The Final Project

The final project in this course is your chance to move beyond what we do in class--developing hypotheses, opinions, and possible answers to key questions--and in response papers--trying to support a hypothesis, convince someone else to accept your opinion, or persuade your audience that your answer is not only possible but is also highly plausible--by pursuing a research topic of your choice in some depth and presenting your findings in the form you feel is most appropriate. It supplements the final exam by allowing you to show what you have learned about analyzing literary and cultural texts over the course of the semester. The final project is of your choosing: it could be a 6-to-8-page research-based critical essay, pedagogical essay, or interdisciplinary essay; a creative writing project of variable length; a research-based analytical web information/research site; or some other format of your invention. It's your call--in terms of what topic or issue you choose to focus on as well as what format you present your findings in--so think carefully about which texts, questions, and modes of analysis have been most interesting to you over the course of the semester and feel free to invent your own line of inquiry.

Once you've chosen an option and a topic for the final project (see below), you must write me a brief proposal in which you (1) describe your option, topic, and research plans; (2) provide a rationale for doing what you plan; (3) ask me any questions you have; (4) propose a day and time to meet with me (either before or after Thanksgiving Break) to discuss your first draft. You must email me this proposal by 5 pm on Tuesday, November 20 (or turn in a print-out of the proposal during class the following day). I will respond with suggestions before you leave for Thanksgiving Break over email.

Final projects are due by 4 pm on Wednesday, December 18, 2002. Projects that follow one of the first four options below should follow the usual format from the response papers: double spaced, with reasonable fonts, font sizes, and margins; title that indicates main argument of paper; heading that includes your name, the course name or number, and the date; bibliography and citations in MLA style (see the links page for explanations of this style of citation); proper quotation format for quotations within a paragraph: "..." (12). and blockquote format for quotes five lines or longer. As for the length, I'm flexible, but you should put at least the same thought, effort, and time into the other options as you would for the 6-to-8-page research-based critical essay that is the first option--and their length should similarly be comparable to it.

The options for the final project are as follows:

• Critical Essay option: write a 6-to-8-page analytical/persuasive essay in which you advance an argument about one or two works from the course, drawing on at least three secondary sources to help you develop and support your argument. The goal of this option is for you to incorporate research into secondary sources into the development and support of an argument on a work or works from the course--and hence to hone your analytical and persuasive skills by entering into an interpretive dialogue with other readers/critics of the work(s) you have chosen to analyze. I will be grading this essay in terms of how well you make your case for your argument, how well you base your argument on textual analysis and interpretation, and how well-organized and well-written your paper is. Hence I will be evaluating the coherence, validity, and persuasiveness of your paper's argument, the effectiveness of your paper's structure, and the quality of your paper's prose (diction, grammar, syntax, and punctuation).
• Pedagogical Essay option: write a 6-to-8-page paper on how you'd organize a high school class period (or set of meetings) devoted to one (or more) of the works we read in the course and on your reasons for teaching the work in the way you described, drawing on at least three secondary sources to help you develop and support your teaching plan. The goal of this option is to show what you've learned in the course about the analysis and teaching of American literature by making a case for the best way of teaching a particular work (or works) in a high school classroom. Your essay, in other words, should not simply describe what you want to do with your class; it should explain why and justify your choices. Your essay should explain and justify your goals, methods, and modes of assessment--it should make a case for why it's important to teach students what you want them to learn, make a case for why the teaching strategies you plan to use will help you achieve your goals, and make a case for why the assessment methods you have chosen will enable you to tell to what degree students have met your goals. I will be grading this essay in terms of the quality of the lesson plan itself, how well you make your case for your pedagogical goals and strategies, and how well-organized and well-written your essay is (including diction, grammar, syntax, and punctuation).
• Interdisciplinary Essay option: write a 6-to-8-page paper in which you enrich the study of a selected work or pair of works from the course by incorporating expertise from another discipline, drawing on at least three secondary sources to help you develop and support your analysis. The goal of this project is to show what you've learned about the discipline of English, either by showing how a work of literature provides a new perspective on a classic debate in another discipline, or by showing how work in another discipline can deepen our understanding of a work of literature. I will be grading this essay in terms of how well you make your case for your argument, how well you base your argument on textual analysis and interpretation, and how well-organized and well-written your paper is. Hence I will be evaluating the coherence, validity, and persuasiveness of your paper's argument, the effectiveness of your paper's structure, and the quality of your paper's prose (diction, grammar, syntax, and punctuation).
• Creative Writing option: write a story, poem, or play that is in significant intertextual dialogue with an author, work, genre, movement, or period that we've studied this semester, along with an author's note of at least two pages detailing the critical issues you are addressing and the thought process that went into your composition. The goal of this option is to show what you've learned about American literature by writing a work of your own that engages critical issues of the course, along with an author's note that shows you are adept at analyzing your own fiction and relating it to works in the course. Rather than, say, analyzing how someone else's text works, or arguing for how you'd teach students to do this sort of analysis, as in some of the previous options, you'd be showing what you've learned by "doing it yourself." By entering into an intertextual dialogue with other writers--by relating your text to theirs on any of modes and devices of narrative fiction (setting, character, plot, point-of-view, theme, figurative language, form, and so on)--you will be able to get across your "take" on the other works, on the critical issues they engage, and the narrative strategies they enact. I will be grading your project on the quality of the fictional work and of the author's note, the inventiveness with which your work engages the work or works and critical issues it is responding to, and the quality of your writing (including diction, grammar, syntax, and punctuation).
• Web Authoring option: create a web information/research site devoted to a specific author, genre, event, or issue (see the links page for an introduction to what's out there, and to help you figure out what needs to be done) from the course that includes an essay of at least two pages detailing the critical issues you are addressing and the thought process that went into constructing the web site, and a bibliography of all your sources (both electronic and print). The goal of this option is for you to provide an educational/critical resource for other readers. Your site should go beyond the usual moves (providing biographical and bibliographical information on an author, selecting quality links for further information) to fill a need/niche that is unfilled or undeveloped or not yet well done on the world-wide web. I will be grading your web site on the quality of its content and design, on the originality and thoughtfulness of approach to the topic you have focused on, and on the quality of your writing (including diction, grammar, syntax, and punctuation).

Once you've chosen an option, you must also develop a topic. The following list of suggestions is meant to be illustrative, not comprehensive or prescriptive. Feel free to propose your own line of inquiry.

• for any of the options, you may choose a topic to research that you didn't already address in your prior course work from any of the response paper options;
• more to come