Research Project: Review of Themes
Our major writing project for the semester is a literary research paper. While it may have
similarities with other research projects you have written, this paper focuses on literary criticism.
(Chapter 33 in The Norton Introduction to Literature shorter 13th edition discusses the process of
writing a research paper in some detail.) You will be exploring the theme of a work of literature
by describing what other readers/critics see as the theme of the work and contrasting their ideas
with your understanding of the theme of the piece of literature.
I like the image that the Norton editor Kelly J. Mays uses to describe the research process as
listening to the ideas from a community: “We engage in a conversation with other readers about
the meaning and significance of a particular work. Almost all texts and authors are the subject of
actual public conversations, often extending over many years and involving numerous scholarly
readers” (The Norton Introduction to Literature, Shorter 11th edition 1870).
Identifying an Author
The first step in completing your thematic review is to identify the author (short fiction author,
poet, or playwright) that you want to focus your research on. The author must be a writer who is
represented in our textbook (The Norton Introduction to Literature, Shorter 13th edition) I would
prefer that you use a work from our text as your primary focus.
Research Strategy for Literary Criticism
As you conduct your search for others’ opinions about a specific literary work, you need to
identify useful articles and books that can provide insight for you into the particular author and
work you will be working with. Go to the Blinn Library page and look under the heading
“Databases by Subject.” Select “Literature and Literary Criticism.” You will find several
databases listed. Probably the most thorough of the options is a combination of three databases
that you can perform a consolidated search of–Combo Search: Literary Reference Center,
Humanities Full Text, & MLA Bibliography. Type in the title of the work and the author’s name
to locate available articles.
You also check the Blinn Library Catalog to see if you can find literary criticism in eBooks. On
the Blinn Library page and select “Search the Catalog.” You will pull up a search screen for the
Blinn Library collection, which has access to over 300,000 eBooks. Type the name of your
author in the Keyword Search box. Your results will include both works BY the author and
works ABOUT the author. You can narrow your search results by clicking on “History and
criticism” and “Criticism and interpretation” in the box on the left. I would also select eBook as
a Search refinement.
You may search the internet for criticism, but I urge you to be selective in your choices because
credibility is an issue when you use Google or Yahoo to perform your searches. Do not use Wikipedia as a source of literary criticism. However, if you find a Wikipedia page on your
Our major writing project for the semester is a literary research paper. While it may have
similarities with other research projects you have written, this paper focuses on literary criticism.
(Chapter 33 in The Norton Introduction to Literature shorter 13th edition discusses the process of
writing a research paper in some detail.) You will be exploring the theme of a work of literature
by describing what other readers/critics see as the theme of the work and contrasting their ideas
with your understanding of the theme of the piece of literature.
I like the image that the Norton editor Kelly J. Mays uses to describe the research process as
listening to the ideas from a community: “We engage in a conversation with other readers about
the meaning and significance of a particular work. Almost all texts and authors are the subject of
actual public conversations, often extending over many years and involving numerous scholarly
readers” (The Norton Introduction to Literature, Shorter 11th edition 1870).
Identifying an Author
The first step in completing your thematic review is to identify the author (short fiction author,
poet, or playwright) that you want to focus your research on. The author must be a writer who is
represented in our textbook (The Norton Introduction to Literature, Shorter 13th edition) I would
prefer that you use a work from our text as your primary focus.
Research Strategy for Literary Criticism
As you conduct your search for others’ opinions about a specific literary work, you need to
identify useful articles and books that can provide insight for you into the particular author and
work you will be working with. Go to the Blinn Library page and look under the heading
“Databases by Subject.” Select “Literature and Literary Criticism.” You will find several
databases listed. Probably the most thorough of the options is a combination of three databases
that you can perform a consolidated search of–Combo Search: Literary Reference Center,
Humanities Full Text, & MLA Bibliography. Type in the title of the work and the author’s name
to locate available articles.
You also check the Blinn Library Catalog to see if you can find literary criticism in eBooks. On
the Blinn Library page and select “Search the Catalog.” You will pull up a search screen for the
Blinn Library collection, which has access to over 300,000 eBooks. Type the name of your
author in the Keyword Search box. Your results will include both works BY the author and
works ABOUT the author. You can narrow your search results by clicking on “History and
criticism” and “Criticism and interpretation” in the box on the left. I would also select eBook as
a Search refinement.
