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Paper Preparation
Critical Paper Information:
Each critical paper for this course should offer extended close reading and analysis of either a specific text or of a particular theme or concept in several texts. It may also address and incorporate some outside criticism on the materials under consideration. However, it need not survey the criticism extensively. The focus of the paper should be your own interpretation of the text, supplemented by what other scholars have said on the topic if appropriate. You may write about any of the texts we have considered (or even the ones we haven≠t). You are free to develop your own topic, in consultation with me, or you may develop one of your reading responses into a paper if you feel you have more to say about the topic.
Most papers of this nature follow a fairly conventional pattern and vary only in terms of the amount of writing devoted to each area:
1. Begin with the introduction of a critical/interpretive problem in the text(s).
2. Proceed through an overview of the critical response to the problem.
3. Map out a position within the critical spectrum.
4. Present a ≥reading≈ of the text from that position.
General Guidance:
Preliminary work: Suitable for both papers
1. As you begin to think about topics/authors/works for your paper, routinely perform some initial research to "test the waters" so to speak. Very often your topic will take shape as a set of alternative ideas that crop up as you're tracing your "so-called" topic. In other words, BROWSE. The more familiar you are with the resources, the easier your work will be.
2. Once you have solidified a topic, begin a fuller survey of the available sources in our library. This survey will be necessary as a critical foundation for your paper. This process should provide you with a fairly good bibliography of materials relevant to your topic. Now you can start reading and evaluating these materials. This step is not as necessary for the short paper, but is essential for the longer project.
Focusing and Drafting:
1.Somewhere between the end of your survey of resources and the early drafting of your paper, you should work-up a "critical overview" of the criticism you have examined. This process is, admittedly, laborious, but it will strengthen your control over your secondary materials and help you to plot your paper's course through all the other perspectives on the market. As you read a piece of criticism, take 10 minutes to write a summary of the main points and the specific relevance to your topic. Important articles should be xeroxed in their entirety. Articles that are only partially relevant can be summarized with the relevant passages Xeroxed. Anything you are certain you will use (particularly primary sources and important secondary material) should receive a complete MLA citation in a "Works Consulted" list. Build this now, thank me later. (Note: When you xerox something, write the complete bibliographic listing on the front page. This can save much labor later. Trust me).
2.Draft your ideas out now. In your draft, make notes where your argument intersects with your secondary sources, but don't worry about including secondary material now. The goal here is to march through your own thinking on the topic. I would, however, suggest that this is a good time to build-in primary support from your texts. Remember, your analysis must, above all else, have support in the text.
3.Talk. Corner your classmates and run your ideas past them. Encourage them to do some of your thinking for you by asking them questions and working through the things you don't understand. Make them challenge you with other approaches your haven't thought about. When they reach the point that they walk the other way and avoid you, come and see me. My door is always open--except when I≠m not there or the wind blows it shut. A good sounding board can do more to get your ideas going than any number of hours with a blank page. Plus, it spreads your suffering around a bit.
Working it up:
1. At some point in your process, you will feel the need to build-in your secondary material. A couple of points are important to remember here:
- A. An interpretive paper is not a library report or a survey of criticism. To some degree you should trace of the predominant views on the topic to place your argument in context. This is where your control of the secondary material is crucial to your ability to assess general critical claims about the text(s) and at the same time substantiate those claims in notes and documentation. In the long paper, it's also where that "critical overview" pays for itself.
- B. Don't over-quote or over-summarize. Strike a good tonal balance between your words and the words of others in your paper. My rules of thumb are: if it's factual note it; if it's contextual, paraphrase and note it; if it's provocative, stimulating, or a point I want to destroy, quote it.
- C. Every time you use a new source, make a complete MLA bibliographic citation in your growing "Works Cited" list. If you've been building that "Works Consulted" list like I told you, you're probably just cutting and pasting. If you didn't, tell your friends to find you in the library.
2. Once you've worked-up a full draft, with all quotes, support, notes, and documentation, it's time to let it sit. Then, have a conference with me. Give it to someone else to read. Give yourself some critical distance. When you return to the paper, do so with an eye to refute it. Look for weak spots and holes and try to bolster them.
3. Final clean up. Do I need to cover this?
- Make sure every parenthetical citation has a "Works Cited" citation at the end.
- Make sure every quote, reference, summary, and paraphrase has a parenthetical citation.
- Make sure your "Works Cited" listing is alphabetized and in the correct format.
- All papers must be typed and prepared using MLA citation and documentation guidelines available in most standard English handbooks (like the Little, Brown Handbook used in Freshman Composition) or in the MLA Style Manual or the MLA Guide to Writing Research Papers.
This Page was last update:
Thursday, February 12, 2004 at 4:01:23 PM
This page was originally posted: 2/12/04; 3:58:41 PM.
Copyright 2009 ENG334
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