You are encouraged to develop your own research topic for your term paper, but if you are unable to do so you may choose a topic from the list below. If you choose a topic from the list you do not have to discuss it with me before beginning work. However,

You are encouraged to develop your own research topic for your term paper, but if you are unable to do so you may choose a topic from the list below. If you choose a topic from the list you do not have to discuss it with me before beginning work. However, if you decide to create your own topic, please clear it with me first. Research papers for this class MUST be a minimum of 2,500 words long, excluding title page and works-cited page. For a project of this type you must consult a minimum of five secondary sources and have a minimum of ten in-text citations from your secondary sources, in addition to any quotations from your primary source, to earn a passing grade. Only papers demonstrating considerably more than the minimum research and writing effort will be eligible for a grade of “B” or “A.” You must use standard MLA style consistently throughout your paper. Your paper, as the following topics suggest, must consist of a critical analysis of a work or series of works by an American author who wrote during the period we are studying this semester. For example, you may choose to do an explication of a difficult work, a discussion of a theme or image in a work, similar themes found in several works by an author, or similar themes in works by different authors. You may choose to examine a work or works by authors we read in class, but you are certainly welcome to investigate authors that are not on our reading list this semester. In addition, you should avoid cluttering your work with biographic details about the author you choose to concentrate upon unless such material is particularly germane to your thesis. Note that plagiarism carries heavy penalties (an F in the class and possible expulsion), so check your paper carefully. Two excellent links that will help you determine whether you have plagiarized are The Purdue University Plagiarism Page and The Indiana University Plagiarism Page. SAMPLE TOPICS The Holy and the Profane: Themes of Salvation and Passion in the Poetry of Anne Bradstreet Minority Voice in American Literature: An Absence Poetic Themes of Feminine Writers in America Before 1865 Sin and Guilt as Controlling Themes in Works by Hawthorne The Romantic Dualistic Dilemma: Two Ways of Reconciliation in Selected Short Stories by Hawthorne and Poe Symbols in …(any author, but Moby Dick works well here) The role of religion in the development of the American Character is one of the timeless debates. How did religious philosophies help shape American culture? Abolition Literature and the Black Response The Slave Narrative