HONORS WORLD LITERATURE RESEARCH PAPER ASSIGNMENT
EXAMINING HUMAN RIGHTS
A research paper is very similar to the papers you have completed so far in which you discussed a particular aspect of an epic poem using a thesis statement
and examples and quotations from the text. In this assignment, you will add support from additional sources to prove your thesis, though you might not use
any information from a literary source. The process of finding, reading and incorporating information from these other sources is what makes this a research
paper. Because you have experience with analysis and know how to organize an essay using textual evidence, this should not be a totally new experience.
In his memoir Night, Elie Wiesel describes the horrors he experienced during the Holocaust. He has continued to dedicate his life to fighting human rights
violations around the world. During his acceptance speech for the Nobel Peace Prize, Wiesel said, “Human rights are being violated on every continent.
More people are oppressed than free. How can one not be sensitive to their plight? Human suffering anywhere concerns men and women everywhere.”
Despite these efforts and the work of countless others, human rights violations continue. The Holocaust is an example of a human rights violation and a
horrible criminal act.
For your research paper, you will perform a critical examination of one of the articles of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and connect it to a
current occurrence of a human rights violation. The Declaration was adopted in 1948 by the United Nations; it was created in response to the atrocities
committed by the Nazis during WWII.
INSTRUCTIONS
Choose an Article of the International Declaration of Human Rights and connect it to a contemporary event (2011-present day) in the world that
directly violates the Article. You will write a research paper in which you investigate the facts, issues and responses associated with the human
rights violation. Your essay will examine the cause of the violation, the effect of the violation on a group of people, and a solution to make sure the
violation does not occur again.
SUCCESSFUL PAPERS WILL PRESENT:
1. A discussion of a specific human rights violation that includes its unique context and characteristics.
(What are the historical and cultural situations that led to the violation? What tactics were used to cause the violation?)
2. A thesis statement that presents your interpretation of human rights and of the specific violation.
(Religious zealotry and fear, encouraged by extreme Christian right-wing Republicans, caused the persecution of gay men in Uganda.)
3. An examination of the issues or problems associated with the human rights violation.
(In what ways did the targeted group suffer? Who committed the violation? Why? To what end?)
4. An analysis of the responses to the human rights violation.
(How have people tried to end the violation? Has there been a global response? Have any of these responses been effective?)
5. A discussion of the possible ways to prevent this human rights violation based on your investigation.
We will take about three weeks to complete this exercise. Please follow the dates and guidelines. You must complete this assignment in order to earn
credit for 10th grade World Literature.
SPECIFIC GUIDELINES
In this essay, you will articulate your stance regarding the cause and reason for a particular human rights violation. The topic must be arguable and you
must provide research to support your ideas and points.

4-5 pages (plus annotated bibliography)

3 secondary sources (from acceptable Internet sources)

You will convince your reader of the validity of your thesis by using the four of the kinds of evidence:
1) facts and statistics (concrete ideas and numbers that support your claim)
2) your reasoning (your interpretation and analysis of the problem)
3) expert testimony (information from scholars who study and write about your issue)
4) ethos( the ethical appeal – means convincing by the character of the author; in other words making yourself as author into an
authority on the subject of the paper)

A minimum of three outside references should be used to develop your essay, whether those sources reflect an expert opinion or statistical
evidence.

Your thesis will express your stance on the topic
o a warning, a correction, praise or affirmation, or a specific pro or con position.
o The thesis will occur at the close of the introduction.

After providing your reader with the background information he or she needs to understand why your topic is important, your essay
o will proceed in a logical order with each of your arguments leading to the next
o Transition and topic sentences will move the reader from one idea to the next.

Your conclusion will
o review your argument and your major points
o state some kind of resolution to the problem

Your writing should be characterized by clear and coherent expression. Direct quotes are embedded in your sentences and reference material is
paraphrased or summarized in your language as the writer.

