ENG 231 Research Essay
Your Research Essay for this class should be a 7-10 page textual analysis or
contextual analysis of a work or works of literature from an author from our time period
(see “Kinds of Writing about American Literature” from Writing About American
Literature and the author/works list (below) for ideas).
It will take you a while to develop your ideas, so start on this project early. By the end of
the process your essay should have a strong, focused thesis statement and plenty of
support from the primary and secondary texts to support your thesis. Historical or
biographical detail that does not directly support your thesis is not appropriate for this
assignment. Feel free to contact me at any time to get feedback on your ideas.
Use at least three sources of scholarly literary criticism from peer reviewed
sources to help you construct your argument, and include at least one quotation
from each scholarly source.
You will complete several steps as you work towards turning in this essay, usually one
step for each lesson throughout the rest of the semester.
Formatting Guidelines:
Cite your quotations according to MLA in-text citation guidelines. Include a works cited page.
Please double space, use one-inch margins all around, use 11 or 12 point Times New
Roman font, and follow the guidelines for MLA manuscript format . Your essay should be
7-10 pages long, not including your works cited page.
Submit your essay to the appropriate link in the Assignments section of our Sakai site.
Due dates are available in the Syllabus section of our Sakai site.
List of authors/works (not exhaustive)
John Smith’s General History
Mary Rowlandson’s Narrative
Ben Franklin’s Autobiography
Equiano’s Interesting Narrative
William Cullen Bryant’s poetry
Washington Irving’s “Legend of Sleepy Hollow” and “Rip Van Winkle”
William Cullen Bryant’s poetry
Edgar Allen Poe’s stories or poetry
Henry David Thoreau’s “Resistance to Civil Government” or Walden
Emerson’s essays
Walt Whitman’s Song of Myself
Douglass’s Narrative of the Life
Hawthorne’s short fiction or The Scarlet Letter (or other longer texts)
Emily Dickinson’s poetry
Herman Melville’s Bartleby the Scrivener