English II
Outside Reading/Research Assignment
During the sophomore year each student writes a research paper. This assignment's objectives are to teach you how to use the library, how to research online, how to cite sources correctly, and how to organize a long essay that combines your insights with the ideas of other critics. In late winter, when this assignment is due, you will get explicit guidelines regarding the format and expectations of this assignment.
Each student will pick one American novelist or dramatist and read two or three of his/her books—two novels for Regular English, three novels for Honors—by early January. In addition, you should purchase or else have access to a solid biography of your writer that you will also read and research during the year. When reading your books (with pencil in hand!), you should try to identify the characters, settings, symbols, structure, themes, and other elements of storytelling that will help you to review the novel when you start your research and critique. As you read your novels, you are expected to open your critical eye and prepare yourself to write intelligently about the ideas and narrative techniques in the story.
Early in your reading you will likely become interested in a recurring attitude or philosophy of the narrator or characters that strikes your imagination. One key to a lengthy assignment like this—one that takes time for ideas to germinate—is to find a topic that other critics have noticed in your writer's stories. John Steinbeck, for example, uses the Arthurian romance as an allegorical structure in many of his stories. In Of Mice and Men, George represents knightly courage and devotion, Lennie is his squire.
You should visit the library this week or check MBA’s databases and peruse some critical articles on your writer; this way, while you read your books, you stand a better chance of seeing the kinds of ideas other critics have studied. Your ideas can form a dialogue with their ideas; feel free to agree and disagree with many of these critics.
THE LIST OF NOVELISTS AND PLAYWRIGHTS IS FOUND ON THIS SUBJECT GUIDE IN A SEPARATE TAB
Deadlines for Regular English students:
Deadlines for Honors English students:
Requirements for Regular English:
Requirements for Honors English:
1. Start with the LibGuide as the home base for your project.
2. Find reference books and non-fiction books about your topic.
3. Search for articles in databases for general, literary, and historical information.
4. Use a new project on Noodletools to cite and create notecards for your research.