What

The research paper is your chance to demonstrate what you�fve learned in the course by analyzing the meaning, significance, and stakes of an aspect of American culture today that most interests you in a 4-to-6-page research-based, thesis-driven essay. It�fs your job to choose a topic, narrow its scope, find a specific focus within it, generate a research question, discover how other people who have raised this or related questions have answered it, figure out how to improve upon their answers, and then write an essay that attempts to convince your readers that your answer is valid, interesting, and important. You must go beyond simple description or summary or even explanation and make the leap into arguing for a claim that is debate-able, that you have to work to develop and support, using a mix of interpretation, analysis, and persuasion.

This paper is due no later than February 5, 2007. It should be a Word or rich text format document that is double spaced, with reasonable fonts, font sizes, and margins; a title that indicates the main argument of the paper; a heading that includes your name, the course name, and the date; and a bibliography and citations in MLA style. It should be turned in electronically, in the dropbox in the Final Paper folder in the Content area of the course ANGEL space, unless you choose to participate in a group blog project I am making an option for both my sections of Introduction to American Studies this semester. If you choose this option, contact me by email (using my brucesimon18@yahoo.com account) no later than January 31, so we can get you editing permission on my American Identities student blog.

How

The challenges involved with choosing your own topic for this or any research paper include planning, researching, and brainstorming (narrowing the scope, finding a focus, generating a research question, investigating other people�fs answers to it, trying to improve on the best answers) and drafting, revising, and editing (figuring out the most persuasive and economical way to develop and support your answer, examining your draft from the perspective of a first-time reader and asking �gwhy?�h and �gso what?�h of every claim and paragraph, and polishing and proofreading your prose). Many of the recommended readings in the course ANGEL space can help you, by providing arguments to respond to, sources to use, and writing strategies and structures to learn from, use, and modify. I can offer you aid and advice at every stage of this process, so I expect you to keep me informed of major developments in the project by email at brucesimon18@yahoo.com and in our January class. I�fm happy to make an appointment when I�fm in town in January (1/8/07-1/10/07 and after 1/17/07) to meet in my office (or elsewhere), as well.

Some topics and approaches to consider using in this paper include:

• analyzing a specific text, cultural object, event, issue, or debate from today�fs American culture by examining how it responds to or is informed by the legacies and influences of 17th-century Puritan theology, 18th-century enlightenment rationalism, 19th-century romantic ideologies, and 20th-century modernist aesthetics (obviously you would have to choose which specific legacies/influences to focus on) and arguing what�fs at stake in it;
• analyzing a specific text, cultural object, event, issue, or debate from today�fs American culture by examining its relation to a relevant aspect of Japanese history, culture, or literature and arguing what�fs at stake in it.

Why

In my experience as a teacher, I�fve found that students learn more and do better when they have chosen a research topic, focus, and question that they are truly interested in, particularly for a final project in a course. Rather than a final exam, which tends to penalize you for what you haven�ft learned (or can�ft remember), a student-directed research paper allows you to show me what you have learned in the course. It gives you a chance to learn what it takes and how it feels to begin to become an expert on a specific subject and texts. The skills you learn and practice in this project should be transferable to other academic and non-academic arenas.

How Graded

Papers will be graded on the quality of your analysis of a specific aspect of American culture today (as evidenced in your main argument, supporting arguments and evidence, and research) and the quality of your writing (persuasiveness, organization, sentence-level prose, command of the conventions of college writing on literature).

Introduction to American Studies: The Making of America and Americans, Kyushu University, Fall 2006
Created: 1/10/07 12:10 pm
Last modified: 1/30/07 2:34 pm
Webmaster: Bruce Simon, Fulbright Visiting Lecturer in American Studies, Kyushu University and Seinan Gakuin University and Associate Professor of English, SUNY Fredonia