parker's pain-filled life along with the general social standards of being a woman in the early twentieth century led, because of her extreme wit and sense of satire, to her unique, often pessimistic, and sarcastic writing style.
     
     
     
     Using MLA Format
     
           *****MLA format is used in English classes. You may use APA or Chicago Style in college. The idea for all of these stylebooks is generally the same, though the details and specifics used for each are different. MLA requires that after any sentence where you use a piece of information that you have researched (whether you put it in your own words or you directly quote) you, in parentheses, note that you have used a source. This note, or parenthetical citation, will refer to the Works Cited page which will be at the end of your paper. 
     
              Works Cited Page
     
    An example of a Works Cited page can be found on the Purdue Owl here:
     
       Notice that it is in alphabetical order by the first word, notice that it is double-spaced, and notice how it is indented.
     
    There is a format to copy when writing each entry. The Purdue Owl shows you clearly how to write out a citation for a source here: https://owl.purdue.edu/owl/research_and_citation/mla_style/mla_formatting_and_style_guide/mla_works_cited_page_basic_format.h
     
    If you use the databases, there may be a link that provides the mla citation.
        
     I have simplified the format below. In bold are the pieces of information that you should have for every internet source. The other pieces of information may or may not be available
       
      
     Editor or author (Last Name, First Name). "Name of the Page or Article." Name of Site or Database, Other contributers (translators or editors), Version number, Name
                   of institution/organization affiliated with the site (sponsor or publisher), date of resource creation (if available), URL. Date of access (if applicable).
     
     
    Specifics for creating a citation for a database can be found here: 
     
    You can use a citation generator/machine, but be sure that all the information is correct.
     
     
                 Parenthetical Citations
     
    Parenthetical citations are based on your Works Cited page. A complete explanation is found on the Purdue OWL here:
     
    The basics of parenthetical (in-text) citing for electronic sources is the following: 
    • Include in parentheses after the sentence where you used information from a source the first item that appears in the Work Cited entry that corresponds to the citation (e.g. author name, article name, website name, film name).
    • Book sources should have a page number after the author's last name to indicate which page the information is on.
    • You do not need to give page numbers when citing a website, just the author's last name or whatever is first on the Works Cited entry in MLA format
    If your Works Cited entry looked like this:
     
                                    Webb, Robert. How Not to Be a Boy. Canongate Books, 2019.
     
     
             And then you used information from that source in a sentence with a direct quote like this, do the following:
     
     According to Robert Webb in his memoir How Not to Be a Boy, reading as an English major at Cambridge was, "Not just to enjoy what a writer did, but for the pleasure of figuring out how they did it. That and being able to come up with an essay about it are really the only things an English student does all day...If you like it, then it doesn't feel like practice, and the more you practise the better you get" (137).
      
    OR
     
             if you don't mention the author in the sentence and use one of their ideas but not any of their actual phrases (you put it in your words but stole the idea), you do it like this:
     
    Studying English in college is not about memorizing a lot of facts; it mostly involves figuring out what to write about for an essay, and then the more essays you write, the easier it gets (Webb 137). 
     
     

     Generally Useful 

    • Don't leave a quote or paraphrase by itself-you must introduce it, explain it, and show how it relates to your thesis.
    • Block format all quotations of more than four lines.
     

    Grading: