Paper 1 Assignment

Timetable

9/23/08: Proposal for Paper 1 due in class (50-100 words, typed). Note that this date is later than the one listed on your syllabus. The proposal is not graded, but 5 points (1/2 letter grade) will be deducted if it is not turned in. The proposal covers (1) the overall subject of your paper; (2) its thesis or overall argument; (3) the works to be covered; (4) outside sources, if any.  Turning in the paper's introductory paragraph will also satisfy the proposal requirement.

10/2/08: Typed draft of Paper 1 due in class.

10/9/08. Paper 1 (5-7 pages) due. Electronic version must be e-mailed to me (campbelld@wsu.edu ) by 9 p.m. Remember, we have no class on this day, so you won't be able to turn your paper in during class.

Guidelines

• The first paper does not require research, although secondary sources may be helpful. Rather, its purpose is to demonstrate your ability to choose a significant, appropriately limited topic in American literature; to investigate and support a thesis of your own devising; to analyze with skill and insight the evidence from specific literary works; and to present the whole in a clearly organized, well-written fashion.
• Content is very important, but good organization, sentence structure, and editing skills are also important. Papers with comma splices, agreement errors, and other problems will be penalized accordingly. Citations and the Works Cited page should follow MLA format.
• The essay should incorporate at least one work read in class. You may choose your own topic for the paper if you consult with me ahead of time. 
• Your paper should be limited enough to provide a specific thesis and a close analysis of the texts; repeating broad, obvious generalities (i.e., "Women were limited by society's expectations in the nineteenth century") or ideas we have discussed in class will not be sufficient.

Topics

These topics are broad and are meant to suggest ideas to you; you should think about developing your own ideas using these as guidelines.

1. The Civil War is obviously the most important event of the era for the authors we've read. Choosing at least one work studied in class (by Alcott or Whitman) and one work that we haven't (such as Alcott's Little Women, the full text of Hospital Sketches, poems by Herman Melville, and so forth), analyze the ways in which the writers treat this subject.

2. How are issues of race treated in this era?

3. Discuss the ways in which James, and Whitman, among others, address the role of the artist in chronicling the characteristics of Americans and America. You need not write about all of them.

4. Is there such a thing as "American innocence"? Can justice exist in an American setting? Drawing on the works of one or two authors, develop a thesis that allows you to explore either of these questions.

5. Using the versions of Whitman's and Dickinson's poetry available in facsimile editions in the library or in the Whitman and Dickinson archives, explore the versions of a poem or sequence of poems to determine the ways in which the meanings change through the poet's revisions.

6. Your own topic.