Notes Toward Writing Seminar Papers
in the Hebrew University Department of English
Seminar papers in the English department are required in the second and third
years of study and in the M.A. program. In the second year seminar papers are
generally between 3000 and 4000 words; in the third year, they are between 5000 and
6000 words; and in the M.A. between 6000 and 7000 words.
________Department majors are required to submit two seminar papers in fulfillment
of their B.A.: typically, one in the second year of the program, the other in the third
year. Students who do not write a seminar paper in the second year may write both
papers in the third year. You should consult both with the B.A. advisor and your
teachers in order to determine if you can write one of these two seminar papers as a
3000-4000-word paper (the equivalent of a second-year seminar paper) rather than a
5000-6000-word paper.
__________Non-research M.A. students are required to write two seminar papers
during their course of studies; research students write one seminar paper plus an
expanded research paper (the M.A. thesis). A research student may substitute the
submission of the prospectus for the Ph.D. for the regular seminar paper. The M.A.
degree is then granted retroactively, when the Ph.D. prospectus is approved by the
Graduate Committee. See the M.A. advisor about this.
There is no way to provide a set of instructions that will cover all possible seminar
papers in all of the different courses for which they might be written. In the final
analysis, the teacher of the course for which you are writing the essay determines the
requirements. Some teachers provide topics; others specify the number or type or
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even the specific primary and critical works you ought to use in your paper, and still
others require outlines, opening paragraphs, or personal meetings.
Please be in touch with the teacher of the course in order to determine what is
required of you vis-à-vis the writing of the seminar paper.
The following document summarizes some of the general principles that most of the
teachers in the English department agree upon. It is intended to help you find an
appropriate seminar topic, research it, and write a coherent, intelligent, and thoughtful
essay.
Choosing a topic
Different courses lend themselves to different kinds of seminar papers. Nonetheless,
what is important in writing a paper of seminar length is that you are engaged by the
texts under discussion and by the critical problem you have set yourself in the paper.
Do not write about a novel or story or play or poem that bores you to tears. Similarly,
do not choose a text that you feel is not worthy of sustained analysis. When all is said
and done, it is the literary work or critic or theoretician who is going to help you to
write a significant literary analysis. If the text or the other materials are thin, you are
likely to find yourself without much to say.
It is a good idea to consult with your teacher before fixing on a topic. Some teachers
require such consultations. But even when they do not, you would do well to take
advantage of the fact that we are real people who sit in offices and welcome the
opportunity to discuss your ideas with you in person.
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Finding your argument
The principles that pertain to writing short essays also apply to the writing of
seminar papers:
-- your essay must have an argument
--your argument must be clear to the reader from the first or second
paragraph
--your essay must provide compelling evidence for your argument
--it must be clear throughout the development of your argument why you are
telling the reader of your paper what you are telling him/her at this
moment in your essay.
-- your conclusion should not be simply a restatement of your argument, but
a further implication drawn from it.
An argument is not simply a subject, theme, topic in the literary or critical work,
which you describe or paraphrase in your paper. It is what you are claiming about the
play, poem, novel, or essay. It implies another possible critical opinion or position,
which you could be understood to be arguing against. In other words, an argument
has at least two sides. When you present your side of the argument, you have to
position it in relation to a possible other side, which you are arguing against, even if
this other side of the argument is never explicitly articulated in your essay.
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This is how the dictionary defines the words argue and argument:
Argue (verb): 1. to give reasons for or against something; 2. to contend or disagree in
words; 3. to prove or try to prove by giving reasons; 4. to persuade by giving reasons
Argument (noun): the act or process of arguing; a quarrel, disagreement
Keep in mind when dealing with poetry, fiction, and drama that literary works are not
transparent representations of reality. They are not histories or philosophical texts or
anthropological or psychological studies – even if they engage these disciplines and
others. They are literary texts. Therefore, your claim concerning the texts under
discussion should also take into account how and/or in what ways you think the text or
theory works in a literary way and to what consequences.
It must be clear at every stage of your essay, from the first paragraph to the last, and
from paragraph to paragraph and line to line, WHY you are making the statements
you are making. This means: contextualizing, referring back and projecting forward,
linking through the use of transitional terms and sentences, setting out evidence in an
order designed to make your points clear to the reader, deepening rather than
repeating your argument or examples (verticality rather than horizontality), and
keeping terms clear, specific, and concrete.
Sometimes writing an outline of your argument helps you see how your argument
needs to be structured. Referring to the outline as you write may facilitate your seeing
what is already there in your paper and what you need to add or subtract in order for
the argument to remain clear to the reader. Do not interrupt your argument with
digressions or extraneous information, even if this material is fascinating. What
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determines the course of YOUR paper (and not the work under discussion) is YOUR
line of argument. This is especially important to keep in mind in relation to writing
about literary texts, because they tend to pack many intertwined meanings into every
word, image, and line. Your job is to travel the trajectory of one clearly defined
meaning, bringing in other meanings when necessary, but always showing, logically,
the connection of those meanings to the major argument of your paper. A connection
might even be the irrelevance of a particular detail to your paper. What is essential,
though, is that your essay holds to a clear line of development.
