- Overall instructions: A Journal Article (lite) for Academic Readers: The central component of this assignment is a journal-style article on a topic of your choosing that is directly relevant to our coursework on the American Road Trip. Your essay may discuss any issue, concept, or concern pertinent to your chosen topic, but you will be required to incorporate at least three peer-reviewed research articles to support, clarify, and/or nuance your primary point or argument. You are also expected to complete reading one of the book-length narratives that we have discussed this semester, and to use at least one detailed analysis of a section of this narrative in your essay. Whatever your choice, you will create an article for an academic audience that presents a clear and engaging discussion and elicits interest in your chosen topic. Your primary goals for the project should be to detail your understanding of current academic discourse on your chosen topic, and to produce a complex, well-supported, and original argument about your subject(s) of inquiry.
- Other Instructions: “The thesis of this paper should look something like this: In this paper, I will delve into the prominent American road narratives, Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas by Hunter S. Thompson and On the Road by Jack Kerouac, to investigate the various roles of substance use within these works. I will argue that the portrayal of substance use in these narratives serves as a reflection of the social and cultural contexts in which they were written and the philosophical and psychological themes they explore. I will also argue that substance use throughout these road narratives serves as a means for their authors to cope with the struggle of rebelling against societal and cultural norms. Through this investigation, I aim to illuminate the impact and significance that substance use has on American road narratives”
- I already have the introduction, background info and thesis, as well as background of social and cultural context of “On the Road”. So the essay should focus on analysis of these works and argument for the rest of the thesis.