Final Literary Research Paper AP English 12
Directions:
1. Read three or more short stories. Do this wisely: look up what they’re about, read a sample
paragraph, etc. before you commit. Although it might be tempting to jump to the shortest ones,
if you choose stories you have nothing to say about or that aren’t interesting to you, this project
will be much harder. You’re also looking for short stories that share some commonality in
content (theme, message, etc.) and/or in devise usage.
2. Write a one page (typed, double spaced, 12 pt. font, 1 inch margins) reflection on at least three
of those stories.
3. Choose two that you would like to write about and formulate a thesis. Most will find it easiest
to write a comparison paper, but if you have really latched onto a single story that you’d like to
explore more exhaustively, you may do that instead.
4. Next, fortify your ideas with research. Starting with your own ideas, then adding support
through secondary sources like this is a good way to ensure you have an original voice and
argument. Research at least 4-6 secondary sources on your work. You may use reputable web
resources, but at least three sources must be from scholarly journals. You may use the
databases on NCWISEOWL, but UNCG’s library has way more resources, so you are encouraged
to check that out too.
5. Write a 1200-1500 word (typed, double spaced, 12 pt. font, 1 inch margins) paper (~ 5 pages).
a. In addition to the 5 pages of text you need to have a title page with a catchy title and
subtitle, i.e. nothing like “Short Story Essay”
b. And you need to have a properly formatted MLA works cited page with your two
primary sources (the short stories, silly) and 4-6 secondary sources. If you need help on
this, there are a lot of good resources on the internet, such as Purdue OWL.
6. Your paper must include:
a. An original, insightful argument supported by primary and secondary sources in addition
to your own logic and development.
b. You must have quotes from your primary sources and at least three secondary sources
properly integrated into your argument and properly cited in the text (MLA format).
c. You are writing one comprehensive paper, not two little ones. Rather than analyzing
one short story, then another with no connection between the two, analyze some
commonality between the stories you’ve chosen to talk about. You might, for example:
i. Analyze and compare similar themes
ii. Analyze and compare similar or different takes on the same subject matter
iii. Include an analytical comparison of how two different authors use the same
literary devices, or achieve the same effect through different devices.
7. This is your final and worth 20% of your grade. Treat it as such. NO PAPERS WILL BE ACCEPTED
WITHOUT RESEARCH BOTH IN THE BODY OF THE PAPER AND IN A WORKS CITED PAGE! If you
turn in a paper that is only half the required length, you will only get half credit. Please, pay
close attention to the instructions and follow them! It is my hope that this will work to boost
your grade for the year rather than work punitively.
Final Literary Research Paper AP English 12
List of Short Stories and Authors:
This is a suggestive, not an exhaustive list. I just want to make sure you are reading stories of
established literary merit that will have a body of research to draw from. You may read any short story
in our two AP text books. I am open to suggestions beyond those two books too, but run your ideas by
me first.
Pretty much anything written by the following authors is a safe bet:
 Nathaniel Hawthorne
 Flannery O’Connor
 Edgar Allan Poe
 Gabriel Garcia Marquez
The following short stories would be good for this project:
 Tobias Wolff: “Hunters in the Snow”; “The Child by Tiger”; “Bullet in the Brain”
 Graham Greene: “The Destructors”
 Alice Munro: “How I Met my Husband”
 Jhumpa Lahiri: “Interpreter of Maladies”
 Katherine Anne Porter: “The Jilting of Granny Weatherall”
 Toni Cade Bambara: “The Lesson”
 J.D. Salinger: “For Esme, -- Love and Squalor.”
 Eudora Welty: “A Worn Path”
 Nadine Gordimer: “The Train from Rhodesia”
 Shirley Jackson: “The Lottery”
 Ernest Hemmingway: “Hills Like White Elephants”
 D.H. Lawrence: “The Rocking Horse Winner”
 Joyce Carol Oates: “Where Are You Going, Where Have You Been?”
 John Updike: “A&P”
 Raymond Carver: “Cathedral”; “Why Don’t You Dance?”
 F. Scott Fitzgerald: “The Curious Case of Benjamin Button”; “Winter Dreams”; “Babylon Revisited”
 Franz Kafka: “The Hunger Artist”
 Sherwood Anderson: “I Want to Know Why“
 James Baldwin: “Sonny’s Blues”
 Ambrose Bierce: “An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge”
 William Faulkner: “A Rose for Emily”
 Kate Chopin: “The Story of an Hour”
 Charlotte Perkins Gilman: “The Yellow Wallpaper”
 Joyce Carol Oates: “How I Contemplated the World from the Detroit House of Correction and Began
My Life Over Again”
 Ralph Ellison: “Battle Royal”
 Margaret Atwood: “Happy Endings”
 T. Coraghessan Boyle: “Greasy Lake”
 Sandra Cisneros: “Barbie-Q”
 Alice Walker: “Everyday Use”