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. 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 three short 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. I am always open to creative ideas for students willing to take initiative.
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 46 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
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.
This is your final and worth 20% of your grade. Treat it as such. 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.
***NO PAPERS WILL BE ACCEPTED WITHOUT RESEARCH BOTH IN THE BODY OF THE
PAPER AND IN A PROPERLY FORMATTED WORKS CITED PAGE! ***
*** The final draft is due on Turnitin by midnight on June 3rd. If you miss this deadline
you will lose ten points per day AND have to come to take a long, boring, and difficult
exam while all of your friends are having fun frolicking in the sun. ***
Final Literary Research Paper AP English 12
An Incomplete 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
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 Edgar Allan Poe
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Flannery O’Connor
Gabriel Garcia Marquez
Tobias Wolff: “Hunters in the Snow”; “Bullet in the Brain”
Graham Greene: “The Destructors”
Alice Munro: “How I Met my Husband”
Katherine Anne Porter: “The Jilting of Granny Weatherall”
Toni Cade Bambara: “The Lesson”
Nadine Gordimer: “Once Upon a Time”
Jamaica Kincaid: “Girl”
Eudora Welty: “A Worn Path”
Shirley Jackson: “The Lottery”
Ernest Hemmingway: “Hills Like White Elephants”; “The Snows of Killimanjaro”
D.H. Lawrence: “The Rocking Horse Winner”
Joyce Carol Oates: “Where Are You Going, Where Have You Been?”; “Life After High School”
John Updike: “A&P”
Raymond Carver: “Cathedral”; “Why Don’t You Dance?”; “What We Talk about When We Talk about
Love”
F. Scott Fitzgerald: “The Curious Case of Benjamin Button”; “Winter Dreams”; “Babylon Revisited”
Franz Kafka: “The Hunger Artist”; “In the Penal Colony”
Leo Tolstoy: “How Much Land Does a Man Need”; “The Long Exile”
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”
Ralph Ellison: “Battle Royal”
Margaret Atwood: “Happy Endings”
T. Coraghessan Boyle: “Greasy Lake”
Sandra Cisneros: “Barbie-Q”
Alice Walker: “Everyday Use”
Ray Bradbury: “The Sound of Thunder”
James Thurber: “The Secret Life of Walter Mitty”
Jorge Luis Borges: “The South”
George Saunders: “Pastoralia”
Ursula Le Guin: “The Ones Who Walk Away from Omelas”