Assignment GuidelinesYou will propose and carry out a research project that will culminate in an 8-10 page paper (2000 word minimum), excluding the works cited.Your research project should seek to investigate a question that intrigues you about one of the following:• one (or perhaps more) of the texts that we have read this semester as a work of literature (this would probably yield a traditional literary analysis)• an author of one of our texts and his/her body of work, probably with significant focus on the text that we have read• a particular set of fantasy texts, perhaps a particular sub-genre/cluster• contextualizing your chosen work(s) within a context of a particular theoretical approach to fantasy• an issue that arises out of the cultural or historical contexts that surround a work(s) that we have read this semester, contexts during the time of the text’s creation or since (for instance, gender/gender roles, feminism, the idea of utopia (or dystopia), religion)• an issue that arises out the nature of fantasy, and a work(s) that we have read this semester• another topic that you have cleared with meThe research paper must follow MLA essay format, which among other things, includes a heading, double spaced text, 12 point font, 1 inch margins, correct internal parenthetical citations and a works cited page.Your research paper must be grammatically correct, well-organized, have a well-supported argument, and contain a clear thesis. Furthermore, your analysis must be supported by sufficient evidence from the text(s) you are discussing to support your conclusions about the question you are investigating. You cannot rely on plot summary and vague generalizations to make your point. And remember, you are not arguing a “right” way to read a text; you are arguing a “valid” way to do so, perhaps one of many valid ways.You must use both primary sources (the text(s) that you analyze) and secondary sources in your project. For a research paper of the length required by the project, I would think that a fairly safe minimum number of sources would be 6-8. If you use online sources for part of your research, please make sure that the sites are of a scholarly quality and appropriate for this kind of project and class.On the research paper, the Works Cited page must list alphabetically and in MLA format all of the sources that you directly quote, summarize or paraphrase in the essay. It does not list sources that you consulted but did not incorporate into the essay.Please be careful about incorporating your sources into the essay; plagiarism results when you use the words or ideas of others without acknowledging the sources from which they came. Even when unintentional, inadequate citation of sources results in a kind of soft plagiarism, a misuse of sources. As the syllabus states, plagiarism and misuse of sources is unacceptableThere are many different ways to approach the assignment. The important thing is that you don’t simply repeat an argument presented in one of your sources—or in our class–you need to try to find something original to add to the scholarly debate about a text. In other words, you need to add your voice to the conversation.The Audience of Your EssayYour audience is an academic reader, an intelligent reader who is familiar with the texts you are analyzing
