research paper with minimum 4 secondary sources.
Guidelines:
The final paper should have a specific theme, e.g. use of the
memoir form to write history; the importance of caste in Tagore and
Ananthamurthy’s novels; Agha Shahid Ali’s adaptation of an Urdu literary
form (ghazal) in English, etc. The literary texts you are choosing to analyze
are the primary texts; the research you cite to contextualize the primary
texts, or commentary by critics on these primary texts are your secondary
sources. The author interviews, forewords, introductions in the textbooks
you have can count as secondary sources.
You may choose to expand and extend the argument you made in your
analysis paper (esp. if my feedback encourages it). Or you may choose to
write on a fresh theme. You have learned the process of how to build an
argument from scratch (annotations short argument i.e. analysis paper
longform argument i.e. final paper) this semester. So even if you are
writing on something totally new, you need only repeat and retrace those
steps.
Research: use the Library Onesearch (https://onesearch.cuny.edu/primoexplore/search?vid=CUNY&lang=en_US) or Browzine
(https://browzine.com/libraries/1642/subjects) tool to easily locate peerreviewed academic sources. Databases like JSTOR or Project Muse are
also great resources. If you are not sure whether a secondary source is
good enough, email me and I will advise.
Rubric: attached in a separate PDF document. I may not be able to
provide individual comments on every paper for the final.
Drafts: you are welcome to show me a draft of your paper at any stage.
Allow yourself time to implement my feedback, that is, don’t ask for my
input 48 hrs before the deadline and then give yourself a panic attack
because you have 3 hrs to revise and rewrite