Ms. Novick
Student Name _____________________________
American Literature
English 11
The Writers and Movements of
American Literature Research Paper
For this assignment, you will be composing a research paper based on 1) a literary movement, 2)
an author associated with that literary movement, and 3) a short work by that author. YOU will
be allowed to select the literary movement and author from the extensive list that has been
provided for you in this assignment packet.
Please note: this Research Paper is an assignment of exceptional breadth and importance within
the 11th grade English curriculum. We will be moving through the writing process slowly (thus
the six week work period), and some of the paper will be worked on in class. However, students
will have to complete what they do not finish in class at home on their own time. Also note that
this assignment is worth an exceptionally high number of points, and if students do not complete
it – or only complete a portion of it – their overall course grade may be impacted significantly!
Remember, part of the purpose behind this assignment is to learn the PROCESS of writing a
research paper, if a step is missing, I will not grade the steps that follow it, no matter what. If a
student does not have a step completed by the due date, he or she must complete it late (for half
credit) if he or she plans to continue with the assignment.
This project has been broken up into 10 steps. Each step must be completed, in the following
order:
1. Research Paper Information Packet signed and materials obtained
2. Question Outline
3. Note Cards (30 minimum)
4. Information Outline
5. Rough Draft of Written Project
6. Peer-Editing and Proofreading
7. Title page and table of contents
8. Final Draft of Written Project
9. Works Cited List
10. Presentation of research
As stated before, because part of the purpose of this assignment is to learn the PROCESS of
writing a research paper, if a step is missing, then I will not grade the steps that follow it. By
way of an example, if you completed steps 1, 2 and 3, skipped 4 and 5, but went on to complete
steps 6 and 7, I will stop grading your project at step 3.
Your final written paper has no minimum or maximum length, but history has shown that
successful research papers are, on average, between 6-10 pages in length (including the title
page, table of contents, and works cited page). You must use a minimum of four (4) and a
maximum of six (6) sources when researching your writer and literary movement; you will only
be allowed to use two (2) internet sources total. You MUST get internet sources pre-approved
for your written paper. They will not be accepted otherwise. You will also be asked to do a
presentation of your report either using Prezi or PowerPoint that you will present to the class.
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Ms. Novick
Student Name _____________________________
American Literature
English 11
***A note about plagiarism: please know that when it comes to plagiarism, I do not play around. If a
work is not cited, cited incorrectly, or just plain copied/stolen from another source, whether from a
published work, an online source, or another student, you will receive a zero (0) ON THE ENTIRE
ASSIGNMENT. If you have any questions and/or concerns about whether you have plagiarized any
of your work, please come and see me BEFORE the paper’s final due date.
Needed Materials:
1. 3’x5” lined index cards (30-100)
2. Zippered holder for index cards
3. Some way of turning your project in electronically (saved to CD,
jump/thumb/flash drive)
4. Student ID so you can check books out of library
*If you have any financial issues regarding obtaining any of the above materials, please see me
BEFORE the date you are required to have them.
Project Steps and Due Dates:
Assignment
Point
Value
Due Date
1. This sheet, signed by a parent or
guardian, and all needed materials
10
2. Question Outline
3. Note Cards, minimum of 30
20
30
4. Information Outline
5. Rough Draft
6. Peer-editing
7. Self-Editing and Proofreading
8. Title page
9. Table of Contents
10. Final Draft
11. Works Cited page
12. Prezi or PowerPoint
20
50
20
30
10
10
150
20
30
Wednesday, April
10th
Tuesday, April 9th
Wednesday, April
17th
Monday, April 22nd
Monday, April 29th
Monday, April 29th
Tuesday April, 30th
Friday May 3rd
Friday, May 3rd
Friday, May 3rd
Friday, May 3rd
Monday, May 6th
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Ms. Novick
Student Name _____________________________
American Literature
English 11
Parents / Guardians
Please sign below to signify that you have read and understand this assignment. If you have any
questions, please feel free to email me at jillnovick@ccusd.org or leave a message for me with
the school’s receptionist. Thank you!
