HUMA 1780—Second Term Essay

HUMA 1780—Second Term Essay

For your second term essay, you will be exploring one of the story types we have examined in class by finding examples of this story type from a range of media and analyzing the ways that these examples reflect that story type.  As this assignment is an expanded version (in some respects) of the second essay for the course, the following requirements will apply:

1. While you may deal with the same story type, you may not use the same examples from the first essay.
2. You may not use verbatim (exact) passages from your previous essay.
3. You may use sources for the previous essay but they should only be used if relevant to new examples.

 

Steps to completing the essay and requirements:

1. You will need to pick a story type from the following: exhibitions, mysteries, journeys, redemption (and/or shame) narratives, and fantasies.

 

2. You will need to find 4 examples of the story type. The examples must come from at least 3 different media.  Types of media include: films, television shows, literature (novels and short stories), poetry, theater, podcasts, opera, ballet, graphic novels/comic books, and video/computer games.  The stories must be fictional; they can be based on real events but should not be documentaries or other forms of non-fiction journalism.  You may refer to additional examples but you should focus on only four examples.  You may use adaptations of the same story in different media as this can be useful in developing comparative examples.

 

3. You will need to do some research on the examples with which you will be working. This will involve looking at the ways that these examples have been written about by scholars: their production and reception, the way that critics have responded to them, the ways that they have been interpreted and analyzed by writers, and other, similar questions.

 

4. In your research, you will need to locate at least 7 secondary sources relevant to your examples (in addition to the examples themselves). These sources must include:
5. At least 2 books (defined as longer than 100 pages)
6. At least 2 articles from academic/scholarly journals (refereed and indexed in scholarly databases)
7. At least 3 other sources that could be from books or scholarly journals and must be from credible, edited/refereed sources.

 

5. You will then write a research essay of 10-12 double-spaced pages (2500-3000) words that discusses these examples and explains the ways that they reflect aspects of a given story type and how the producers (writers, directors, composers, etc.) of these works innovate within the conventions of the story type.  In other words, how do the works in question reflect creativity in working with the characteristics of a given story type?

 

Some tips for creating an excellent research paper:

1. Try to be as detailed and specific in your analysis of the creative works.  Use lots of examples and be sure to consider the stylistic choices made by the creators of these works: the language they use, metaphors, and other literary devices (literature); the visual and sound design, images, and editing (television/film); the lyrics, arrangement, and sound (musical work), the interactive features or ways that the user/audience is engaged (games and web-based work).
2. Avoid extended plot summaries and long lists of characters, events, locations, and other features of the work. A short paragraph should be sufficient to provide a context for your examples and analysis.
3. Use brief quotations from secondary work judiciously to support your analysis or as the grounds for productive disagreements (remember, you do not have to agree with the critics and scholars with whom you are dealing), but avoid long quotations that could be summarized or compressed.
4. While each work would not require precisely the same amount of space in your essay, try to provide a balanced treatment of the material to avoid an essay in which one example consumes a large percentage of the writing and analysis and the others are merely peripheral to this main example. The ideal essay will provide a strong comparative analysis of the works under consideration.
5. Outline the essay in some detail. To this end, you will be asked to bring an initial outline of your essay to tutorial on March 1.  In tutorial (as well as in lecture), we will discuss organizing, writing, and editing strategies for the essay.
6. Ask questions of the course director and your tutorial leader along the way. We are here to help you with research and writing and we want you to do well on the assignment.  Obviously, you need to have reasonable expectations as to response time for questions if not asked in person.

Technical Requirements:

1. Your essay should be at least 2500 words.  Upper limits are more flexible but check with your tutorial leader if you are concerned you will be over 3000 words.
2. All citations (not just direct quotes) should be properly cited using one of the standard citation systems:
3. MLA: https://owl.english.purdue.edu/owl/resource/747/01/
4. APA: https://owl.english.purdue.edu/owl/resource/560/01/
5. Chicago/Turabian: https://owl.english.purdue.edu/owl/resource/717/01/
6. The essay should be double-spaced, with 12 point font and 1” margins and submitted in an electronic file via Moodle.
7. The essay is due Tuesday, March 29.

 

A useful for resource for essay writing tips, citation advice, and other matters can be found here:

http://www.humanities.mcmaster.ca/~english/undergraduate/FirstYear_HandBook/Levelonehandbook.pdf

(while designed for McMaster English and Cultural Studies students, much of the advice is pertinent to HUMA courses at York)

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