Literature homework help. Second Expository Essay (Research Paper)
Your second essay is a research paper that makes use of both primary and secondary sources. Hence it requires the acknowledged and relevant use of expert opinions and explanations from at least three scholarly secondary sources to make your own discussion cogent and persuasive. Your thesis statement is a clear and specific answer to any one of the following prompt questions on your primary sources.
Highlight the question of your choice and attach this sheet to your essay.
PROMPT QUESTIONS: Choose only one
1.What is Melville’s point about individuality as he discusses the topic through the characters of Bartleby, the Scrivener? What role does individuality play in the context of Melville’s culture? Is Melville’s focus on individuality an expression of the intellectual climate of his culture?
2.Melville’s Bartleby is an alienated and homeless individual. What are the psychological and socio-political ramifications of isolation on an individual?
- Is there a connection between historical accounts of mid nineteenth-century Wall Street and Melville’s depiction of it in Bartleby, the Scrivener? In what ways does the historical Wall Street and Melville’s depiction of it anticipate the twentieth- and twenty-first-century Wall Street of corporate America?
INSTRUCTIONS
Do not write a summary. Do not generalize. Focus on the question of your choice. Like any other essay, the research paper requires a thesis statement (the main point, which is your argument). Avoid using vague words. Because your aim is to be clear, concise, and concrete, you have to choose your words well. Be economic with your words but not miserly! When you write, keep in mind that you are sharpening your ability to explicate and analyze in a relevant and coherent way. Do not pass off someone else’s words or ideas as your own but acknowledge all your sources. Always remember that plagiarism is an unpardonable offense. Also, keep in mind that a research paper is not an annotated bibliography or a cluttering of quotations. As Diana Hacker states in A Writer’s Reference, “[y]our research paper is a collaboration between you and your sources” (83). Indeed, your idea grows from the ideas of expert readers, and it is this connection between them and you that you need to clarify and establish in your research paper. Try to show the contribution made by certain expert readers on the topic of your choice, and try to add an insight of your own to this body of information. At the end of your essay you may have a section for notes if you wish to add some information that does not belong in the body of the essay. In-text citation (parenthetical reference to your sources inside your essay) and the Works Cited page (the reference page at the end of your essay) are not optional; they are necessary. I will not accept an essay that does not have in-text citation and the works cited page. Make use of articles from journals and books for your secondary sources. If you are unfamiliar with library resources, take the help of librarians. If you use internet resources, use them sparsely and warily. Do not use any site that does not provide the writer’s name. Restrict yourself to online journals. Remember that at least three of your secondary sources, which have to be relevant to the primary source of your choice, must be scholarly. Encyclopedic references are permissible but are not acceptable as one of your three sources. Follow the latest MLA guidelines for format and citation of sources. Also, your research paper must be printed in 12-point Times New Roman font, and the lines must be double-spaced. The length of the essay is approximately six pages.
In the introduction you should introduce the subject matter and work your way from the motivator to the thesis statement. Try to begin your motivator in an interesting way so that your reader is motivated into reading your essay. Mention your primary source (the author’s name and the title of the text) in your introduction. The first part of the motivator is the broadest part of your essay because you introduce the broad subject first. Then you narrow down the scope so that you can lead your reader to your limited subject. After this you are ready to state a claim about your limited subject in a thesis statement. Consult the question(s) I have mentioned under any one of the topics I have given you to generate your claim. The thesis statement is not a question but rather a specific answer to a question. And it must answer the “so what” question.
After the introduction comes the body of the essay. All the paragraphs here are called central paragraphs. As the introduction is the “claim” part of your essay, so the body is the “support” part of the essay. Here you explain your main point through sub points and specific support. In short, you show what you tell in the thesis statement. You may choose different methods of development (patterns of organization) for this part of the essay: examples and illustrations that come from your interpretation of the primary source and somebody else’s expert opinion, definition, evaluation, comparison and contrast, process, cause and effect, classification, etc. Every quotation you cite should be relevant to your main point, and hence should be in support of the sub point for which you are using it. The number of your paragraphs here will depend on the number of sub points you provide to back up your main point. Each of the paragraphs in the body of the essay should explain only one sub point and provide specific support – examples that come from your interpretation of the primary source and from somebody else’s expert opinion – for that sub point. Whether or not you make use of secondary sources for your main point, you certainly must do so for your sub points. And all these sources must be given credit through thorough documentation. Quote or paraphrase all your sources relevantly and accurately. Do not use a secondary source to make reference to a “fact” of the primary source. All borrowed language must be within quotation marks, and all quotations must be documented accurately. Also, when paraphrasing or summarizing a source, or when borrowing an idea from a source, you must include a citation. Each sub point, whether or not it grows out of somebody else’s expert opinion, should be connected with the main point. Begin each of these paragraphs with a topic sentence. (A topic sentence sums up a sub point. In other words, it provides the point of the paragraph.) Develop your sub points logically. Do not jump from one point to another (or even from one sentence to another). Do not move from one point to another without having adequately developed that point, and try for a smooth transition. Make your sub points show a gradual progression of thought.
The last paragraph is the conclusion. You can summarize your main point and sub points, but do not repeat the exact words of your introduction. Sometimes, the last sub point can work as the conclusion. Try to throw in a clincher in your conclusion. Think of the clincher as a fresh way of adding insight to your discussion. If that does not come, don’t worry. Try to say something that may develop from your main point but do not say something unconnected or contradictory to what you have established in your essay.
