Department of English

Faculty of Arts, Chulalongkorn University

Final Paper and Presentation Guidelines

Final Paper

Consider the wide range of sources that have informed our reading this semester. In addition to solid foundational close reading skills developed since last semester, our understanding and interpretation of literary texts have benefited from diverse sources external to the literature itself ranging from other literature to biographies, dictionaries of etymology, idioms, Yiddish and symbols to documentaries, interviews, letters, live readings, concordances, manuscripts, maps, and more.

When you read Milton's Sonnet 19 with the benefit of knowing from the OED that in his time "fondly" meant "foolishly" or when you learn from Martin Gardner's The Annotated Alice that Lewis Carroll explains the meaning of "jabberwock" to a class of students thus: "the Anglo-Saxon word 'wocer' or 'wocor' signifies 'offspring' or 'fruit.' Taking 'jabber' in its ordinary acceptation of 'excited and voluble discussion,' this would give the meaning of 'the result of much excited discussion'" (153), your perception of the meaning of both works changes. Perhaps the revealed self-awareness and self-referentiality that show Milton's play and Carroll's joke on poetry and its study add new layers to your reading and increase your appreciation of these texts.

For the final paper (3–5 pp.; MLA style citation and formatting), choose a work on the syllabus that will benefit from such annotations. Decide which five things in the text you would annotate. Some questions to ask yourself as you study the text and develop your ideas about it:

• Why does this work need annotations?
• Of all the possibilities for annotation within the work, which five would complement each other well and reveal a non-obvious and fascinating aspect about the text?
• What information do I need in order to annotate each item?
• Who or what offers authoritative information that I need?
• Where should I go to obtain that information? How can I go about acquiring that information?
• How do I organize and explain the information (perhaps from various references) clearly so that readers can make sense of it and see its connection to the text?
• How do I cite my sources properly using MLA style?

Your annotations are given in the appendix of your paper, and your paper makes the argument for these annotations, justifying your five choices and elaborating on what they reveal about the text and why this is significant. In other words, the paper analyzes and discusses the text in light of your five annotations. In planning and writing the paper, see if you have addressed these:

• What about the literary work is revealed by your selection of annotations?
• Why is it/are they worth revealing? Why does it matter?
• How does each annotation contribute differently and similarly to the reading of the work?
• What is a logical order in which to discuss each annotation in the paper?
• What assumptions did you hold about the work and how has each annotation changed these assumptions?
• What are the implications of your new reading of the text as informed by the annotations?

The paper is due on Friday, May 5, 2017. You can submit a paper copy in my box at the end of the hall past my office (BRK 1106) or attach it to an e-mail to me before midnight.

Section 1 Final Paper Consultation Schedule

4:00–4:10 p.m. 
4:10–4:20 p.m. 
4:20–4:30 p.m. 
4:30–4:40 p.m. 
4:40–4:50 p.m.  Tam
4:50–5:00 p.m.

Revision

With presentation feedback from classmates, you have specific comments to consider when rewriting to fix problems regarding the argument, support, prose, organization, mechanics, and style to  make your paper more effective. Some things to keep in mind as you proofread and edit your work:

• Does my title show that I have a point to make?

• Is my thesis sound, clear, and interesting?

• Have I supported my thesis with compelling evidence?

• Is the organization of my paper logical and appropriate to the arguments I am making?

• Is my language clear, consistent, and suited to the subject matter?

• Do each of my paragraphs have a clear point and coherence?

• Have I incorporated quotations smoothly into my own prose?
• Do I provide balanced analysis of the quotes I cite?

• Are my sentences varied, interesting, and effective?

• Do my verbs agree with their subjects? Pronouns with their nouns?

• Is my paper free of spelling mistakes?

• Have I cited my sources properly?

Final Presentation

Presentation of your final paper is in week 18 of class: Monday, May 1 and Thursday, May 4, 2017. Each panel of three papers will have fifteen minutes to present their study of texts we have read in this course. This will be followed by a ten-minute question and answer session. A moderator will be presiding over the presentations and discussion session of each panel, introducing the speakers, mediating the questions and responses, and making sure things stay on schedule.

Practice reading your presentation aloud, with visual aid if you have any, and edit for speakability, clarity, and time.

Respondents give constructive comments on the panelists' talk, indicating illuminating and effective points made, pointing out problems to fix ex. content, logic, substantiation, organization, clarification, delivery, and giving further commentary and opinions on the issues being discussed. Respondents assigned to a panel are responsible for giving feedback to any and all of the speakers on that panel but are free to comment on papers of different panels as well.

 
You will be graded both for your performance in giving your talk and in responding to your classmates' presentations, how you present your own ideas and how you show that you know how to listen to, think about, and discuss ideas that others propose.

A program of the final presentation schedule will be posted on our detailed schedule page once panel and paper titles, speakers and moderators are finalized. You are responsible for e-mailing me any revisions to your presentation title by Friday, April 28, 2017.

Please inform me of any special equipment needs, otherwise our in-class computer (which uses Microsoft Office 2007) and LCD projector is provided.

Literary Readings

Choose a creative piece that you worked on this semester to read to class. If it is a play, you might recruit a classmate or two to read different characters' parts with you. It would be fun to briefly introduce the piece, perhaps share what you were trying to do, what inspired you, or other anecdotes that set up or lead in to the piece.

Links

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Last updated May 2, 2017