Research+Materials


 * MLA Research Guide**: [[file:MLA Guide.pdf]]

What's an intensifier? Avoid in research and other formal papers! http://free-english-study.com/grammar/intensifiers.html

**Great research sites (for secondary sources):** **[]** **[|www.jstor.org]** **http://www.theparisreview.org/interviews/ (Author interviews from the past 40 years...AMAZING!)** What's an intensifier? Avoid in research and other formal papers! []

**Research questions brought up in class:** 1. How much has changed in the food industry since the publication of the naturalist book, __The Jungle__ (Upton Sinclair)? 


 * how to create an Outline**


 * four main components of an outline**


 * plagiarism tutorial powerpoint**

**plagiarism tutorial quiz/signature handout**



**Purdue on-line writing lab** []
 * MLA Formatting and Style Guide:**

[]
 * Writing Journals for** **Research**:

For additional topics, please refer to Mrs. Enge's Suggested Topics:
 * Possible Research Paper Topics & authors**

ideas of marriage: then and now

value of nature then and now (Thoreau, Emerson, Carson)

race relations in lit (Twain, Wolfe, Faulkner, Hurston, Wright)

Predestination vs. free will in literature (Jonathan Edwards, anne bradstreet)

The immigrant experience in America, 19 th/20th century vs. 21 st C. (Willa cather) Small town America (individual experiences in) (cather,

“Scramble and Survival” themes circa 1930s Depression-Era (Steinbeck)

Disillusionment – circa post WWI or Vietnam War (hemingway, tim o’brien)

Smoldering rage of the discontented female

Tradition & custom in American families

Social and political protest in America as depicted in literature (Thoreau)

American prejudices- roots and perpetuation of

The American dream- pursuit, deferment, achievement – or is it a myth?

The Jazz Age/1920s/prohibition (F.Scott fitzgerald)

“The South” – what is it? (Myths & stereotypes vs. reality)

Depiction of “the family” in American lit- traditional/non-traditional

Conformity vs. nonconformity (transcendentalist writers)

Minority alienation – male or female perspective

The beat era writers – life in the 1950s

The “Counterculture” of the 1960s – lasting effects on culture? Women? Education?

The American West- depiction of natives, cowboys, or frontier life (regionalist writers)

Repression and subsequent mental illness of women in society (plath, C. Perkins gillman, chopin)

Adolescent insecurity – representations/challenges of (salinger)

Women seeking self-identity (Sylvia plath, kate chopin)

portrayal of racism in literature (twain, cather, hansbury,

portrayal of class systems in America

muckraking within lit

darker sides of humanity within lit (Poe, Melville, hawthorne)

Alienation from society/ Marginalization (i.e. harlem renaissance writers)

Family relationships & unrealistic expectations

The Romantic ideal of “the spirit of individuality” – what it means to be an individual (Whitman)

Local color within Regionalist works- (twain, cather, any regionalist writers)

In light of the controversy generated by “political correctness,” research the origins of the term & discuss its implications for defining American literature

Mothers and daughters/ fathers and sons (Lit. depictions of)

The roles/depictions of children/youth in American fiction

Slave narratives – importance of (Olaudah equiano, Frederick douglass)

“Machismo” and the “man’s man” – depictions of masculinity in Hemingway’s works (or works of others)

American manners and morals – origins and implications

“Separate but Equal” depictions in literature

Themes of Friendship (between men, women, or adolescents)

** American literary movements ** Puritanism: focus on plain style, religious, utilitarian; write to glorify god Neoclassicism: logical, orderly, direct; satire; follow laws of nature Romanticism: values emotion and imagination over reason; rebellious; Transcendentalism/Anti-Transcendentalism Realism: life is as it is- beautiful & ugly; focus on present, emphasis on character, not plot-specific, factual, detailed. Naturalism: objective look on life, focus on social problems/ vices; “type” characters represent weakness of group; man is helpless against fate. Modernism: focus on breaking with traditional bases of Western culture & ways. Postmodernism: literature published after WWII; literature of the absurd