Term Paper

    Your term paper asks you to write 9-10 double-spaced, typed pages explicating T.S. Eliot’s poem, “The Lovesong of J. Alfred Prufrock” or writing a literary analysis of William Faulkner's novel, As I Lay Dying or Arthur Miller's play, Death of a Salesman. 

    If you choose to write about "Prufrock," select passages from throughout the poem, comment on them in some insightful, coherent way, and support your reading with an occasional quotation from one of the sources provided.  Just don’t let the scholars take over your paper.  Draft some of your own ideas and then see what the bigshots have to say.  Use a minimum of five sources (in addition to the poem).

    If you choose to analyze As I Lay Dying, here are some possible topics (however, you are not limited to these -- make up your own):
As I Lay Dying as a Naturalist Novel
As I Lay Dying as a Modernist Novel
As I Lay Dying as a Realist Novel
Narrative Experimentation in As I Lay Dying
Addie's Ideas  about Language in As I Lay Dying
Family Dynamics in As I Lay Dying
Psychological Approaches to As I Lay Dying
Use a minimum of five sources (in addition to the novel).

    If you choose to analyze Death of a Salesman, here are some possible topics (again, you are not limited to these choices):
Miller's Portrayal of Women in Death of a Salesman
Father-Son Relationships in Death of a Salesman
American Capitalism and Death of a Salesman
Willy's Flashbacks and Hallucinations and the "Present" of Death of a Salesman
A Comparison (or Contrast) of Death of a Salesman and King Lear (or MacBeth)
Use a minimum of five sources (in addition to the play).

    One of the major purposes of this paper is to acquaint you (or re-acquaint you) with the Modern Language Association (MLA) system of research documentation, which is the conventional method of documentation used in the field of literary studies.  This handout uses "Prufrock as its example, but the same search techniques, conventions, and rules apply, whether you are writing about poetry, fiction, or drama.
   I have done some research for you.  I have placed photocopies of relevant pages from the following three books on reserve in the library:  

Headings, Philip R.  T.S. Eliot, rev. ed.  Boston:  Twayne, 1982.

Gish, Nancy K.  Time in the Poetry of T. S. Eliot.  Totowa, NJ:  Barnes & Noble, 1981.

Spurr, David.  Conflicts in Consciousness:  T.S. Eliot’s Poetry and Criticism. Chicago:   U of Illinois P, 1984.  

Also on reserve is one book:  Williamson, George.  A Reader’s Guide to T.S. Eliot, 2nd ed.  New York: Farrar, Straus & Giroux, 1966.

    You may also use the online databases JSTOR and NC LIVE to find articles. Go to the Shaw home page and click “Libraries.”  Scroll down and click “Databases.”
    For JSTOR, type “Eliot” and “Prufrock” (without the quotation marks) into the full text search boxes.  Scroll down and click “Languages and Literature.”  Then click “Search.”  Many articles appear on the results list.
    For NC LIVE, click “Browse Resources,” then “Alphabetic.”  Then click “Academic Search Premier.”  Type “Eliot AND Prufrock” into the search box (again, without the quotation marks).  Click “search.”  When I did this I got a results list with 24 articles. You can do the same sort of search and get the same results with search terms based on the other literary works as well.

    At least one of your five sources must be from either JSTOR or NC LIVE and must be newer than 1996.

    I am picky about several things in student research papers:  giving proper credit to other scholars, quoting correctly from “Prufrock,” not letting your research take over your paper, following manuscript conventions, and having a correct Works Cited page.  English majors might want to buy a copy of the MLA Handbook (available at most bookstores).
    Giving proper credit:  In any paragraph where you use a quotation or paraphrase, you must identify the work and the author whose words or ideas you are borrowing.  Use this formula:  In Title, author verb, “Quotation” (#).  For example:  In Conflicts in Consciousness, David Spurr argues, “Ash Wednesday gave form to a poetic persona torn between imagination’s fulfillment in the created world and the mind’s need for a more permanent, external source of understanding” (79).  A full identification is necessary the first time you refer to a work.  After that, you can simply refer to the author.  For example:  Spurr further suggests, “Eliot’s natural vision reveals itself in the poet’s simultaneous fear of and attraction to natural forces” (94).  Please note that there is no “p.” before the page number.  Note also that the period ending the sentence occurs after the page reference.  Note that book titles are underlined.  If citing an article, place the article title in quotation marks:  In “Title,” author verb “quotation” (#).
    How to quote from “Prufrock”:  You need not use the formula for quoting a scholar; simply lead your reader to the quotation with a phrase that provides some context or part of your argument.  Four typed lines of poetry or fewer should be quoted as a normal prose sentence contained within your own sentence, but you type a slash between the lines and you give the line numbers of the quotation, not the page number:  For example:  Prufrock feels estranged from his social group:  “In the room the women come and go / Talking of Michelangelo” (35-36).  A quotation of more than four lines should be treated as a “block quotation”:  indent the left sides of the lines to match the indentation for a paragraph, and type the lines of poetry as they appear on the page in the book.  Note that a block quotation does not require the use of quotation marks; the typography tells you it is a quotation.  Tab to near the right edge of the sheet after the last line and provide the line numbers in parentheses as usual.  For example:  Eliot begins his poem with imagery that suggests the deterioration of society:

    Let us go then you and I,
    When the evening is spread out against the sky
    Like a patient etherised upon a table;
    Let us go, through certain half-deserted streets,
    The muttering retreats
    Of restless nights in one-night cheap hotels
    And sawdust restaurants with oyster shells:               (1-7)

    Not letting the research rule your paper:  I have three simple rules for student writers:  1) don’t begin a paragraph with a quotation or paraphrase, 2) don’t end a paragraph with a quotation or paraphrase, and 3) don't place quotations back to back.  Why have these rules?  They force you to write topic sentences for your paragraphs.  They also force you to write sentences that tell the reader why the quotation is pertinent to your argument.  The rules also force you to write sentences that connect your ideas from paragraph to paragraph.  The metaphor I use is that of a “sandwich.”  The quotation is sandwiched in between sentences of your own just the way the peanut butter & jelly are spread between slices of bread.  So use my sandwich metaphor in constructing your paragraphs.  It works.

    Following manuscript conventions:  A title page is not necessary.  Just type your name and course info in the top lefthand corner of page one.  Skip two lines and center your title over your first paragraph.  All pages should have 1-inch margins on all four sides and succeeding pages should have a header in the top right hand corner with your last name and the page number, as you can see on your course syllabus.  The font should be standard (usually Helvetica, Geneva, Times New Roman or Courier. Not italic.) and it should be 12-point in size.  The lines should be double spaced (I have single-spaced this handout to save paper).  Do not skip an extra line between paragraphs (this is a convention for single spacing).  A paper clip is best for holding the paper together; a staple is also fine.  Do not waste money on plastic or manila folders.

    The Works Cited page:  This should be the last page of the paper.  It should contain an alphabetical list of all the works referred to in the paper.  For this paper, the Works Cited page should have a minimum of six entries: the three books and your source for “Prufrock,” which for most of you will be the Norton Anthology of American Literature.  Make sure you indicate which edition you have used.  Again, the MLA Handbook will help you determine the correct formats for your entries.  I have typed up the entries for the books on page 1; just copy them.  Remember that indentation is the reverse of that for paragraphs (so that the alphabetized words fall on the left hand margin).  Remember that you type two spaces after a period or a colon and one space after a comma or semi-colon.  On the English 113 page of my website you will find a link on how to write correct Works Cited entries.  Check it out.  And of course, you may visit me during office hours or call me at home. 

    Sample Works Cited entry for an article from NC LIVE: