English
608 Klimasmith
FINAL
PROJECT
(Footsteps
Project plus Field Statement)
Due
December 15
Footsteps Proposal due
October 29
Long list of resources for Field
Statement Bibliography due November 5 (by email)
Annotated Bibliography due
November 19
Footsteps Essay due
November 30 (by email)
Field Statement Presentations:
December 4 and 11
FOOTSTEPS PROJECT (Proposal
plus Footsteps Essay)
The
aim of this project is to follow in the footsteps of a scholar whose work you
admire in a field of interest to you.
This offers you the chance to study a tiny slice of English Studies
scholarship in DEPTH.
Proposal: Choose your favorite
scholarly article (at least 20 pages) on your own research topic or text.
You will trace
the author’s research exhaustively in this project, so be sure
you choose a good article. It should be
interesting and well written,
but most importantly, it should give you a solid
foundation for your own
writing.
By October 29 please submit
via email a short (1-2 page) proposal that includes a brief overview of the
essay and a rationale for your choice. I
will email comments to you.
Footsteps Essay: Once you have selected your
article,
locate every single source the author cites. Use whatever
library resources you need (if you have not obtained a Consortium Card by now,
you shouldn’t wait any longer), including the Healey Library, ILL, the Virtual
Library, and
the Healey Librarians. You need to examine a physical copy
of
everything your author had, and to read as much of it as you can. Because
this will include scholarly monographs, you will need to allow adequate time to
find/receive the books. This is why the Footsteps Project is interwoven with
the Field Statement.
Once
you have
traced out the author’s research, re-read her article. Write an
essay (5-7 pages) that describes your experience of finding the resources and
discusses your
author’s choices. What did she leave out? What did she
emphasize? What did
she notice that you would have overlooked? Now
that you know what she was
working with, what might you do differently with
the same materials?
Footsteps Essay: 5-7
pages. Footsteps Essay due via
email by 9 am Thursday, Nov 30. I will email comments and a preliminary grade
to you.
FIELD STATEMENT
The
Field Statement portion of the final project aims to help you develop an
overview of your field of interest—it allows you to develop some BREADTH in
your chosen field.
Long List Bibliography: First, generate a long list
of 30-40
scholarly articles and monographs in your field of interest. Please limit yourself to peer-reviewed journals
and scholarly book titles. Find as many
useful sources as you can, using
GOOGLE Print, JSTOR, Project Muse, and
consultations with reference librarians
and members of the UMass faculty. Before you submit your list, make an
appointment to meet with a faculty member in your field so that they can look
at it and see what you might be missing.
Long List
Bibliography for Field Statement due November 1 via email. Please use MLA format.
Annotated Bibliography: Once you have generated
this long list, look over as many sources as you can, as
quickly as you
can—don’t read carefully; just check them out. Your goal is to
choose
4-6 texts that are:
1) interesting to you
2) important for your project
3) in conversation with each other
Once
you’ve chosen those 4-6 texts, write an Annotated Bibliography following the
format of the examples in the Final Project Guide (online via English MA
Program Wiki).
Annotated
Bibliography due by 9 pm Sunday Nov 19. Bring a paper copy to class on November 20.
Field Statement: This is a ten page essay
describing the
conversation among your key texts (aim for five) through which
an overview of your field emerges. You
will explain what the essays say, discuss the broader conversation(s) in which
they take part, and show why they fit
together for you.
If you need a model for this kind of writing,
you can find review essays in many scholarly journals. Please submit the Field Statement with a full
bibliography (not annotated) that lists all of
the titles you considered in
your research. You will give a short
presentation on your research as part of a conference panel in class on
December 1 or 8.
Field Statement. 10-15
pages. Due December 13 along with
revised Footsteps Essay.
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