Directions
- Pick a favorite writer, or a writer about whom you are curious. Your writer must be a creative writer: a poet, novelist, short story writer, lyricist or playwright.You will be analyzing this person's work along with his or her life, so you should choose a writer whose work you admire, and are interested in analyzing.
- Your choices are limited only by your interests, but you should choose someone whose life and times you can accurately research, either in person or via secondary sources.
- You can mine your recent experiences with music and literature, or you can reach back to your childhood for ideas about who to research.
- Think about the following questions before you research:
- What were the seminal events and experiences of this person’s life?
- What was this writer’s identity? You can include the writer’s sex/gender, race, age, ethnicity, class, political beliefs, religion and other factors as influential in his/her work. You can also include a summary of his or her ambitions and inspirations, mentors and allies, and other people influential in his or her life.
- What were the political, social, creative, and ideological times in which he or she lived? What events took place, or were taking place, on a larger scale that might have affected this writer?
- How did the writer’s life and the historical era in which he or she lived influence the writing of one or more texts?
- How was the writer’s text or texts received when they were first published?
- Who was the original intended audience, and what effect was this book supposed to have on that audience?
- Would a different audience than the intended audience react substantially differently to the text? Why or why not?
- What is this author's overall contribution to the field in which he or she worked?
- What influence did this particular writer have on you? Why are you drawn to his or her work? How has it influenced your life or your attitudes, values, beliefs, etc.?
- Conduct research: Your research can take many forms. Of course you will want to research the basic and influential events in your writer’s life – the timeline, so to speak. There are other ways of finding out what makes this writer tick, however. You can find an interview with the writer, or interview him/her yourself if you have access. You can read what other people have said about the writer and his or her work. You can research the events and social, political and cultural climate that influenced your writer. You can research what effect this writer had on his or her audience and beyond.
- Choose a text to analyze: at least one work written by that author. You can choose a particular song, poem, short story, novel or play.
- Complete the MLA exercises on the Diana Hacker website.
- Submit a bibliography: The bibliography will be in MLA format, listing all the sources you consulted to find information on your writer. Sources can be electronic, hard copy, but can also include field work, such as surveys, interviews and observations.
- Submit a draft, citing your sources in MLA format, analyzing how the life and times of the writer influenced his or her work, and vice versa.
- Relax with your favorite beverage, and congratulate yourself on finishing the research project in English 1B!
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Assignments
All steps must be followed in the proper order. You will not receive credit for one assignment until the preceding assignment has been turned in.
Proposal (10 points): Submit a few sentences answering the following questions:
1.
Who will you research, and which of this writer’s song/s, play/s, story/ies, novel/s, poem/s will you be analyzing?
2.
Why are you interested in this particular writer?
3.
What influence has he or she had on you so far?
4. What do you already know about this writer's life?
5. What would you like to find out about this writer?
Annotated Bibliography (50 points): Submit an annotated bibliography in MLA format. See separate document for more specific instructions . Reminder: You need at least four secondary sources, either in person, in print or on the net. To locate sources, visit the library website (www.gavilan.edu/library). Try some of the databases and search engines. The Literature Resource Center may be of particular relevance to your topic. You could also visit the library in person and speak with a reference librarian.
MLA Exercises (35 points) See separate document for more specific instructions . Reminder: You must get 80% of all questions right in each set of exercises to get credit for that set.
Essay (125 points): Submit the essay in MLA format. Your essay should include a basic overview of the writer’s life, and an analysis of a particular work of that writer, analyzing how his/her life and times influenced that particular piece of writing. You can include a discussion about what the writer intended for his/her work, and discuss the influence this particular writer had on you, in your life, your work, your creativity, your education, your beliefs, values, and/or spirituality, etc. |