Immature Sex Life:

Immature Sex Life:

Title Immature Sex Life: Prefered Language style English (U.S.)
Type of document Research Paper Number of pages/words 6 Pages Double Spaced (approx 275 words per page)
Subject area English Academic Level Undergraduate
Style MLA Number of sources/references 5
Order description:
ENG 102 Research Paper Guidelines
Purpose
The research paper assignment for this course is due at the end of week 7. The reading
and writing skills shown in the successful completion of this assignment are the
concluding step in the GMC ENG 101/ENG 102 sequence, displaying your skills as a
writer, reader, researcher, and critical thinker.
Research Paper Directions
Your research paper should be an argumentative essay that makes a specific claim about
one or more of the course readings. The claim should be made by applying specific
schools of literary criticism from the “Critical Strategies for Reading” section of our
textbook. Support this claim and argument in a well-developed, well-written, and wellorganized essay of at least 1500-1800 words of text (not counting the works cited
page) and must successfully use at least 5 critical secondary sources (primary sources
are not included in the research requirement) accessed through the GMC library.
The bulleted list below provides general options for paper topics. The entirety of the class
reading assignments can be found in the Course Syllabus, under “Course Schedule.” The
bulleted list below provides general options for paper topics:
• A paper focusing on one of the texts from class (if only writing on one text, it must
be a different text than the ones you wrote on for Response Papers 1 and 2).
• A paper focusing on multiple texts (no more than 3) by the same author
• A paper focusing on multiple texts (but no more than two) by different authors
Tips and Reminders
Use your textbook as a resource. Review Chapters 47, 48, and 49. There are also
various examples of student essays in the textbook.
Re-readthe text(s) you want tobase your paper on.
Once you have decided on a topic, begin doing preliminary research (you will need
to do a lot of research for this assignment anyway). Read what other literary
critics have said. This will help you to further narrow down your topic, and even
to find some of the sources you will end up using in the paper. Remember that
you are a literary critic too—this means you should feel free to question and
disagree with the interpretations you read.
Make sure your thesis is an arguable one, something that readers might
actually agree or disagree with. Don’t be afraid to take a leap and put forward a
new, creative, and/or unique interpretation. Remember that any argument can
be a good one if you properly support it with evidence from the text.
Your paper must incorporate information from outside sources found through the
GMC library. Remember that you have three methods for incorporating outside
information into any paper: you can quote (use the source’s exact words),
paraphrase (put the source’s words into your own words), or summarize (boil
down information from a source to a 1-2 sentence summary in your own words).
Avoid unnecessary plot summary and biographical information. Assume that
your reader has already read the work you are discussing, and assume that your
reader knows important information about the author’s life already.
Remember that sources like Wikipedia, Sparknotes, and other open-web
sources are not appropriate for this paper. Conduct your research through
the library like a real researcher, rather than relying on Google to find open-web
sources that may not be appropriate.
MLA formatting for style, in-text citations, and works cited entries is a significant
part of this paper. Review the sample essays in our textbook, and review grade
feedback on past response papers for help with this.
Organize your argument to maximize its effectiveness. Your introduction should
include a thesis. Each paragraph of your paper should include a topic sentence
that references your thesis. Each sentence in each paragraph should directly
support that paragraph’s topic sentence.
Finally, don’t forget the little things. Spelling, grammar, and punctuation should
be perfect. Edit and revise your work. Manage your time efficiently to allow
yourself the opportunity to read and reread your final paper multiple times.
As always, contact your instructor whenever you have questions!