Honors Junior Research

The purpose of the research project is to:

  • Read a complex work of fiction on your own that interests you and engage with the themes and issues at the heart of the work
  • Come to your own understanding of “How does this novel mean?” ...which is to say...

What is the writer trying to say about a specific topic?

How does he or she say it?

  • Gain experience with secondary and critical literary sources, including: print, database, web, other media
  • Pull the analytical skills we have worked on this year together as well as gain experience synthesizing sources with your own, original ideas
  • Create an original piece of analytical writing of which you are proud

If you keep up with the assignments, use your time in class well, and progress efficiently through the project, you should not experience undue stress. There will be MANY smaller deadlines along the way

First Draft Due Thursday, May 17 (period 3) and Friday, May 18 (period 5W)

Final Due Date: Thursday, May 24

Research is a Process:

1. Deeply read a complex novel of your choice, actively marking and thinking about passages that would lead to possible topics.

a. The novel you choose (the primary source) needs to have original, scholarly articles written about it. You can’t be successful in this project without that quality. We will use Marvel and the website evaluation form to make this decision.

b. You’ll do at least 3 annotation/analysis assignments with passages from your novel similar to what we did for Gatsby.

2. Develop and refine a research question: You’ll receive multiple sentence templates. This can become the basis for your introduction

3. Notetaking: Secondary Research and Literary Criticism

You will have access to several note-taking forms

You will be expected to cite 4 secondary sources in your paper in addition to your primary source

At least two of these secondary sources must be articles of literary criticism

4. Synthesizing and organizing: We will do several demos, and you will have tools to use to organize your paper

5. Writing: You will receive peer and teacher feedback (on parts) on your draft

6. Editing: We will review grammatical concepts and use the writing and style guides for support

7. Sharing and Celebrating our work.