Senior English: Psychology & Literature
Mrs. Malanka/Mrs. Haggerty
Research Paper
Handout #2: Statement of Research Guidelines
Your statement of research is due to me no later than Wednesday, Oct. 1st. If at all
possible, you should submit it to me earlier than that date, so you can begin finding
sources for your paper.
You may email me your statement of research, and I will respond directly with my
comments: lmalanka@tenafly.k12.nj.us
You’ll need to think about which literary works (probably the ones you have read
for your high school English classes) have left the deepest and most lasting
impression on you.
Then think why those works have impressed you more so than others you’ve
read. Which literary works have made you question the characters, the author,
and yourself? I believe in this self-examination lies a research topic.
Every good research project or paper stems from a good, honest question. The
researcher is genuinely curious about the matter and s/he has formed a question
or series of questions to be answered through research. This is what we will call
a question that requires critical thinking in order to answer it.
These are the questions you are seeking to answer in your Statement of Research:
☻ What will I be researching?
☻ Why am I interested in researching this work/character/theme/etc.?
☻ What do I ALREADY KNOW about this text?
☻ What do I HOPE TO FIND OUT about my text?
 In theory, your research paper’s thesis statement will answer your critical
question(s) stemming from the text/primary source.
REQUIREMENTS FOR YOUR STATEMENT OF RESEARCH:
☻ One typed page (no less than a paragraph)
☻ Double spaced, 1 inch margins, MLA format
☻ If you use a quote, cite it properly.
FOR THIS ONE ASPECT OF THE PROJECT, you may use the personal pronoun “I”
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DUE NO LATER THAN October 1, 2014
See the following pages for some examples of Research Statements. When reading
and evaluating these sample statements, notice my comments and feedback. Use
these comments to craft a good statement of your own.
Andrea Canonico
Psychology & Literature – Period 2
Mrs. Malanka
November 9, 2011
Statement of Research
Thinking about life and philosophy and trying to live with more purpose has become more
important to me since I learned about Transcendentalism. For part of that unit, my class read a
nonfiction book, Into the Wild, that tells the story of a young man of our modern times, Chris
McCandless, who essentially wanted to live out the beliefs of Transcendentalists, such as Thoreau and
Emerson. Such ideas include living a more essential and meaningful existence, in which we avoid the
modern or material distractions that have to do with consumer goods and making money. I considered
many big philosophical ideas through that reading. One of the books that the subject of Into the Wild
read carefully, as part of his embrace of Transcendentalist ideas, is Jack London’s short novel Call of
the Wild. This story is told from the point of view of a dog named Buck, who, through a series of
events, ends up going from the farm where he lives and works to the wild country. He goes back to
his roots and instincts. Mainly, I want to know more about why London decided to tell this story from
a non-human point of view. Also, is London’s message to readers that we need to go back to a primal
existence, or that it would be impossible for humans to do so, at this point? He definitely seems to
favor a more basic, essential lifestyle that is linked to nature, as opposed to an industrialized one, but is
showing “simple” life in the wild in an overly romantic way? I might incorporate some of the
teachings of the Transcendentalists into my reading and research of Into the Wild.
Samuel Min
Psychology and Literature Period: 8th
Mrs. Malanka
1 November 2008
General Statement of Research
The Tell-Tale Heart by Edgar Allan Poe is arguably one of Poe's most famous short stories.
The protagonist who is also the narrator repeatedly claims to be sane but throughout the book, he
seems to be affected with some sort of mental disease and is not in a normal state of mind. I think he is
afflicted with paranoia. Is the narrator insane or what disease does he have which pushes and compels
him to the point of murder over an insignificant thing? I am interested in researching the vague
mysterious disease which is unknown to its readers. I also want to research Poe’s life and its influence
on his writing. I want to see how Poe’s tales reflect his alcoholism, suffering, and troubled times
before his lonely death.
Tracey Gould
Mrs. Malanka
Psychology & Literature Period 2
October 22, 2007
Statement of Research
In Sylvia Plath’s The Bell Jar, the reader comes to realize the main character, Esther
Greenwood, has some sort of psychological problem. Esther explains, “I knew something was wrong
with me that summer, because all I could think about was the Rosenbergs and how stupid I’d been to
buy all those uncomfortable, expensive clothes, hanging limp as fish in my closet, and how all the
little successes I’d totted up so happily at college fizzled to nothing outside the slick marble and plateglass fronts along Madison Avenue.” (Plath 2) I am interested in learning about what exactly was
wrong with Esther. If she were alive today, what would she be diagnosed with? How would living in
the present effect Esther? Would she still have psychological problems if she were living now? By
answering these questions, I hope to come to a conclusion about Esther’s medical diagnosis, and be
able to determine how and why her life would be different if she were alive today.
David Suk
Mrs. Malanka
Period 2 Psych. And Lit.
October 24, 2007
Statement of Research
I am interested in researching about the assumptions that were made on Holden Caulfield after
the book ends. In The Catcher in The Rye, Caulfield is depicted as a teenager who is troubled because
he fails out of four schools and he has visited by psychologists. He is also depicted as someone who is
very judgmental and someone who likes and is easy to criticize someone. An example is him
distinguishing what is real and what is phony. People also judge by the way Holden is interested in
sex. However I wonder if the way Holden acted during the book is that abnormal or different
compared to other people his age.
I hope to find out what critics think about the way he acts and how the critics will use this to
predict what type of man he will be when he grows up. I hope to incorporate my experiences and what
I have seen growing up and apply it to my prediction of how Caulfield will act after the book. I hope
to also research more about the types of behaviors such as the ones people say that Holden have.