Module 6: Beginning the Documented Essay: Topic and Expectations

Documented Essay Assignment and Topic

We are ready to begin working on our research essay although it is not due for another week or more. We will all use the same topic, a simple one that is focused on explaining Juan Rulfo’s Pedro Paramo, when it was written, what it is about, its influence on Latin American Literature. I suggest that you start with simple research about Pedro Paramo.

As you prepare this essay please beware that you must include and quote three to five outside sources, use the MLA format, and in the process of the paper explain Pedro Paramo, its origins, intentions, and influences. If you have any questions, please email me immediately.

We are doing the same topic for a variety of reasons, the first being, I do not want something purchased from a cheating site like Course Hero. When our software reveals that you have done that, you are no longer a member of this class. You will receive an unconditional and final F in the class, no discussion, no appeal.

I made the topic very simple, so if you have never written a documented essay, you will still have no trouble. You can use as few as three sources, as I say above, and we have been working the whole term on the format, except we now will deploy several quotations and certainly a works cited page.

We are starting in Module 6 so that you may begin to gather some sources to quote, begin an Annotated Bibliography, and get started–with plenty of time to ask all the questions you want to ask.

Why don’t you start with a search of Juan Rulfo and the title of his famous short novel, Pedro Paramo.

I will give you an alternative topic, directly related to the paper we did for characterization, but this one requiring three to five sources and a works cited. Please read about that option below if you are interested. I will warn you in advance that the paper will be somewhat more challenging in that your research will be a great deal more focused. You make your own choice.

Module 6: Alternative Documented Essay Topic

Second Possible Topic for the Documented Research Essay

If you do not like the first topic, you can do this one:

(this is the title you must use and support):

The Characterization of the Grandmother in Flannery O’Connor’s “A Good Man Is Hard to Find”

In this essay, do what you did with the Dee essay: tell how, in this case the Grandmother, is characterized by WHAT SHE SAYS (and you must include an analysis of a variety of the very revealing things she says, using direct quotations of course.

WHAT SHE DOES, and of course there is plenty here from her attempts to have the family vacation to where she wants, to her actions with the children, to her interactions with Red Sammy and, finally, the Misfit.

and WHAT OTHERS SAY ABOUT HER–this would include the children, perhaps her son, and certainly the Misfit.

Now you do this very carefully and thoroughly but you MUST ADD a minimum of three OUTSIDE SOURCES that you quote at least once each in your essay. These would be articles on the Grandmother, the story, or something to do with what you are doing in the essay. Quote each one a minimum one time each and include a Works Cited page with the sources you use, in alphabetical order and MLA format.

Any questions about this optional topic email me.

The most important part of the paper will be the Conclusion–where you give a summary of what the different aspects of the Grandmother’s characterization shows the reader and then how we should finally take the Grandmother based on O’Connor’s careful and subtle characterization–and certainly those final words spoken about her by the Misfit.

Module 7: More Documented Essay Directions

The Documented Essay is the last Essay assignment and of course the largest. This one should be multiple paragraphs. You must have three to five sources, all of which are quoted in the body of the paper at least once consistent with the MLA style. The paper uses parenthetical references and must have a Works Cited, which, unlike the annotated bibliography, contains the reference but not the annotations.

Before submitting you might use this checklist:

MLA format top to bottom:

Double space only

12 TNR Font only

paragraphs indented

every page numbered

one inch margins all the way around, or on all four sides

an attached Works Cited page

minimum three sources, but more acceptable

every source listed on the works cited (minimum 3) are quoted a minimum of one time each in the paper

use of parenthetical references with the period outside the reference only like this ( ).

content of the parenthetical references and the reference page consistent with MLA format

works cited in alphabetical order, double space, with the first line of every reference ON the left margin but other lines indented once