Department of English

Faculty of Arts, Chulalongkorn University


 

Final Paper and Presentation Guidelines


Final Paper

 

We are at a remarkable point in literature where exciting new technologies, genres, cultures and languages along with their sets of conventions, aesthetics, tools and audiences, open up our field of literary studies, like at other defining moments and crossroads in the history of English, to reassessment and invention. For the final paper, as you reexamine texts in the course, think about how shifts and changes throughout literary history and now might demand responsive adjustments and innovation on the part of reading and analyzing texts. How could we look at literature? What new tools do we have to study them? How do we write about them to share our findings with others?


Consider the wide range of sources that have informed our reading this semester. In addition to solid foundational close reading skills developed since last semester, our understanding and interpretation of literary texts have benefited from diverse sources external to the literature itself ranging from other literature to biographies, dictionaries of etymology, idioms, slangs and symbols to documentaries, films, interviews, letters, journals, live readings and performances, concordances, manuscripts, maps, and more.


When you read Milton's Sonnet 19 with the benefit of knowing from the Oxford English Dictionary (OED) that in his time "fondly" meant "foolishly" or when you learn from Martin Gardner's The Annotated Alice that Lewis Carroll explains the meaning of "jabberwock" to a class of students thus: "the Anglo-Saxon word 'wocer' or 'wocor' signifies 'offspring' or 'fruit.' Taking 'jabber' in its ordinary acceptation of 'excited and voluble discussion,' this would give the meaning of 'the result of much excited discussion'" (153), your perception of the meaning of both works changes. Perhaps the revealed self-awareness and self-referentiality that show Milton's play and Carroll's joke on poetry and its study add new layers to your reading and increase your appreciation of these texts.


Consider the means, methods and structures of texts and these other sources and how they might influence the shape, style and argument of your writing. Expand from your reading responses and extend class discussion.


Write a 3–5-page paper (MLA style citation and formatting) on one of the topics below or on one of your own choosing. Keep in mind that these are suggestions for analysis. In working on your paper, you will eventually formulate an argument or thesis that is the result of your research and examination of the texts to develop in response to these prompts.


The paper is due on Thursday, May 2, 2019. You can submit a paper copy to me in class, in my box at the end of the hall past my office (BRK 1106) or attach it to an e-mail to me before midnight.

 


Revision

With feedback from classmates in the forum or in discussions, you have specific comments to consider when rewriting to fix problems regarding the argument, support, prose, organization, mechanics, and style to  make your paper more effective. Some things to keep in mind as you proofread and edit your work before submission:

 



Final Presentation


Presentation of your final paper is in week 17 of class: Monday, April 29 and Thursday, May 2, 2019. Each panel of three or four papers will have fifteen minutes to present their study of texts we have read in this course. This will be followed by a ten-minute question and answer session. A moderator will be presiding over the presentations and discussion session of each panel, introducing the speakers, mediating the questions and responses, and making sure things stay on schedule.


Practice reading your presentation aloud, with visual aid if you have any, and edit for speakability, clarity, and time.

 

Respondents give constructive comments on the panelists' talk, indicating illuminating and effective points made, pointing out problems to fix ex. content, logic, substantiation, organization, clarification, delivery, and giving further commentary and opinions on the issues being discussed. Respondents assigned to a panel are responsible for giving feedback to any and all of the speakers on that panel but are free to comment on papers of other panels as well.

 
You will be graded both for your performance in giving your talk and in responding to your classmates' presentations, how you present your own ideas and how you show that you know how to listen to, think about, and discuss ideas that others propose.

 

A program of the final presentation schedule will be posted on our detailed schedule page once panel and paper titles, speakers and moderators are finalized. You are responsible for e-mailing me any revisions to your presentation title by Friday, April 26, 2019.


Please inform me of any special equipment needs, otherwise our in-class computer (which uses Microsoft Office 2013) and LCD projector is provided.


 




Links

 

Writing
Presentation

 

 

 

 


HomeReading and Analysis for the Study of English Literature  |


Last updated April 29, 2019