Literary Research Paper
This eight-unit guide will help you
conduct research and write an
effective essay in WRT 201
and/or literature courses.
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I. From Topic To Thesis
Pat, the student who will be your guide, has
been given a research assignment topic
from which she will create a working thesis.
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Table of Contents
1.
Pat’s Assignment
4
2.
Selecting a Topic
5-6
3.
Creating a Thesis
7-8
4.
Pat’s Thesis Question
9
5.
Pat’s Tentative Thesis
10
6.
Pat’s Next Step: Library Visit
Unit II
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Pat’s Assignment Topic
Write a 7-9 page research paper that explores
one aspect of Charlotte Perkins Gilman’s story
“The Yellow Wallpaper.” State your thesis
clearly and provide two or three supporting
ideas.
Cite at least five sources using MLA format.
•
•
•
•
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Formulate a thesis statement.
Go to the library to do research.
Plan the essay in the form of an outline.
Write the essay and then revise it.
4
This is an
interesting story,
but which topic
to choose?
Hysteria?
Gothic
elements
in the
story?
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The
rest
cure?
The yellow
wallpaper?
5
The wallpaper
must be
important—it’s
in the title. . .
The narrator
sees a woman
crawling around
in it.
The wallpaper
has a special
meaning—
there must be
a lot written
about symbols
in the story. . .
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Ways to Explore a Topic
• Formulate a thesis.
• Make an outline of ideas to support the
thesis.
• Cluster/map ideas freely.
• Do a free write to put some ideas in
writing.
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What is a thesis?
A thesis asserts the point or
makes the argument the paper
will prove.
An effective thesis is an overall
umbrella for all the ideas in the
paper.
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How to Create a Thesis
The best way to create a thesis is to ask a
central research question.
“What is the meaning of the yellow wallpaper?”
The answer to the question is the thesis.
Also see:
Professor Jonaitis/Davis’ From Topic to Thesis
 Purdue Online Writing Lab
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Pat’s Working Thesis
“The yellow wallpaper in
Gilman’s story seems to
symbolize repression of
women...”
I need to do some
research now!
On to the library!
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Pat’s “Scratch” Outline
Meanings of Wallpaper
•
Wallpaper as Prison (physical)—kept in room
Husband as jailer
Bars
•
Social Repression
No relatives, friends or outside contacts
•
Women expected to be domestic—marriage, home, children
Wallpaper as domestic confinement?
•
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Narrator’s view of wallpaper—symbol of her
resistance/insanity (?)
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Pat’s Free Write
The narrator in “The Yellow Wallpaper” is a prisoner in her
own house. Her husband is a doctor and he makes sure that the
narrator follows the rest cure to help her recover from a nervous
disorder that is probably post partum depression. He doesn’t
seem to care about her as a human being. He treats her like a
child and doesn’t value her opinions. She is cut off from friends
and relatives that she enjoys. He may think he is doing the right
thing, but he is really an abusive husband. The removal of all
intellectual and social stimulation is probably what drives the
narrator crazy. Because she doesn’t have anything else to do, she
stares at the wallpaper until she starts seeing things. Obviously,
the paper is a symbol of her imprisonment by her husband, who
represents the repression of marriage and women’s social roles in
the 19th century. Women could not vote and were expected to
marry and be wives and mothers, not work outside the home. They
were stuck like the woman crawling in the wallpaper. I would
have probably gone crazy, too, if I had been in that narrator’s
position.
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