English 130 Final Assignment | Research Paper

Final Assignment: Research Paper

English 130 – Spring 2022 | Professor Rani Srinivasan

Researched argument essays require you to research a variety of contextual, theoretical, and argument sources and engage in conversation with them to produce an insightful argument about an exhibit.

Assignment

In this assignment, you will be required to use the key concepts of college writing and the close reading skills that we fine-tuned this semester to write a research paper analyzing the significance of liminality in Arundhati Roy’s The God of Small Things. This research paper must incorporate at least 5 scholarly sources, and you must also submit a proposal, annotated bibliography, and formal and final draft for this assignment.

Here are some questions you might consider as your write this paper:

• How does liminality operate in this text and what does this illuminate about colonialism, race, gender, or power?

•    How does time function? How does this shape the narrative structure of this text and why does this place both the novel itself and the reader in a liminal space?

•    What is the function of the History House? Using Said’s Orientalism as a lens, what does the History House symbolize? How does this connect to the end of the novel?

•    Analyze the caste system as a form. What role does this play in the novel and how does this connect to the love laws? Why are liminal figures such a threat to these forms?

•   You may also choose to expand on one of your blog posts about Roy’s novel.

Required Sources

•   You must have at least one credible review of Roy’s novel. I suggest searching The New York Times and The Guardian for a review.

•    Your paper should also include at least 2 scholarly peer reviewed articles. You should find these articles must be found using CUNYOnesearch or the list of databases from the Queens College Library website.

•    You should also aim to have at least one chapter from a book in your essay. Pleasenote, this bookchaptershouldnotbefromtheliteraryworkyouwillanalyzeinyour paper. Instead,youshouldaimtohaveaworkofnon-fiction, like a chapter from Fanon’s Wretched of the Earth, Said’s Orientalism, or Levine’s Forms: Whole, Rhythm, Hierarchy, Network.

o If you are unable to a find a book to incorporate into your paper, you must include an additional scholarly peer reviewed source in lieu of a chapter from a book.

•    For the final source of this paper, you may use one additional credible source of your choosing. You may use an interview, an additional credible review of your text, additional scholarly peer reviewed articles, or any other credible text as the final source for your paper.

Goals

•    Continue to work on the goals from the close reading assignment: using the introduction to orient and organize the reader and identify an intellectual problem about a piece of literature; formulating a strong thesis; establishing a clear motive; maintaining a coherent structure; supporting your argument with evidence and reasons; writing in a fluent and clear style; composing an interesting and informative title.

•    Have cohesion and coherence in your prose on the sentence level and on the paragraph level. Sources should be smoothly integrated in your essay. Your diction should be precise. Avoid vague sentences and cliches of language and cliches of thought.

•    Make sure that the stance of your argument is clear. Readers should know where your essay stands in the existing conversations about your selected work.

•   Analyze pertinent aspects of your novel to draw cogent conclusions

•    Analyze your sources, interpreting their central claims, evaluating their arguments, and explaining their significance in terms of your own claim.

•    Reflect and complicate your argument: consider counterevidence, counter- interpretations, counterarguments, anomalies, and draw out implications.

•   All sources must be documented using the MLA in-text citation method and a complete

Works Cited Page.

•   Adhere to all relevant MLA formatting guidelines described in the course syllabus.

The final draft must be between 1500 and 1700 words and be submitted by May 19th at

11:59pm. Do not exceed the word count. Very limited extensions can be granted on this

assignment because grades are due.