Parent Signature ______________________________________________ Date ____________
Student Signature _____________________________________________ Date ____________
List of Eras/Movements & Authors
Colonialism (Puritan Era)
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William Bradford
Anne Bradstreet
Jonathan Edwards
Cotton Mather
Mary Rowlandson
Samuel Sewall
Captain John Smith
Edward Taylor
Nathaniel Ward
Phillis Wheatley
Michael Wigglesworth
John Winthrop
Nationalism (Neoclassic Era)
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Samuel Adams
Joel Barlow
Charles Brockden Brown
J. Hector St. John de Crevecoeur
Timothy Dwight
Hannah Foster
Benjamin Franklin
Philip Freneau
Alexander Hamilton
Patrick Henry
Thomas Jefferson
Sarah Morton
Judith Sargent Murray
James Otis
Thomas Paine
John Trumbull
Phillis Wheatley
Romanticism
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William Cullen Bryant
James Fenimore Cooper
Emily Dickinson
Frederick Douglass
Ralph Waldo Emerson
Henry Wadsworth Longfellow
Margaret Fuller
Nathaniel Hawthorne
Oliver Wendell Holmes
Washington Irving
James Russell Lowell
Herman Melville
Harriet Beecher Stowe
Henry David Thoreau
Walt Whitman
Realism
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Adams, Henry
Addams, Jane
Bellamy, Edward
Bierce, Ambrose
Cable, George W.
Cahan, Abraham
Chesnutt, Charles
Chopin, Kate
Crane, Stephen
Davis, Rebecca Harding
Dreiser, Theodore
DuBois, W. E. B.
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Ms. Novick
Student Name _____________________________
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Dunbar, Paul L.
Dunbar-Nelson, Alice
Eastman, Charles A.
Far, Sui Sin
Frederic, Harold
Freeman, Mary Wilkins
Foote, Mary Hallock
Garland, Hamlin
Gilman, Charlotte P.
Harris, Joel Chandler
Harte, Bret
Hopkins, Pauline
Howells, William Dean
James, Henry
Jewett, Sarah Orne
London, Jack
Norris, Frank
Page, Thomas Nelson
Oskison, John
Riis, Jacob
Phelps, Elizabeth S.
Sinclair, Upton
Turner, Frederic J.
Twain, Mark
Veblen, Thorstein
Washington, Booker T.
Wharton, Edith
Woolson, Constance
Modernism
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Sherwood Anderson
Djuna Barnes
Kay Boyle
Truman Capote
Willa Cather
Kate Chopin
e.e.cummings
Countee Cullen
H.D. (Hilda Doolittle)
T. S. Eliot
F. Scott Fitzgerald
Robert Frost
Lillian Hellman
Ernest Hemingway
Langston Hughes
Zora Neale Hurston
H.P. Lovecraft
Amy Lowell
Edna St. Vincent Millay
American Literature
English 11
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Marianne Moore
Simon Ortiz
Ezra Pound
Anne Sexton
Gertrude Stein
Shelby Stephenson
Wallace Stevens
Edith Wharton
Post-Modernism
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Maya Angelou
Isaac Asimov
James Baldwin
T.C. Boyle
Ray Bradbury
William S. Burroughs
Octavia Butler
Samuel R. Delany
Don DeLillo
Phillip K. Dick
Bret Easton Ellis
Ralph Ellison
William Faulkner
Neil Gaiman
William Gibson
Allen Ginsberg
Joseph Heller
Fredric Jameson
Kevin Kelly
Jack Kerouac
Ken Kesey
Barbara Kingsolver
Raymond Kurzweil
Harper Lee
Ursula K. Le Guin
Norman Mailer
Arthur Miller
N. Scott Momaday
Toni Morrison
Tim O’Brien
Chuck Palahniuk
Sylvia Plath
Thomas Pynchon
Tom Robbins
Anne Sexton
Neal Stephenson
Amy Tan
Hunter S. Thompson
Alvin Toffler
Kurt Vonnegut
Alice Walker
Tennessee Williams
Tom Wolfe
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Ms. Novick
Student Name _____________________________
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American Literature
English 11
Richard Wright
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