Quotations, paraphrases, and summaries are correctly documented according to MLA formatting. An annotated bibliography, attached to the
essay, provides complete and correctly formatted bibliographic information for all works cited.
HOW TO WRITE ANNOTATED BIBLIOGRAPHIES (21 PTS)
What is an annotated bibliography
• an account of research that has been done on a topic.
• an alphabetical list of research sources such as books, articles, websites and documents.
• a concise summary of each source, including some assessment of its value or relevance.
Why do we use annotated bibliographies?
An annotated bibliography may have a variety of purposes:
• reviewing the literature on your subject
• demonstrating the quality and depth of your reading
• showing the scope of sources available, e.g. journals, books, websites
• informing the reader of the relevance, accuracy and quality of sources that may be of interest
• exploring and organizing sources for further research.
How do we write an annotated bibliography?
There are two main sections to each annotated bibliography entry:
1. The bibliographic information (the reference).
2. The explanatory paragraphs (the annotation), which provide one or more of the following elements depending on your assessment requirements:
• a summary of the main arguments or ideas presented by the author
• a critique or evaluation of the source’s usefulness, reliability, objectivity or bias, and a comparison with other sources
• a reflection on how the source fits into your research.
GUIDELINES FOR WORD LENGTH
Summary/description(what it’s about).
• Approximately a quarter of the annotation
Critique/evaluation (the overall goal, if it’s useful, if it’s objective or biased).
• Approximately half of the annotation
Reflection and closing remarks( a reflection on whether or not you think you can use the source in your research paper.)
Approximately a quarter of the annotation
ANNOTATED BIBLIOGRAPHY ASSIGNMENT
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•
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You must do an annotated bibliography as part of your research for your research paper.
The goal is to do a search so that you can find out what information is available for your topic.
You need to review at least seven sources that could possibly help you learn about your human rights violation, the history behind the violation, the reason why
the violation is occurring, and possible solutions to the violation.
You will then narrow down your sources to three to four that you will use in your actual research paper.
o These sources will support and prove your thesis and your points.
o You must be able to use each of these sources at least once
Source Requirements:
o You must have at least two sources that present expert testimony about your human rights violation.
o You may use information from current events, history, psychology, science, or philosophy books/sites
 Unacceptable sources: Wikipedia; Spark Notes/Cliff’s Notes/eNotes; a personal, non-professional webpage; or any site where it is questionable who
wrote the material
Annotated Bibliography Template
When writing the annotation, you might like to consider
some of the following questions or sentence starters to
focus your thoughts
Questions to consider
SUMMARY COMPONENT
What are the main ideas expressed by the author?
Does the author present evidence to validate his
arguments?
What is the author’s purpose?
CRITIQUE OR EVALUATION COMPONENT
Is the text the author’s personal opinion, or is academic
support provided?
Example Annotation
Davis, Lennard J. Factual Fictions: The Origins of the English Novel.
Philadelphia: U of Pennsylvania Press, 1996.
Influenced by Foucault’s studies on modes of discourse, Davis attempts to
describe the novel’s “threshold” (the point at which texts become what we
now recognize as novels) by analyzing the “ensemble” of written texts
surrounding and leading to the development of the novel, including
literature, newspapers, advertisements, laws, etc. While the combination of
fact and fiction in journalism, history and literature—and the contrary
move towards separating the categories by law—may be interesting and
insightful, the book as a whole lacks coherence and integrity in its
claims.This insufficiency is a problem because it will not help me
support my thesis because the book focuses too much on the cultural
aspects of the novel and not on the writers’ own lives.
Underline = Summary Component
Italics = Critique or Evaluation Component
Bold = Reflection Component
Is it generalized or specific?
*** Do Not underline, italicize and bold your annotated bibliography***
Is the piece descriptive or analytical?
Who is the intended audience?
Consider the language or tone used.
Are there any references worth following?
REFLECTION COMPONENT
Did the text help you understand the topic?
Did it change your thinking on the topic?
How useful was the information?
How will you use it in your own work?
HOW TO WRITE AN ABSTRACT (9 PTS)
An abstract is a short summary of what you will research. If done well, it makes the reader want to learn more
about your topic and ideas. An abstract should be about 100 to 150 words in length.
Checklist: Parts of an Abstract
Despite the fact that an abstract is quite brief, it must do almost as much work as the multi-page paper that follows
