Essay 3: Literary Criticism Research Paper
Assume you’re a group of literary theorists (max 31) preparing to present a paper.
Choose a school or schools of criticism and apply it to different forms of literature (see below).
You may choose multiple schools of criticism from the class such as Feminist Theory, New
Historicism, Marxism and Psychoanalysis. You may also use literary theories not discussed in
class such as Queer Theory, Deconstruction or Formalism.
The next step is to think about what works of literature apply to your school of criticism.
All forms of literature including short story, poetry, novel and drama are fair game. In doing so,
you then will take the next step, which is the research process. You have two ways to go about
this: you can start with finding some of the major contributors to your critical school or you can
find scholars who have written on your story and what schools of criticism they are using. It is
highly suggested you look at major contributors first due to the way the paper should be
structured.
The introduction of your Research Paper should be the same as previous essays: an
introduction to the main subject material and main ideas to be discussed. In the subsequent body
paragraphs, I want you to discuss in a page or so some of the theoretical principles and
contributors to your field of criticism. This will lead into the actual analysis of the work/s itself.
Be sure to consider some terms that may be involved with your school of criticism and try to
become familiar with them. You’ll be asked to provide several drafts of this paper all of which
will apply towards the 25% of your grade. Please be aware that all drafts are due and will be
graded on a credit-basis. This means I’m not grading them for content, rather to make sure
you’re able to keep up with the work, so completing them and turning them in on is the most
important regardless of how many pages you turn in.
Feel free to add other forms of media such as visuals, music or any other media form that
you think helps enhance your paper. If you have any issues, please see the Librarian, tutors or
myself about some questions related to the research process.
Research Requirements
1 book and 2 outside sources (preferably academic)
Draft Due Dates
1
This may change depending on the class size.
Topic Proposal due 6/27 (3%)
Draft w/ 2 pages due 6/29 (2%)
Works Cited w/ annotations due 7/3 (3%)
Draft w/ 4 pages due 7/5 (2%)
Essay 3 due 7/10 (15%)