Keep the text or texts constantly at the focus of your paper. Keep in mind the
literariness of the literary text: it is a construct, not a photographic replication of the
world. Therefore, everything in the text represents a choice (albeit, sometimes,
perhaps, an unconscious or aesthetically determined choice on the part of the writer).
Texts have minds of their own, we might say, but those minds produce results that can
be analyzed by readers.
In this regard, remember to keep separate the different levels of narrative or poetic
discourse: things are occurring within the world of the text (through words and
images, some of which belong to the characters, some of which belong to the
descriptions of the characters and events); and things are occurring through the text, to
us, in our world, as a result of how the text as text engages and performs.
Do not quote simply to "prove your point" but to grapple with the text. If you quote a
passage, especially a long passage, deal with what is in that passage. If you do not
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intend to examine the whole passage, quote only as much of the passage as you need
and plan to discuss.
Do not leave your scaffolding in place. Do the work of arguing by using words
clearly and precisely to indicate transitions, logical connections, examples, evidences,
and the like.
Proofread your essay; check spelling; go over grammar; check words in the
dictionary. Hand in a finished product. We will not read papers that have not
been properly proofed.
The Department has prepared several pamphlets on proficiency and academic writing.
Please consult these materials. You would also do well to make use of the MLA
handbook and its online applications in order to hone aspects of organization,
reference and selection of sources.
Remember! For the purposes of literary scholarship, there is no such
thing as reading a text, there is only re-reading it. Similarly, there is
no such thing as writing a paper, only re-writing it.
Use of Critical Materials
The seminar paper, both in the B.A. and M.A., is an opportunity to learn
something about the professional field of literary studies. Therefore, seminar papers
typically involve researching your topic by reading essays, chapters, and books that
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discuss the texts or critical problems that interest you. No one expects the seminar
paper to research the field of your topic exhaustively. The seminar paper is, in this
sense, a practice exercise. It is intended to acquaint you with the research tools that
you would need to employ were you to go on to become a professional writer of
literary criticism.
There are several ways of locating appropriate research materials. One is to search
through the library catalogue for books pertinent to your author or text or topic and
then to glance through those offerings in the library in order to see which are relevant
to the argument you wish to pursue. Use the ULI link to access materials in other
libraries in Israel that might not be available in our library. The library will order
these materials for you through interlibrary loan (a service that is free for students).
JSTOR, Project MUSE, and MLA bibliography are library data bases that you can
access from the library (or from home, if you work from a university e-mail address).
These data bases will give you both bibliographical listings of essays on your topic
and, in some cases, actual essay-length works on literary texts and critical issues.
These sources of information are preferable to other web materials, since they are
refereed by academics in the field. Therefore, they represent the best that has been
thought and written within the professional academic world.
In sifting through the critical literature, it is important to keep in mind that
interpretations of texts are produced from within different assumptions about how
literature works and what the objects and objectives of an interpretation might be. A
critic who is deconstructing a text might make statements that are totally irrelevant to
your new historicist or narratological approach (although they might, of course, also
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be highly relevant): you need to figure out what question a critic is asking about the
text so as to decide whether his or her conclusions are relevant to the questions that
you are asking in your paper.
Deadlines for Submission of Work
Be sure to keep track of deadlines. Teachers have the right to require that you submit
written work according to their schedules. Teachers also have the responsibility to
return written work to you within a reasonable amount of time. Some teachers permit
or even encourage revision and resubmission: be sure to know in advance if this is an
option. If it is, be sure to get work in sufficiently before the deadline so as to be able
to rewrite if necessary.
Official University policy is that papers are due one month after the end of the course.
Usually, however, with the permission of the teacher (and, sometimes, of the
Department chair), work can be submitted until December 31st of the calendar year of
which the academic year is a part. If that December 31st deadline is not met, you may
well find yourself either unable to submit the paper or paying supplementary tuition in
order to do so.
Although it is an unpleasant subject, plagiarism remains a problem in the English
department. The Department produces a handout that defines what plagiarism is, why
it is wrong, and what penalties are to be expected should you be caught submitting
someone else's writing or research. Be especially wary of using materials that appear
on the internet. Cutting and pasting together other people's ideas without proper
attribution is plagiarism. Also, such patching together of materials to produce an
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essay does not culminate in an original piece of writing. Please consult the
departmental document. If you have any questions whatsoever about whether your
use of critical or other materials constitutes plagiarism, consult your teacher!
Writing a seminar paper can be one of the most fulfilling of your
experiences as a student of literature.
It is an opportunity to think and write creatively about a text or a
literary problem that YOU choose, because it engages YOU.
It is an opportunity to share your thoughts and to get feedback on them.
Use this opportunity to its best advantage. Enjoy it!! It is a part of the
pleasure of literary study.