Beesley
English IIH
Welcome to the English IIH research paper project!
While a research paper often seems to be a daunting task, the project is very manageable if approached in an
organized and efficient manner. Learn the steps, complete them on time, stay organized, and your project will
be a success!
You have two options to chose from and within each option, you have a choice of what
novel you wish to read and research.
OPTION A:
So far in English IIH we have encountered a few unreliable narrators: the madman of
"The Black Cat," Chief Bromden from One Flew Over the Cuckoos Nest, Catherine from
Proof, and of course, Huckleberry Finn from The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn.
Chose one of the following novels which is also told from the perspective of an
unreliable narrator and compare its narrator with Huck.
The Great Gatsby, F. Scott Fitzgerald, 1925
To Kill a Mockingbird, Harper Lee, 1960
The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time, Mark Haddon, 2004
The Sound & The Fury, William Faulkner, 1929
The Red Badge of Courage, Stephen Crane, 1895
Invisible Man, Ralph Ellison, 1952
The Bluest Eye, Toni Morrison, 1970
The Things They Carried, Tim O’Brien, 1998
OPTION B:
So many of the hero or heroines we have encountered in this course are outsiders in their
own worlds: Hester Prynne of The Scarlet Letter, R.P. McMurphy from One Flew Over
the Cuckoos Nest, Rev. Hooper of "Minister's Black Veil," Ethan, the title character of
Ethan Frome, and, of course, Huck from The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn. Compare
one of these outsiders from one of these novels to Huck.
Into the Wild, Jon Krakauer, 1996
Animal Dreams, Barbara Kingsolver, 1990
The Bluest Eye, Toni Morrison, 1970
Beloved, Toni Morrison, 1988
Toughest Indian in the World, Sherman Alexie, 2000
The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao, Junot DÌaz, 2007
On The Road, Jack Kerouac, 1957
Invisible Man, Ralph Ellison, 1952
Process
The process of completing a research paper includes a number of steps:
1. Research – You must plan on spending some time in the library searching for and
identifying useful texts.
2. Notetaking – Upon identifying these texts, you will want to begin taking clear,
organized notes on lined note cards.
3. Thesis Development – With preliminary notes in hand, you will be able to create a
working thesis to focus your efforts.
4. Outlining – Once all research and note taking is complete, it will be possible to create
an outline for your actual paper.
5. Rough Draft – It is essential to write more than one draft of a research paper. Your
first draft should be edited, peer-edited, and edited again.
6. Final Draft – With the input of others, it will be possible to revise and print a final
product you can be proud of!
You will find more detailed instructions for each of these steps in the pages to follow.
Step One: Research
We will spend some time in the media center learning about the literary criticism and
reference works available to you there. This is a good place to begin research.
Once you have identified a valuable source, it is advisable to check it out, print it out, or
photocopy it. Please bear in mind that if you photocopy an article from a book, you will also
need to copy the title page of that book and note its volume number where applicable. In
addition, if you find an article from one of our many literary data bases, make certain your
print out lists all of the information about the source: author, title of essay, where it
originally appeared.
Before moving on to Step Two, it is imperative that you make a source card for each
source!
A source card will provide all of the information necessary to identify this source in your
Works Cited page, and, if completed correctly, will save you a lot of trouble down the road.
A source card is, very simply, a works cited entry printed on a note card and assigned an
identifier.
1. Identify what kind of source you cite.
2. Next, look up how to cite this kind of source.
3. Write out the citation, being especially careful to include all necessary information.
4. Finally, write a letter identifier on the back of the card. The first card should get an “A”,
the second a “B” and so on. You can also number each source.
For directions on citing in MLA format and help with works cited entries, please consult the
research paper handbook:
http://www.nvnet.org/dept/eng.html
These sources will ultimately be organized into a Works Cited page in proper MLA format.
Please note:
 Double-space with no extra spaces between entries
 Alphabetize
 Do not add any formatting (underline, bold, etc) to the title Works Cited
 End each entry with a period
 Only list sources which are actually cited in the paper
Sample Notecard
 The following is the format you should follow for all of your notecards:
Title/Topic (this should be a quick description for yourself)
Quote or Paraphrase
(If you use a direct quote, include a quick explanation of it)
DUE DATE FOR SOURCES:
Page #
Source Id
Step Two: Notetaking
Now that you have a source and a source card, you are ready to begin gathering valuable
information.