it. This means that it should in most cases include the following sections. Each section is typically a single
sentence, although there is room for creativity. In particular, the parts may be merged or spread among a set of
sentences. Use the following as a checklist for your abstract:
 Problem statement:
What problem are you trying to solve? What is the scope of your work (a generalized approach, or for a
specific situation)?
 Motivation:
Why do we care about the problem and the results? …This section should include the importance of your
work, the difficulty of the area, and the impact it might have if successful.
 Approach:
How will you go about researching the problem(e.g. analyzed 3 novels, completed a series of 5 oil
paintings, interviewed 17 students)?
Questions an Abstract Answers
 Why did you do this study or project?
 What will you do, and how?
Modified from <http://www.ece.cmu.edu/~koopman/essays/abstract.html>, <http://research.berkeley.edu/ucday/abstract.html>, and
<http://www.olemiss.edu/depts/writing_center/grabstract.html>
EXAMPLE ABSTRACTS
"The Commemoration and Memorialization of the American Revolution”
Benjamin Herman and Jean Lee (Mentor), History
This project involves discovering how the American Revolution was remembered during the nineteenth century. The goal is to
show that the American Revolution was memorialized by the actions of the United States government during the 1800s. This
has been done by examining events such as the Supreme Court cases of John Marshall and the Nullification Crisis. Upon
examination of these events, it becomes clear that John Marshall and John Calhoun (creator of the Doctrine of Nullification)
attempted to use the American Revolution to bolster their claims by citing speeches from Founding Fathers. Through showing
that the American Revolution lives on in memory, this research highlights the importance of the revolution in shaping the
actions of the United States government.
"Their War": The Perspective of the South Vietnamese Military in Their Own Words Author: Julie Pham
(UCB participant in UC Day 2001)
Despite the vast research by Americans on the Vietnam War, little is known about the perspective of South Vietnamese
military, officially called the Republic of Vietnam Armed Forces (RVNAF). The overall image that emerges from the literature
is negative: lazy, corrupt, unpatriotic, apathetic soldiers with poor fighting spirits. This study recovers some of the South
Vietnamese military perspective for an American audience through qualitative interviews with 40 RVNAF veterans now living
in San José, Sacramento, and Seattle, home to three of the top five largest Vietnamese American communities in the nation. An
analysis of these interviews yields the veterans' own explanations that complicate and sometimes even challenge three widely
held assumptions about the South Vietnamese military: 1) the RVNAF was rife with corruption at the top ranks, hurting the
morale of the lower ranks; 2) racial relations between the South Vietnamese military and the Americans were tense and hostile;
and 3) the RVNAF was apathetic in defending South Vietnam from communism. The stories add nuance to our understanding
of who the South Vietnamese were in the Vietnam War. This study is part of a growing body of research on non-American
perspectives of the war. In using a largely untapped source of Vietnamese history and oral histories with Vietnamese
immigrants, this project will contribute to future research on similar topics.
General Humanities Research Paper Outline (10 pts)
Remember that this outline is the bare-bones approach to writing. You may play with this format, but you must
make sure that you include all of the aspects denoted in the format.
Also remember that you must have a new paragraph when you bring up a new idea or illustrate a new point.
Introduction
1
sentence
3 to 4
sentences
1 to 2
sentences
1
sentence
Hook that reveals topic of the essay to the reader – reveals the human rights violation
Background information that defines idea introduced in hook and gives historical overview –
explains the violation, locates it in the world, states why the violation is egregious
Connection to IDHR – explains the violation in the context of the UN treaty and explains how
the violation goes against the treaty
Thesis Statement – argument of cause of violation, effect of violation on people or world,
reasons for violation.
Body Paragraphs (Repeat format for the number of body paragraphs desired/required.)
1
sentence
Topic sentence starting with a transition word that introduces your first issue
(Sentence should mention Thesis, Major Point and Point)
1 to 2
sentences
Explanation of the issue in context of IDHR and the human rights violation
Varies
Quotation from the research with intro tag and parenthetical citation
Example: In her study of student apathy, Williams states, “blahblahblah” (Williams
7).
Explanation of quotation with connection to your argument
2 to 3
sentences
1
sentence
Sentence that links ideas in paragraph to the thesis statement
Conclusion
1 to 2
sentences
3 to 4
sentences
1
sentence
Restatement of thesis (in different words)
Summary of topic sentences and points made in body paragraphs.
Closing statement that presents a resolution or outcome for the human rights violation