Search - English 1302 - Irvin, Lennie - Research Essays

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1. Literary Criticism: discussion of the work, themes, symbols, setting, etc. by other writers

JSTOR This link opens in a new window
Important scholarly journals delivered as high quality page images and articles downloads are in PDF format. Coverage usually stops from 2 to 5 years prior to current year depending on each journal's publisher. Subjects include: African American Studies, Anthropology, Asian Studies, Ecology, Economics, Education, Finance, History, Language & Literature, Mathematics, Philosophy, Political Science, Population Studies, Sociology, & Statistics.
Literature Criticism Online This link opens in a new window
The 10 individual Thomson Gale series that comprise Literature Criticism Online are:
- Contemporary Literary Criticism
- Twentieth-Century Literary Criticism
- Nineteenth-Century Literature Criticism
- Shakespeare Criticism
- Literature Criticism 1400-1800
- Classical and Medieval Literature Criticism
- Poetry Criticism
- Short Story Criticism
- Drama Criticism
- Children’s Literature Review
Literature Resource Center This link opens in a new window
Provides full text biographies and critical analyses of over 90,000 authors from every age and literary discipline. Searchable by author, title, literary genre, literary movement, or literary theme. Includes Merriam-Webster's Encyclopedia of Literature, the Dictionary of Literary Biography, Twaynes Authors Series, Scribners Writers Series and other scholarly reference sources.
Magill on Literature This link opens in a new window
Provides brief summaries of literary works, critical essays and reviews, literary characters, and biographies of authors. Includes the complete Magill's Masterplots and Masterplots II series plus: Magill's Literary Annuals, The Cyclopedia of Literary Characters, Magill Book Reviews, and The Cyclopedia of World Authors and Magill's Guide to Science Fiction and Fantasy Literature.
Twentieth-Century American Poetry This link opens in a new window
Twentieth-Century American poems searchable by keyword, first line, author, genre, etc.

2. Background sources on themes and concepts - short entries, easy to read:

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3. eBooks, streaming videos, articles on themes and concepts - broader look, more context and connections:

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4. Background and in-depth articles on events and ideas - short entries + long research articles focused on specific aspects:

U.S. History In Context This link opens in a new window
Historical (primary source) documents, reference articles, and journals covering periods in U.S. history from precolonial times to the present. Includes citations for history journals from the Arts and Humanities.
World History In Context This link opens in a new window
Identify themes from antiquity to the present with extensive coverage of the 20th Century. Includes journal articles, maps, images and over 2,000 primary source documents.

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Research Essay #2
In Essay #2, you will write a critical essay over the play, Oedipus the King. The foundation for a
strong essay will be the quality of your reading and thinking about this play. You will need to
apply all the strategies of close, interactive, and critical reading as well as reflective thinking to
be successful.

Essay Requirements:

You are to write a “critical essay” on Oedipus the King using one of the Essay Questions we
determine together in-class. Your essay should be 1000-1250 words and include supporting
information from the play as well as from a minimum of two critical articles found from the
SAC Library Databases (in the databases I designate) and two books (one book at least should
be the Fagel’s introduction to the play). Students desiring an “A” will include at least five
research sources (in addition to the play). The final draft should be turned in MLA Manuscript
format using MLA Documentation Style to document sources.

Use These Databases (and no others):
JSTOR, Literature Criticism Online, and Literature Resource Center.

Essay Question:

As a class, we will develop a set of Essay Questions to assist you in focusing what to write on.
You will choose your Essay Question from this set of options. If you choose to write on
another Essay Question, you should gain instructor approval.

Developing your “Argument”

As you develop YOUR interpretation of the play and YOUR answer to YOUR ESSAY
QUESTION, you will incorporate support for your thinking from both the play AND the
academic articles and book(s) you find from research. You are encouraged to explore
alternative interpretations, and handle them as point-counterpoint sections or paragraphs
where you express and fairly summarize the alternative interpretation, and then counter or
refute it.
Research Essay #3
Working Definition of a "False Argument":

An argument presented through a media artifact intended to manipulate and deceive based upon lies or incorrect information which promotes the agenda of the author and not the reader/audience.

Topic Explanation and Requirements

The (fictional) Writing Situation
You are a member of the Paloma Institute as a staff researcher. The readers of your Institute’s online magazine, The Paloma, value the integrity and credibility of what your Institute publishes and shares online. You editor has tasked you with the job of thoroughly researching potential material to be published in this magazine. Your magazine may share this news story or it may source information from this story in articles it is publishing, and they need your report to help them determine the trust-worthiness of the information and whether to use it or not. If it is an advertisement, your magazine will want to avoid presenting something that is deceptive or false advertising. The four types of false arguments you may research are instances of fake news, propaganda, Russian Disinformation, or false advertising.

The Writing Task and Requirements

Your job is to determine through research the answer to this question:
Is this story or ad share-worthy?
OR: Is the information in this story or ad true and trust-worthy?
OR: Is this artifact an example of a type of false argument?
--Is this artifact Fake News? Is this artifact Russian Disinformation? Is this artifact propaganda? Is this artifact false or deceptive advertising?

Your RESEARCH QUESTION will be one of these questions focused on your topic.
From your research, you will write a report that is a critical essay arguing for your answer to this research question. You will present your opinion on why this article/ad is trust-worthy and share-worthy or not and then back that opinion up from your research.

Your research report to the magazine editor must be 1250-1750 words and contain information from at least six sources. Your sources should be a mix of

• At least three articles about what that type of false argument is and how to spot it (its features and characteristics). ONE of these three articles, at least, must be a peer-reviewed article from our college databases

• At least three research sources that help you to establish the facts and context of the story
--things like researching claims and evidence in the story, the author, or investigating more on the larger “narrative” behind the story

The final report will document its research sources in MLA Documentation Style and will carefully handle quotes and information from its research sources.

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