1. Read your sources. Use skimming and scanning skills to focus only on parts of the
article or text that seem most valuable to you.
2. When you happen upon a quote or piece of information that seems important, take out a
note card.
3. First, record the identifier so that you won’t forget where this information came from
later on. Copy the capital letter or number attributed to this source onto the upper righthand corner of your note card.
4. Next, write the quote or paraphrase on the card, skipping the first line. Be sure to put
direct quotes in quotation marks.
5. For direct quotes, you must now skip one line and write a short explanation of this
quote.
6. Now, name this note. Come up with something short and simple, but make sure it will
remind you of exactly what that card contains. Write this title on the top line of the
card. Ideally, you want to come up with similar topics so that when you finish taking
notes, you can see what topics frequently appeared in your research.
7. Finally, on the very bottom of the card, write the page number where you found this
information.
Step Three: Thesis
What is a thesis statement?
A thesis statement:
 Makes an argumentative statement about a topic, including conclusions you have
reached about the topic.
 Defines the scope, purpose, and direction of your paper
 Is focused and specific
 May be more than one sentence.
In order to write an effective thesis statement, the following procedure should be exercised.
1.
2.
3.
4.
Begin research and choose a topic.
Decide upon the main points of your topic.
Draft a thesis that is focused and addresses the topic you have chosen.
Revise your thesis, making sure that the revision
 will address all parts of your paper
 is not too broad
 is focused and specific
 is free of ambiguity
 directly addresses the paper
5. Polish your final thesis, keeping in mind that theses often change and evolve as students
complete their research and begin writing.
Example:
1. Topic: Discuss the role of guilt in the play. Which characters experience guilt? Which
characters do not experience guilt (explore not just Macbeth and Lady Macbeth but
others as well)? What symbols of guilt are presented by Shakespeare?
2. Main points: blood, escalating violence, Macbeth, Lady Macbeth, witches, Macduff, three
murderers
3. In William Shakespeare’s Macbeth, guilt, represented by blood, affects different characters
differently.
4. In William Shakespeare’s Macbeth, Macbeth, Lady Macbeth, Macduff, the witches, and
the murderers all react differently to guilt, represented by blood.
5. In William Shakespeare’s Macbeth, the responses of different characters to the escalating
violence represents one of the primary themes of the play. Macbeth, Lady Macbeth,
Macduff, the witches, and the murderers each experience guilt differently in reaction to
their respectively natural and unnatural crimes.
DUE DATE FOR NOTES (minimum 40) & THESIS: March 23
COUNTS AS: 50 Point Writing Assignment
Step Four: Outline
In order to outline your research paper, it is necessary to have completed all research.
At this point, you probably have quite a hefty stack of research note cards. They are
probably unorganized and mean very little as a whole. This is the step where all of that
changes.
1. Begin by sorting cards into piles of related topics. It is best to use your note cards’ titles
to do this, as it speeds the process.
2. Now place a blank card on each pile and name the pile.
3. If necessary, repeat this process with each large pile and break it into smaller piles.
4. Sort the cards within each pile so that they are in the order you think you will use them
in your paper.
5. Now, move the piles into the order you think they will take in your paper.
6. Give each naming card a Roman numeral based on its position. Now, give each card
beneath it a capital letter. If you have subcategories, it may be necessary to assign Arabic
numerals as well.
7. Now, begin writing out your outline. The Roman numeral I should be called whatever
your first named card is called, and so on.
8. Be sure to write out your thesis before you begin copying over your outline!
OUTLINE DUE DATE: April 2
COUNTS AS A 100 POINT WRITING ASSIGNMENT GRADE
Step Five: Rough Draft
This step is much easier than it looks! If you have done everything you were supposed to, it
will be easy. Even though it is a rough draft, be sure to include proper MLA citation and a
Works Cited list.
ROUGH DRAFT DUE DATE:
Step Six: Final Draft
Final Drafts must be submitted in a large envelope including the following:
 Final Draft
 Rough Draft with corrections
 Outline
 Works Cited page
 Source cards
 Minimum 40 notecards
Final Drafts submitted without any of these requirements will not be accepted and
will be considered late every day until submitted in their entirety. So, keep
EVERYTHING!! Final Drafts must also be submitted to Turnitin.com by midnight
_________________ in order to be considered “on time.” Papers MUST be turned in
on _________________ even if you are absent for school that day!
FINAL DRAFT COUNTS AS TWO WRITING ASSINGNMENTS