You may search the internet for criticism, but I urge you to be selective in your choices because
credibility is an issue when you use Google or Yahoo to perform your searches. Do not use Wikipedia as a source of literary criticism. However, if you find a Wikipedia page on your
author/literary work, you might be able to find credible sources in the References section at the
end of the Wikipedia article. But you want to avoid anonymous sites like eNotes or CourseHero.
When conducting a search for literary criticism, you should use Google Scholar
(http://scholar.google.com/) to access credible sources.
In our textbook, Kelly J. Mays provides some good advice about finding reliable sources:
“You should not rely on or cite any secondary source that is not attributed to a named author.
This includes (but is not limited to) Wikipedia and Web sites such as Schmoop and SparkNotes.
Because these will likely be the first things a general Google search turns up and because they
are almost certainly familiar to you, it’s tempting to rely on them. Though much of the
information on such sites is correct and useful, much of it isn’t. As important, the very virtue of
such sites—the fact that they are designed for, and mainly written by, nonexperts—makes them
inappropriate as sources for a research essay, since the goal of such an essay is to familiarize
yourself with and enter a conversation among acknowledged experts” (1956).
Writing the Thematic Review
Once you have located several discussions about the literary work that you are focusing on, you
can begin sharing what those perspectives are. Include these five sections in your Review of
Themes:
Five Sections (1-3 paragraphs per section)
1. Provide a brief overview of the plot structure and descriptions of the key characters in the
story/play (Use quotes from the primary source and include the text in the Works Cited
page.)
2. Describe the theme of the work as identified by a critic (Make sure to integrate quotes
from the critic’s writing to provide a feel for the critic’s use of terminology and language.
Include the critic’s discussion in the Works Cited.)
3. Describe the theme of the work as identified by a second critic (Make sure to integrate
quotes from the critic’s writing to provide a feel for the critic’s use of terminology and
language. Include the critic’s discussion in the Works Cited.)
4. Describe the theme of the work as identified by another critic (Make sure to integrate
quotes from the critic’s writing to provide a feel for the critic’s use of terminology and
language. Include the critic’s discussion in the Works Cited.)
5. Discuss your understanding of the theme of the story/play. You may agree with one of
the critics or you might decide to disagree with a critic’s perspective and demonstrate why you see the story’s theme differently. Or you might want to focus on a theme that
end of the Wikipedia article. But you want to avoid anonymous sites like eNotes or CourseHero.
When conducting a search for literary criticism, you should use Google Scholar
(http://scholar.google.com/) to access credible sources.
In our textbook, Kelly J. Mays provides some good advice about finding reliable sources:
“You should not rely on or cite any secondary source that is not attributed to a named author.
This includes (but is not limited to) Wikipedia and Web sites such as Schmoop and SparkNotes.
Because these will likely be the first things a general Google search turns up and because they
are almost certainly familiar to you, it’s tempting to rely on them. Though much of the
information on such sites is correct and useful, much of it isn’t. As important, the very virtue of
such sites—the fact that they are designed for, and mainly written by, nonexperts—makes them
inappropriate as sources for a research essay, since the goal of such an essay is to familiarize
yourself with and enter a conversation among acknowledged experts” (1956).
Writing the Thematic Review
Once you have located several discussions about the literary work that you are focusing on, you
can begin sharing what those perspectives are. Include these five sections in your Review of
Themes:
Five Sections (1-3 paragraphs per section)
1. Provide a brief overview of the plot structure and descriptions of the key characters in the
story/play (Use quotes from the primary source and include the text in the Works Cited
page.)
2. Describe the theme of the work as identified by a critic (Make sure to integrate quotes
from the critic’s writing to provide a feel for the critic’s use of terminology and language.
Include the critic’s discussion in the Works Cited.)
3. Describe the theme of the work as identified by a second critic (Make sure to integrate
quotes from the critic’s writing to provide a feel for the critic’s use of terminology and
language. Include the critic’s discussion in the Works Cited.)
4. Describe the theme of the work as identified by another critic (Make sure to integrate
quotes from the critic’s writing to provide a feel for the critic’s use of terminology and
language. Include the critic’s discussion in the Works Cited.)
5. Discuss your understanding of the theme of the story/play. You may agree with one of
the critics or you might decide to disagree with a critic’s perspective and demonstrate why you see the story’s theme differently. Or you might want to focus on a theme that
you think was ignored by the critics.
The Works Cited page should have four entries: the primary work and the three critical texts.