Research Paper
Bright Lights Big City by Jay McLnerney
This assignment is deliberately open-ended. You can focus on one or more novels, set several texts in dialogue, or trace an issue or a theme through several texts. You may write about primary texts (novels or films), scholarly work, reviews, or any other configuration you choose.
To navigate this wealth of material, you must make sure to define, precisely, the issue you are addressing and specify just how you plan to address the manifestations of this issue in the texts. This is your thesis, and I expect it to be precise, complex, and sophisticated. The most effective papers should reach some strong, substantive claims about the material.
Your research paper must make substantive use of 5-7 sources. These may be primary texts (novels or films), secondary readings from the syllabus, reviews (gathered in Resources > Research Workshop), or scholarly articles (gathered Resources > Research Workshop). You may, of course, utilize your research skills to seek out additional sources.
Here are some suggestions to guide you as you develop your research paper:
Start with an introduction where you state what is it that you are going to do in this paper. Then, you explain how you are going to do it. (You will have done some of this work already in the Prospectus). Do not spend any time talking about the life of the author unless it is relevant to what you argue in the paper. Do not spend a lot of time rehearsing the plot. Remember, the content of the paper should be devoted to proving your thesis. Close reading is the most effective way to do so.
Review what others have said about your topic. Draw on published reviews or scholarly articles about the work. This is when you give a summary, an overview of what you found out in your research. Then, explain how your own study is going to differ from what others wrote. If none of the texts published on the texts you chose deal with your topic, then say so. You can explain that critics who have already published on this film or novel always seem to concentrate on such and such aspect(s) but YOU are going to present a totally new aspect that has not been discussed yet (as you just proved).
Prove your thesis about the topic. Remember to support your argument with evidence from the text(s). Choose specific scenes or passages to illustrate your point. Explain how the text you quote supports your point about it. Imagine your reader as someone who is very skeptical about everything you are going to write. Always ask yourself: “Did I make myself clear?” “Do I have proof?”
Conclude your discussion. The conclusion is not a paragraph of two lines that you write very fast at the end of a paper. It is a well thought page in which you affirm, extend, or reflect on the broader significance of your argument.
Title your paper. A good title shows you put thought and care into the assignment. A really good title can even do some of the paper's work for you, by directing your reader to a theme or phrase that is important to the argument.

Research Paper Bright Lights Big City by Jay McLnerney This assi...